The Voice of the Common Man, a Sit-down with Councilman Al Lindsey by Zach Stuard, for the City County Observer

City Councilman of the 6th Ward Al Lindsey is a humble man from humble roots. Councilman Lindsey was born in Owensboro, Kentucky and graduated from South Spencer High School in 1973. Lindsey’s parents both attended a one room school in Kentucky and his father was both a farmhand and a union worker. Lindsey is the oldest of 5 siblings.

Lindsey believes there are both those people that talk about change and those people who try to be a part of change. Lindsey constantly strives to be a person who is a part of change, and because of this he has led a very active life when it comes to the community. Lindsey joined the Army National Guard in 1975 towards the end of the Vietnam War and Lindsey completed his basic and advanced training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. After returning home he moved to Evansville in 1976. It was in Evansville that he married his first wife in 1977, and here they decided to raise their family. Both of his children attended Mater Dei High School and now live on the west side and have started families of their own. Lindsey has currently been married to his wife Krista for 15 years. She is also a Veteran and has served 23 years in the Air National Guard.

Al Lindsey first campaign for City Council in 2003 against City Councilman B.J. Watts was unsuccessful and served as a learning experience for Lindsey’s future campaigns. In 2011 Lindsey defeated Watts for his first seat on the City Council. Lindsey ran to bring change and better representation to the 6th Ward. Lindsey has proven that he has his community’s best interest at heart and he believes that our city has to have people in office who care to serve others rather than themselves. Mr. Lindsey wishes to be the voice of the common man and to bring a sense of fiscal responsibility to the council. It is this same belief that has led Lindsey to advocate transparency in all forms of office. Councilman Lindsey said “I believe the Mayoral position in general holds too much power. All of the appointed boards have too much power and none of these boards should be able to spend a penny without coming through the council first. We are a very small city and need to operate as such. We have to be smarter with our money as well as with the social issues that we face as a community.”

Councilman Lindsey also said and I quote “the city needs more professionally qualified people to serve as department heads and professionalism should supersede political patronage”. Lindsey also believes that city council should have experts with experience to serve the council when needed. The council itself is a part time job and occasionally the council may require insight from experts in fields that members of the council may not have experience in or knowledge of. This would help the council in their endeavor to make responsible and informed decisions.

Mr. Lindsey currently serves as a firefighter on the Evansville Fire Department. He has served for over 27 years and presently holds the rank of Captain. He uses his experience and knowledge of the department to work in conjunction with the department and city officials to optimize firefighters ability to do their jobs both safely and effectively. Currently he is working with the department and officials in an attempt to bring extractors and dryers to all of the firehouses around the city. Research shows that firefighters face an increased risk of cancer due to a high concentration of carcinogens from the smoke of the fires they fight. The carcinogens build up on their gear and are passed through contact with skin while the suits are worn. The extractors and dryers effectively remove these carcinogens from the equipment serving to increase the useable lifespan of the equipment as well as decreasing the risk of cancers for the men that protect our communities.

When the Councilman finds time to relax he enjoys spending time with his family and watching his grandchildren play ball. In closing Lindsey told me, “Whether I have the ability to influence or not, I just want to be a voice for the common man. Because of the many hats I have worn and because of my personal experiences in many of the issues that come before the council I feel as though I can relate, understand, and vote accordingly. As an example, I was the lone vote against the raising of tap in fees and meter fees for the water department because even though they were presented as nominal increases I knew the impact they would have on people with fixed incomes or the very poor.”

It is this voice that needs to be recognized just as much as any other and it is safe to say our community is better off having the likes of an individual such as Councilman Lindsey who is willing to stand up for what he believes is best for everyone even if that means standing up to the Mayor and his administration if their policies are not in the best interest of the city and its citizens.

The University of Evansville’s Department of Creative Writing, with generous support from the Efroymson Family Fund, will host a two-day symposium on April 19-20 dedicated to the life and work of world-renowned author Joyce Carol Oates.

