IT IS TRUE at yesterday’s GOP breakfast meeting Vanderburgh County Commissioner Marsha Abell surprised the crowd by stating the following:
if this facility (the IU Medical School) is to be built and owned by IU or any other non taxable enity, I do not see the benefit for Vanderburgh County to make any financial concessions to have it in Vanderburgh County on the east side of Evansville. The east side of Evansville does not need anything to spur growth. If the school locates in Warrick County near the Vanderburgh County line as proposed, the east side of Evansville will continue to grow. The reasons for downtown are much different than those for a proposed site on the far east side of Evansville.
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IS IT TRUE a statement a little more direct was attributed to Ms. Abell by several members of the Mole Nation who attended the breakfast but the one about that the CCO is choosing to publish comes with Abell’s blessing which we asked for?… this statement falls short of the positions of City Councilmen John Friend and Dan Adams as well as Mayor Lloyd Winnecke who have taken the “FIGHT LIKE THE DICKENS” vow on behalf of downtown Evansville at any cost when it comes to the IU Medical School?…a medical school creates many paid jobs, is a welcome retail stimulant, and attracts many businesses along side of it?…after all of her years holding public office, Ms. Abell knows these things and has indicated she is open to listening to other viewpoints before locking herself in?
IS IT TRUE this is a developing story that we shall follow in the coming days and weeks as the Republican primary for the County Commissioners seat plays out?
These latest development related statements by Marsha Abell seems to depart substantially from her earlier remarks made in her unbridled support of University Parkway and Felstead Road rezonings that “all (Vanderburgh County) development is good development.”
Wow!! She must be a political idiot, or else she’s getting ready to move to Warrick County.
If this isn’t a wake-up call for Evansville, I don’t know what will do the job!
Keep in mind that bankers build home towns while real estate agents sell wherever they can turn a buck. For example, it was Evansville real estate agents who guided most of the Toyota management past Vanderburgh County and into Warrick.
What’s next for Evansville?
They’re not going to be happy until they’ve destroyed every piece of wild life in favor of dull and lifeless development surrounded by a sea of parking lots on the west side in the name of “growth” which is nothing more than a shift that comes with it a high price tag on infrastructure, gov’t services, and resident health among many other things.
I use to like her a lot,.. but since unlike the city she did not back the GLBT, this,. and many other things from the recent past. People should call her, and ask why! She just might not see another term if she keeps this up!
Is this a republican elected official picking winners and losers?
Absolutely and, unfortunately, this is the norm. There is no contrast between R and D. They both pick winners and losers. It is sad few people recognize as much.
I see no indication in her statement that she “has indicated she is open to listening to other viewpoints before locking herself in?”
Does anybody else?
It appears that a whole lot of local politicians consider their political lives to depend on the revival of downtown, at all costs. All costs to the taxpayers, that is!
Exactly and it’s a real head scratcher.
What percentage of people/voters live in either Vanderburgh County or the City of Evansville live in what we would call downtown?
So pandering to constituents doesn’t seem to fit the facts.
Both Democrats and Republicans have tried to “revive downtown”, so no to that theory.
People from the surrounding Tri-State(Newburgh, Princeton, Owensboro, Southern Illinois etc.) want nothing to do with downtown unless it was to go see a concert when they we forced to go there and they would have preferred the Roberts location for a new arena.
It’s a puzzle why pols would risk their careers on this. Anyone want to offer a theory of why?
I really can’t wrap my head around it, Brains, but it is looking like we may have some Jersey-style, Chris Christie type bully-government going on!
Absolutely the only thing I can think of is that there is a political “fix” in on this. I wonder how many of the people on the IU committee are appointed by politicians. I just wonder if the “fix” is for Vanderburgh or Warrick County.
So now Marsha would not support the new Medical School if the committee select ISU campus to build.
Wonder what Commissioners Joe Kiefer and Steve Melcher feels about this subject?
To Eric W: Marsha Abell and everyone else I know, wants to have the IU Medical facility in a SW Indiana location in Vanderburgh or Warrick County. Marsha’s remarks pertain to the potential location that is on the East Side of Evansville. Marsha “questions” using any financial concessions (like creating a new TIF District) to have it located on the East Side.
TIF district’s are normally “designed to channel funding toward improvements in distressed, underdeveloped, or underutilized parts of a jurisdiction where development might otherwise not occur.” The East Side is not a distressed area or underdeveloped etc.
Wayne do you live under a rock? When they created the Burkhardt Road TIF District it was for some of the most expensive real estate in the county! It was ALL politically motivated!
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Wayne, since you are an expert on what improvements TIF districts should fund, please tell us whether North 41 TIF funds should have gone toward improving the remaining 14 foot wide stretch of Peck Road behind the new North High School or to pay for a sewer pump station that serves only one private land development.
Wayne, why are you dodging my question?
Actually it does make more sense to locate it next to the Gateway Facility in Warrick County. There is raw land with the needed infrastructure available and access to hospitals and patients for teaching is right there. Makes sense to me. I wonder what Mr. Ungethiem thinks? and whay are we building a hotel downtown again? There are plenty of hotels at the crossing of the Lloyd and I164.
agree jbyrd i believe that the martin group are way ahead in this project……http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=62120
Hey genius, you do know the Martin Group’s proposal is in Vanderburgh County, at the promenade, don’t you?
This actually makes perfect sense. Hey Wayne, why didn’t Marsha take this same approach to the ball fields? Can you give me a statement on that please?
Great position by Marsha, this is win win for Vanderburgh county. We get all the benefits without the cost. Like it or not Evansville is already a Destination City and the destination is on the east side. People come to Evansville for Target, Gander Mountain, Cheddars, Eastland Mall, Hobby Lobby and a multitude of other shopping and eating delights. Toyota is in Princeton but Evansville sure reaps the benefits. There is no logical benefit for locating in downtown Evansville. If a democrat instead of a republican had of made this statement it would be considered a great idea.
