Zoeller visits school corporations, highlights local partnerships

As policymakers at the state, federal and local levels consider methods of improving school safety, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller today visited two school corporations that have partnered with local law enforcement and highlighted efforts such as implementing school resource officers and school liaison officers who help maintain safety and provide ongoing support systems for students and teachers.

The Indiana General Assembly is considering Senate Bill 1 which as initially proposed would provide funds through state matching grants that school systems could apply for to pay for trained law enforcement officer positions to bolster security at schools. School corporations already are required to have safety plans in place and to identify school safety specialists, and some already utilize school resource officers; but since the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy of December 14, many school boards and administrators are examining ways to further enhance safety in their buildings and classrooms.

“Last fall, prior to the Newtown tragedy, the Office of the Attorney General conducted a needs assessment study where Indiana educators and law enforcement made clear they would like to make more school resource officers available in their schools but funding is an obstacle. Though each community’s security needs are different, clearly there is an unmet demand by parents and educators to implement improvements smartly and swiftly, and I applaud the Legislature’s willingness to prioritize school safety this session,” Zoeller said.

“The Department of Education strives to support and provide our schools, teachers and administrators with all the tools and resources they need to create a safe and positive learning environment for our students,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said. “I believe that Attorney General Zoeller ‘s proposed legislation to support and expand the School Resource Officer program will help ensure that our schools, personnel, and students are safe and secure.”

Zoeller, who is the lawyer for state government and represents the criminal justice system generally, visited the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, the third-largest public school system in the state. EVSC has longstanding partnerships with law enforcement agencies that provide officers at its schools. Evansville Police Department officers enhance safety at the EVSC schools within city limits while deputies from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office do the same at EVSC schools outside city limits.

Zoeller also recognized the work of the Southwest Indiana Schools and Community Collaborative partnership that, through a federal Safe Schools Healthy Students grant, funds school resource officers in four school systems in three predominantly rural counties: MSD North Posey, North Gibson School Corporation, South Gibson School Corporation and Warrick County School Corporation. Separately, the City of Huntingburg is exploring the possibility of starting a local school resource officer program.

The Attorney General today also visited Clarksville Community School Corporation. The Clarksville School Board and Town Council recently signed an agreement where the Clarksville Police Department will provide a trained police officer to serve as a school resource officer to work in the system’s three schools.

Zoeller thanked the southwest Indiana school administrators, law enforcement agencies and municipal leaders for their efforts and noted the proposal in the Legislature introduced by State Senator Pete Miller, R-Avon, to make available funding to broaden the use of school resource officers for those schools that determine they need them. Senate Bill 1 will be amended from its original version and Zoeller encourages the Legislature to establish a grant funding approach that allows for flexibility by school boards in meeting school safety and related needs under the State’s home rule that empowers local decision making.

“While various constructive approaches for rural and urban schools will be discussed, it is important that school corporations and law enforcement agencies further develop their existing working relationships and review their emergency plans to provide additional peace of mind for parents, students and teachers,” Zoeller said.

Zoeller added that the Attorney General’s office will closely monitor possible new federal grant programs that might emerge from the federal government to improve school safety after Newtown, and he will work closely with Superintendent Ritz and the DOE, the Legislature and other state agencies to make schools aware of any future federal grant-funding opportunities that could complement state grants.

NOTE: Attached is an executive summary of the Attorney General’s Office’s research-based needs assessment study on school resource officers and their utilization in Indiana, conducted in November and early December 2012 prior to the Newtown, Conn., incident.

Winter Jam 2013 lived up to its name on Thursday night, but thousands of fans didn’t let little things like freezing temperatures and blowing snow keep them from attending the extremely popular Christian pop rock event. This “Tour Spectacular” returned to the Ford Center for the second year in a row, with a total of 10 bands and artists sharing the stage. When the arena reached capacity, several of the bands rotated out to a second stage located in the main lobby to play short sets for the fans there. The main stage featured performances by Red, Matthew West, Jamie Grace, Newsong, headliner TobyMac, speaker Nick Hall, and more.
“Winter Jam is proving to be a successful event here at the Ford Center,” stated Executive Director Scott Schoenike. “Last year’s concert was very well attended, and tonight there was a turnout of more than 10,000 people. It’s great to see so many families and groups enjoying the atmosphere of this show.”
The Ford Center continues to stay active with a wide variety of upcoming events, including Alan Jackson February 8, Journey February 12, the 37th Annual World Championship Ice Racing Series Finale February 23, Disney on Ice March 27-30, Kid Rock April 1, Neon Trees April 12, Brit Floyd April 19, and Jason Aldean April 25.
Ford Center is managed by VenuWorks of Evansville, LLC. For more information on Ford Center visit: www.thefordcenter.com www.facebook.com/fordcenterevansville www.twitter.com/thefordcenter.