The symposium includes the following events, all of which are free and open to the public:

• A reading by Joyce Carol Oates at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 19 in Eykamp Hall (Ridgway University Center), followed by a book signing and reception

• A question-and-answer session with Joyce Carol Oates at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 20 in Shanklin Theatre

• A writers’ panel on Joyce Carol Oates at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 20 in Smythe Lecture Hall (Room 170, Schroeder School of Business Building), featuring writers Pinckney Benedict, Laura Benedict, Laurence Goldstein, and Margaret McMullan

• A young writers’ panel on Joyce Carol Oates at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, April 20 in Smythe Lecture Hall (Room 170, Schroeder School of Business Building), featuring four UE creative writing students

• A screening of the film “We Were the Mulvaneys” at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 20 in Cokes Lecture Hall (Room 126, Hyde Hall). The film is based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates and stars Beau Bridges and Blythe Danner.

In April 2012, the Department of Creative Writing received a $10,000 grant from the Efroymson Family Fund to help fund the Joyce Carol Oates Symposium, which follows the tradition of the successful Arthur Miller Symposium that took place at UE in 1998.

“The Arthur Miller Symposium showed us that an artistic event of this caliber has the power to make a lasting impact on UE students, faculty, and the community at large,” said William Baer, UE professor of creative writing. “A visit by Joyce Carol Oates, made possible by the Efroymson Family Fund, will be a significant event in the history of UE, and an extraordinary opportunity to raise awareness of the critical importance of the arts in our lives.”

Oates is one of the world’s most distinguished writers, having been nominated three times for the Nobel Prize. Born in upstate New York in 1938, Oates earned her Bachelor of Arts from Syracuse University in 1960 and her Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin in 1961. She is currently the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University.

Her literary accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards, including the Fairfax Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in short fiction, the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the O’Henry Prize for Continued Achievement in the Short Story. In 2010 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

The symposium falls on the 50th anniversary of Oates’ first published book, By the North Gate (1963), a collection of short stories. Since then, Oates has published over 80 books in numerous genres: novels, short story collections, poetry, plays, literary criticism, children’s books, mystery and horror novels, various anthologies, and even a book-length essay entitled On Boxing. Her works of fiction include: Them, winner of the National Book Award; Black Water, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Zombie, recipient of the Bram Stoker Award; What I Lived For, nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award; Blonde, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; You Must Remember This, praised as “an American masterpiece” by James Atlas; The Falls, recipient of France’s prestigious Prix Femina; We Were The Mulvaneys, selected as an Oprah Book of the Month and subsequently made into a movie starring Beau Bridges and Blythe Danner; and the New York Times bestseller The Gravedigger’s Daughter.

The University of Evansville wishes to thank the Efroymson Family Fund, a fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, for its support of the arts at UE. Since the fund was established in 1998, it has awarded more than $70 million to nonprofit organizations in central Indiana and beyond. For more information on the Efroymson Family Fund, please visit www.cicf.org/efroymson-family-fund.

In 1991 Congress proclaimed the second full week in April to be National Telecommunications Week to recognize the importance of those special individuals who coordinate the efforts police, fire, and EMS workers as they perform their duties. Telecommunications operators are the unsung heroes of public safety. To the public they are faceless voices heard over the scanner. To public safety workers they dispatch for, they are a lifeline. Governor Michael R. Pence has proclaimed the week of April 14-20 as Telecommunications Week in Indiana (See Photo #1).

Telecommunications is a function that operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week and 365 days per year and can be very stressful. One minute an operator can be communicating a routine function to an officer and the next minute they may be coordinating a high speed pursuit, dispatching emergency assistance to an accident scene, or coordinating a situation where police officers are involved in a gun battle.