I don’t think she gets it. IU could care less about the reasons why this would help downturn Evansville. They don’t worry about small time politicians; they have seen them come and go.
IU is more concerned about getting the most incentives and what location has the best opportunity for growth and expansion for IU’s life science program. Vanderburgh County needs to ante up and shut up. You can tell by comments like this there is concern about the downtown location. Why say anything at all!!??
You know,looking in from afar,what you stated with your comment makes allot of sense. The guy from Darmstadt,according to my ole Cuz spud,that fella from out his way Mr.Ungetheim has the primary “bagged” already anyway.
Ole cuz “Spud”,the geologist,says both the sites along the Warrick vanderburgh line look well suited for the place to him,he does however agree that the USI area would be suitable,as well.
I shared a vision, This, I thought of as an innovationist type,and one whom is determined to create some viable standing improvements around the globe in relation to Climate Change Actions,blending that with the 2012 Clean Water actions/solutions forward,as well
Blending something you are mandated to accomplish by federal standards in relation to your local horrible unsustainable infrastructures presently in use at the present date,seems like the viable solution at hand. After explaining how the plan works,and how to build it
This is what his reaction was……….. “damn cuz I can’t see that not working if built and applied”….no ones ever done it,but damn it already works everyday right here on the planet we reside on,holy crap! Cuz how’d you think of that? Well,balanced sustainability* is a que.
“Long story cuz”,mostly just observation and science vs nature,something mankind has gamed around with from time immortal.
Things really got screwed up when the Greeks and Romans set the standards we all live by with hydrology based solutions today.
Davinci,the polymath nailed it,in 1475,really! No kidding,all the while learning to paint from his master.
Yup,Leonardo di ser piero Da Vinci as a young apprentice to master painter “Andrea del Verrocchio”,collaborated with his master in the classic work “The Baptism of Christ” they say after Leonardo painted the young angel holding Christs robe so superior to Verrocchio’s work that the master never picked up a brush and painted again.
They also say if you look close enough one can see where the some of the work has been painted over,or touched up bearing the hand of Leonardo with a newer technique in oil,instead of tempera. “He covered the conceptual science,to preserve the art.” Aahahahaaa! 😉
The master Da Vinci laid out a canal plan for Cesae Borgia called the “Plan of Imola”,that somewhat eluded to some slight, however useful methods showing a few of his conceptualized thoughts per some scientific canal and hydrology applications.
“At about age twenty Da Vinci became,and qualified as an master in “The Guild of St Luke”,”The Guild of Artists, AND!, “Doctors of Medicine”.
The answers in the mix,its the project blending,and that work of art people,has an huge opportunity tacked to the wall with it.
The location for the Medical school is right under your nose,so to speak.
“sequens mirabitur aetas”
“The following age will be amazed”
While your at,it look up or http://www.bing.com “pandoras cluster reveled” or NASA pandoras cluster “Clash of the Titans”
“nomen est omen”
“the name is in the sign”
Ole Cuz Spud God love’um, said “that’s befitting of the situation”….with a wry,although,sly chagrin.”
Wow, isn’t the Promonade property also located in Vanderburgh County? Hey, Marsha, what about the local option income tax consequences? What about the surrounding development that would be attracted by the med school? Also, a friend of mine indicates that Deaconess is considering the construction of a new hospital on the Westside near USI…wouldn’t the new hospital be a non-profit exempt from property taxes? would you be oppoed to such an expansion? Wouldn’t such a position against the Med School in Vanderburgh county be classified as nitwittery?
When all is said and done, and all the chips have fallen, I suspect that once again I’ll be standing back saying “I told you so”.
Our leaders should have pitched several options for a location. John Friend is just as guilty as Winnecke on this one. He could have done something to pitch Roberts or the State Hospital, but he wouldn’t do it. I spoke to him about this and he balked.
What else can I say to someone who, for whatever reason, won’t listen?
On Marsha’s statement, she’s saying something very similar to what I said months ago. A Warrick location could be our best case scenario from a taxpayer’s standpoint.
The school should be shielded from conspiring local politicians and their financiers, and the best way to do that is to locate the school on the campus of the University of Southern Indiana.
Surely those in charge at IU have read the book on Evansville and will act accordingly.
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Marsha must have more listings in Newburgh that she can shill after she looses her political job.
Hey Wayne Marsha Abell is running against Bruce Ungethiem for re-election, not you. Let her defend for herself. This sentence taken down by Editor.
Eric W: You hide behind an assume name and you make comments “So shut your stupid month”. You set a poor a poor example.
Cry baby cry
Taken down remarks out of order.
Marsha has surely “stirred things up!” The flapping of “snegal Smeagols'” wings is getting loud. Looks like we’re going to be “treated” to a deluge of “SS” guano in Vanderburgh County. If the guano has any fertilizer value, we can surely compete with the plant in Posey Co., with a “natural” alternative! I know it’s a stretch, but I’m just trying to find an “up” side to “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha’s” comments.
elkaybee: Marsha is trying to manage the citizen’s limited tax dollars available in a prudent way. This East Side location area has already benefited from tax dollars and is capable to stand on its own. To test this statement, try to purchase an acre of land in this area. It is expensive.
IU Medical School has some very good choices to pick from. I would like to see it located downtown to help further develop our City.
Wayne, if IU chooses the eastside or USI would you support public subsidies?
What was paid for the downtown lot that the Ford Center sits on? How many millions of taxpayer dollars went into that lot? Do you think it will be any better for the medical school. Demolition and prep costs are much higher downtown and all construction is over dilapidated infrastructure. Big construction downtown is not the most cost effective location.
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