Zachary Stuard
CCO Staff Writer

John Friend CPA learned a valuable lesson during his first campaign effort to grab a seat on Evansville’s City-Council in 1995. Friend, at the time, ran as a Republican in a city that was mostly Democratic. John Friend learned his lesson and though it took some time, he returned in 2007 with a different approach. This time, running as a Democrat in the heavily Republican north side of Evansville, Friend took a very simple, straight-forward, common sense approach to his campaign. Friend told me that the key to his success and ultimate victory rested in answering the call and concern of the tax-payers in his district. “I’ve learned that when you’re contacted by the public a quick response to my constituents is the key. Being accessible, acknowledging issues as they arise, and acting quickly to resolve these quality of life issues are what I try to focus on as representative of the 5th ward.”

John Friend was born in Princeton, Indiana and grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana. Friend was exposed to local politics from a very young age. His grandfather served as the Wabash County Clerk for over 30 years and also served as the treasury and finance officer for the Mt. Carmel School Board. John graduated from Indiana State University in 1973 earning degrees in accounting and economics. Three years after graduating from ISU, John relocated to Evansville and started his own accounting firm in 1981. It was in Evansville that John met, married and started a family with his wife, Marty. They have three children all of whom have graduated college and now work in their respective fields. Melinda Mackey is an honors graduate of Washington University and now works as a RN. Eric received his MBA from USI and is currently a project manager for Summit Contracting, and Lee Vida is a graduate of Chicago School of Art and works in Chicago as a website marketing manager for a medical device company. John and Marty are loving grandparents to four grandchildren, one of which currently attends the University of Alabama.

When Friend is not playing the role of husband, father, and grandfather he is serving as the finance chairman of City Council, no easy task in our city during these times. He has succeeded, while working with every one of his fellow council members, in keeping the public’s money entrusted with good account balances. “What I found out in government is that the return on investment is not as important as image or political agendas. Many politicians look to enhance their public image and reputation by pursuing projects that may be financially unreasonable.” Because of this, Friend looks at the cost of any proposed city project as well as the projected and realistic returns on investment that the project has to offer. Friend’s view of the mayor position is not only the CEO of their city but also a chief marketing director. Friend also added “is that the mayor needs to surround himself with people of talent and direction.” Friend has had positive experiences with the Winnecke Administration thus far as they have been willing to make adjustments to their budget. “During last cycle there were many things eliminated or removed. We (city council) were able to eliminate items from the budget that the majority felt unnecessary.” This helps to free up some funds, but Councilman Friend and the rest of city council still face a huge challenge in how to best guide our city in the right direction both fiscally and municipally.

There are still a few things that have raised the eyebrows of city council and, more specifically, Friend himself. Evansville is now currently out of compliance with two federal mandates that city council will be forced to face. The combined sewer overflows are now non compliant and face the possibility of being subjected to significant fines. Evansville is currently in negotiation with the EPA and is planning in the next twelve months or less city council will be faced with raising sewer rates by 10% per year for the next 6 years. The sewer project is currently projected to cost $410,000,000 to $600,000,000 million of dollars to satisfy federal mandate. We are currently dumping 3.4 billion lbs of raw sewage in the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek per year. Back in 2002 mayor Russ Lloyd Jr. signed a descent decree with the United States Department of Justice agreeing to, in a 10 year period of time to convert our crosswalks to handicap accessible by the year of 2012. We have 8,000 intersections located in the City of Evansville and have only completed 2,000. The non-compliance with the Federal mandates cost the tax payers of this city millions of dollars in possible fines from the Dept. of Justice. On top of this issue the city council is also staring down the barrel of other capital project issues such as the projected $8 million dollar Roberts Park project; Centennial park, another estimated million dollar project; the $28 million dollar Mesker Park Amphitheatre facelift; and the 54 million dollar Johnson Control project that was originally proposed in last days of Weinzapfel’s administration. The project to replace all residential water meters, integrate Wi-Fi in the city and replacing commercial water meters went to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission but was rejected because there was a lack of savings at the end of the project in accordance with state law. I was surprised that Mayor Winnecke brought the project back to life. John Friend and two other of his colleagues pushed to meet with Winnecke, and with the Utilities Department to discuss the stages of the resubmission of the proposal to the State for approval at a reduced price tag of $42 million dollars. Over time the number will reach closer to $61 million dollars.