All Indiana State Police telecommunications operators must pass a written test, a typing test, appear before an interview board, and go through a background investigation before being hired as an ISP telecommunications operator. Once hired, they must then endure at least 12 weeks of intense training and continuous in-service training throughout their careers to maintain certifications and keep up-to-date on the latest communications technology and procedures.

Indiana State Police Telecommunications Operators now work from Regional Dispatch Centers in Bloomington, Versailles, Ft Wayne, Lowell, Bristol (Toll Road) and Indianapolis. They are responsible for dispatching troopers and motor carrier inspectors to calls for service in their ISP Districts which cover all 92 counties in Indiana. Currently at each Regional Dispatch Center, there is one dispatch center manager, three telecommunications supervisors, and several telecommunications operators.

A list of all Indiana State Police Telecommunications Operators along with their pictures is available upon request. Please contact your ISP Public Information Officer at http://www.in.gov/isp/2365.htm#
and click on your home county for their contact information.

April 12, 2013 – Evansville, IN – Central Library will have a delayed opening on Tuesday, April 16 due to the installation of a replacement compressor on the building’s roof. The Library will open at 1:00 pm.

All other EVPL locations will operate as normal. Customers can also access eBooks and other downloadable material and information online anytime at evpl.org.

St. Mary’s Hospital for Women and Children is excited to announce it is beginning a new OB/GYN Hospitalist Program, which provides specialized, round-the-clock care to pregnant women. While many obstetricians divide their time between their office and the hospital, this program will offer hospital-based doctors focused solely on providing care to patients in the labor and delivery unit, as well as those facing emergency situations. To support this initiative, St. Mary’s is working with OB Hospitalist Group, the nation’s largest provider of OB/GYN Hospitalists. These doctors will provide enhanced coverage and a critical safety net to OB/GYNs in the community.
“Sometimes a woman’s own physician can’t be present during her delivery, whether it’s because of a family emergency, another delivery, or any number of reasons,” said Bennett S. Walstatter, M.D. “Having an OB/GYN Hospitalist Program means every woman can be confident that an experienced OB/GYN will be delivering her baby. That gives women and their families peace of mind during one of the most important moments of their lives.”
Hospitalist care is a growing trend nationwide that helps increase access to specialists and improves patient outcomes. This program will make St. Mary’s the only hospital in the Tri-State to offer 24/7 in-house obstetrics, OB anesthesia, a well-established neonatology team, and the area’s only Level II trauma center with an emphasis on trauma during pregnancy.
In addition, these board-certified OB/GYN Hospitalists will:
• Work with each woman’s own OB to provide 24/7 care to both mother and baby.
• Complement other healthcare professionals within the hospital, including medical and surgical consultants, maternal-fetal medicine, lactation consultants, social workers, and more.
• Receive specialized training, in addition to maintaining board certification.

Lieutenant Dennis Marshall retires from the Indiana State Police after serving 34 dedicated years of service to the Indiana State Police and to the communities in which he served.

Marshall is a native of Perrysville, IN and a 1974 graduate of North Vermillion High School. He later attended Danville Junior College in Illinois and Central Missouri State in Warrensburg, MO, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Marshall joined the Indiana State Police in April 1979 and was assigned to the Evansville District where he primarily patrolled Posey County. He was promoted to the rank of Corporal in 1991. Marshall continued to rise through the ranks and was promoted to Sergeant in August 1994 to supervise troopers patrolling Pike and Knox Counties. In August 2000, Marshall was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant to serve as the Evansville District Commander.

“Dennis Marshall is the quintessential Indiana State Trooper. His demeanor, appearance, attitude and compassion in the way he did his job is a model for the rest of us. He was an energetic and admired trooper when he worked Posey County. When he became a supervisor and eventually the district commander, he never forgot what it was like to be a trooper. He will always have my deepest respect and admiration,” said Captain Danny Price, Area III Commander.

Dennis and his wife, Susan Bobette, have been married 29 years and reside in Mt. Vernon. They have one daughter, Ashley, and six grandchildren.