Too Many Pork Projects in Evansville!
While the people of Evansville are all dying about $100.00 plus water bills to cover the cost of repairing the sewer system that has Been neglected for years!, the city should be using the Millions of dollars spent on Bike Paths for repairing these sewers, instead of altering to a low percentage of bike riders in the city. It isn’t like everyone is using Rickshaws to get around town, Instead of building Dog Parks, build more event centers for our youth!
Why is it? Individuals can get Small Business Loans to open up Cat Café’s and a proposed Doggie Diner on Main Street while every minority-owned business that has been on Main Street has been closed down? Robert Chester’s Men’s Store, The Taste, and Hammerheadsâ€. Last week the Mayor stated that consideration was being made to demo the Lloyd Pool and relocate it downtown, I wonder what Land Banks will be used for this venture?
When I think of how Taxpayers dollars have been wasted on projects downtown that consistently is losing money, I have found appalling, 3 times the Market Value was paid for the properties to build the Ford Center, yet this venture has lost millions of dollars every year since it’s been open! The questionable way land was purchased for Dpatrick Ford and traded with a questionable LLC to have people evicted along Walnut and Keith Streets to relocate Dpatrick, remember Federal Laws state, that people can’t be made or forced to relocate for commercial businesses.
I guess it’s always easy to spend other people’s money when it doesn’t affect the ones that spending the money! When millions of dollars had been spent to rehab the Executive Inn, that had several hundred rooms more than the Double Tree, the Executive had a full size swimming pool, the Time Out Bar, Barber Shop, Clothing Store, Piano Bar, Atrium, Huge Dining Area, Show Room Lounge, and a Huge Conference Room! The Roberts Stadium had plenty of parking, 2000 more seats and had over $30 million spent on rehabilitation and be made more handicapped accessible 7 years before it was decided to be torn down and replaced! Giving Tax Abatements to companies to build hotels, when none of them have been completely filled during any convention or conference.
Remember people all these things are not only going to affect us, it’s going to effect your children and grandchildren for years to come, I can assure you within the next 10-20 years they will say the city has outgrown the Ford Center and the idea will be presented to build a new one, even if the bonds for this one hasn’t been paid off at that time!
Moving and buying business’s and moving people around to cater to a Medical School, that only has 500 students, with all the fanfare, I expected at least 2 or 3 thousand students and to find out that half of these students already live in the city was a slap in the face!
Smile your Tax Dollars at Work!
Vectren Utilities, IURC, and the City of Evansville!
After receiving our monthly electric bill which sent my blood pressure into orbit, I decided to check with my neighbors and individuals in surrounding areas made me realize that there’s something going on that needs the farther investigation! First off, our last month’s bill was $388.00 which was too much, but with energy assistance, I only had to pay $147.54, this month our bill was $879.38, an 81-year-old woman that lives on so governor, bill went from $300.00 to over a $1,000.00, another person that lives at 500 so. Linwood bill went from $200.00 to over $70.00, everyone I talked with bills went up between $100.00 to $500.00!  An individual that lives 3 doors down from me, showed me her bill where she was billed for 33 days and ours was for 31 days which there was in July, and the reading for our meters was done on the same day! Every 90 days we all get at a letter from Vectren claiming that we all have used 33% more electric than our surrounding neighbors!
On Monday, August 13th, I decided to call Customer Service, at first I was told about the recent heat wave I explained to her, that I could show her a bill where he ha to have Puckett Heating and Air out to our house, because the air was out for several days and it was over 80 degrees in our house!
When it came to readings of our meters she told me everyone’s meters may read different regardless of how many days there might be a monthly billing cycle! I old tell that all her answers were coming from a script she was reading from, we all know that these people are trained to express any compassion relating to anyone’s hardships!
At this point I had a flashback, I remember when I had seen a 2000 – 2025 Area Planning Book, where it showed 8th street as being a Commercial Area by 2025, why is this important? One may ask, well on the west side of the 8th street is the outer rim of the Art District and on the east side of 8thstreet is C.C.I.A. Neighborhood, the area where all these high Utility Bills are generated! A area where Orr 95% of the housing stock is owner-occupied and if this is the case and 8th street is to be commercial in 7 years, then eminent domain can’t be used to force these individuals out, so the next best thing would be high gas, electric and water bills that cause hardships for people on fixed incomes! This is my theory! If this isn’t the case then we must be the individuals that paying for the Solar Panels that’s being built behind Oakhill Cemetary and out by the new school on the far north side that’s not going to benefit any of us!
For those who aren’t aware, Vectren was sued back in the 90’s by the states of Ohio and Alabama and had to pay millions of dollars to the customers in those states. We know that writing to the IURC isn’t going to do any good because Vectren is in all of their pockets! And there’s no use of going to the city, because they tore down a 30-year-old building, which was the only one in the city that could withstand a high-level earthquake, to bring their headquarters to the riverfront! So the best thing for all those concern to do is to use our best weapon the news media, not the local news media but CNN! People in Alaska probably don’t pay the rates that we pay in Evansville! Sometimes individuals have to venture outside of their boundaries to get the attention that their concerns need to be focused on.
One should realize that when the city of Evansville, made Riverside Drive a TIF District so that area could receive Federal Funds, left Old National Bank, the Casino, and Vectren holding all of us hostages with the exception of their shareholders.
Remember: a TIF District is an area, that is low income, blighted and economically depressed!
Sincerely,
Name Withheld By Request
Footnote: Â This letter posted by the City-Count Observer without bias, editing or opinion.
As far as Robert’s Stadium, the medical school, and the hotels are concerned, it’s important to understand that capital works projects are the easiest way for city officials to make money through graft. Really, no one should be surprised.
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