On top of all of this, and maybe the most debated topic among local politicians and citizens alike, is the proposed multi-million dollar downtown hotel project. Friend’s well honed CPA instincts are alarmed at the fact that all local hospitality developers have decided to distance themselves from this project. “Generally, when private enterprise is willing to invest 100% of venture capital in a project they only do so with full awareness of the market. However, when government is interjected it appears that the market considerations are left on the back burner and again, image and agenda, seem to prevail. If the market is affected we know that the value of the existing structures could be affected negatively. It is obvious to me and others that the increase in revenues as a result of a new downtown hotel and the additional taxes received could be far less than what the decline in property tax values may be, resulting in less property taxes received (a net decline in tax revenues).” Friend finished by saying, “All of us on council are excited by any sort of economic development but before the real political and financial realities set in, the obligations of our citizens over any length of time need to be accurately determined.“

Friend also pointed out that Indiana University will be expanding their medical school in South-West Indiana. Furthermore, initial studies indicate that downtown Evansville is the optimal site for such a campus. When, and if, IU comes they will need, according to their officials, 4 square blocks of site ready land and the campus will have a 15-20 million dollar price tag. I have been told by reliable sources that the University is not planning to pay for any of the expenses associated building a downtown campus when they know they can get the land for free from the University of Southern Indiana and when Warrick County is adamantly pursuing Indiana University for the site themselves. Preliminary studies indicate an initial 1200 well paying jobs would be immediately created, expanding to 3700 well paying jobs by the year 2022. This medical school campus would put Evansville on the map, and with it, create a possible need for a future downtown hotel project much like the one Winnecke is proposing. Councilman Friend added, “Local experts in the industry suggest that with this medical school campus downtown, funding for the downtown hotel , more than likely, would come without public assistance.” I guess the $500,000,000 million dollar question is which project will Evansville choose to pursue at this time? Friend closed by saying, “The finance chair and CPA side of me has great concern towards our local debt, on finished city projects, which is currently at levels of $360 million dollars. We are currently faced with the economic decision to put aside a minimum of $130 million dollars into the Combined Sewer Overflow fund in the very near term to work towards federal compliance. All of these projects add up. I Refuse as a CPA and financial mind to leave this town with a huge debt for things we don’t necessarily need. I choose to have the tax-payer on my mind and have adamantly reviewed and will continue to review all of these proposals as they come in. I’ve enjoyed working with my fellow colleagues on council. We have our differences yet, always seem to work through them and I wholly expect for us to come together, like always, to find solutions to the issues we currently face.

Breakthrough hand-held radiation detection device now available and manufactured in the USA
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Palm Springs, California – The Canary 100 Radiation Detector, the first product of its kind that measures radiation in foods and the environment, is now available for only $69.95 at at www.canary100.com and will soon be available through select retailers.

“The spread of radioactive material caused by the nuclear power plant disaster at Fukushima, Japan is a concern for everyone. Radiation fallout is a threat to our environment that’s here to stay and there’s a need to be able to determine the dangers we’re exposed to,” states Canary 100 inventor Bill Schlanger.

“Many of the foods we buy could be dangerous to eat, he said. “Fish, produce and many other foods can become contaminated with radioactive materials when they’re released into the air or carried in rainwater. Radioactivity can also be washed into rivers, lakes and the sea where seafood can become contaminated. Also, milk and meat can become contaminated when animals eat grass that’s radioactive.”

Schlanger explains, “The danger lies in eating radioactive foods that can radiate continuously into the body’s soft tissues from the inside.”

When Bill Schlanger, engineer and inventor, and his partner, Ben Lizardi, a veteran marketing expert, were told by organizers of a local Farmer’s Market that both customers and farmers were concerned about radiation, they learned that the only way for consumers to detect radiation has been with expensive Geiger counters.

“When we saw that there was no affordable, convenient and easy to use product to detect radiation, we created the Canary 100 Radiation Detector,” said Schlanger.
The Canary 100 is small enough to go on a keychain and costs just $69.95. When the Canary 100 detects the presence of radiation, it chirps like a canary – increasing in frequency as more radiation is detected.

Taking the Canary 100 from idea-stage to ready-for-market happened quickly.

Joe Wallace, Managing Director of the Coachella Valley Innovation Hub, states, “It took three days to fund it, three weeks to prove the concept and three months to be in production. I’ve read about stories like this happening in Silicon Valley, but getting to a prototype in three weeks and then in production within three months, I’ve never heard of it.”
The name of the product was inspired by the canary carried by coal miners. Before the concentration of toxic gasses in the mines reached dangerous levels, the canary would provide an early warning.
The Canary 100 Radiation Detector is manufactured in Palm Springs, California on the campus of the Coachella Valley iHub Accelerator Park. The Canary 100 is at the forefront of the movement to manufacture products in the United States again.