IS IT TRUE that sometimes nuggets of truth are posted on the comment sections of both the City County Observer and the Courier and Press?…that while most comments are posted anonymously every once in a while someone uses their real name and posts something that is new and important?…that yesterday was such a day here at the CCO?…that Evansville City Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley made a post in a response to one section of IS IT TRUE that dealt with the nasty smells that are in an around Roberts Stadium even though there has not been a hard rain in a while?…her explanation showed diligence, competence, and concern for the people of Evansville?…Councilwoman Riley explained how the angle of the large sewer pipes in much of the City of Evansville was too low to take advantage of gravity sufficiently to keep the contents of the pipe that causes the smell cleared out during dry times?…what this means is that when it is dry somewhere close below the surface and with a clear air path to the street is a bunch of fecal material waiting for a good rain to wash it away?…this is sort of a double whammy to the repairs needed to make our sewers work AND get us out of trouble with the EPA?

IS IT TRUE when it rains more than an inch an hour the south side, Bee Slough, and the Ohio River are gonna get slammed with raw sewage violating federal mandates?…this half of the problem is now known to be a $500+ Million problem and will have to be dealt with or face fines?…after the rains Evansville smells like a rear end due to those discharges?…the low angle problem exposed by Councilwoman Riley is why it stinks like a rear end when we have not have rain?…that means that the people of Evansville get to smell crap all of the time due to a poorly designed obsolete sewer system?…one early estimate to solve the second problem is another $500 Million bringing the total fix to get the EPA off of our back and to get the smell of a nasty arse out of our air to a Billion dollars?…that works out to a cost of $20,000 per residence assuming 50,000 residences will share the cost equally?…on a 30 year note this pair of fixes will be adding over $100 per month to the average Evansvillian’s sewer bill?…that like it or not this is a necessary condition to become an acceptable city for young professionals to call home?…those who claim that a $10 Million park, a $127 Million temple to sport, reading water meters from a shiny new $50 Million fiber network, or even a downtown hotel that needs $20+ Million of public incentives to happen will solve the City of Evansville’s image problem are delusional?…sometimes one can wonder if a continuous stream of brooze have been pumped into the Office of the Mayor of Evansville for a good long time now as it seems more like Cheech and Chong are in charge than Weinzapfel and Winnecke?…we are leaving it up to our readers to decide who is Cheech and who is Chong?

IS IT TRUE that one thing Mayor Winnecke did do that was right after taking office is to get some focus on the litter problem that has plagued Evansville for as long as most of us can remember?…the Mayor has led an effort that has removed many tons of litter and even has a decent number of citizens on board to pick things up?…the problem of litter to the visitor is still in place?…the best intentions and efforts of Mayor Winnecke and his litter army are never going to be enough to rid a city whose citizens treat it like a garbage can of litter?…for Evansville to ever be clean to a visitor it is going to take all of the 117,000 people who live here to stop living like filth is a good thing?…the CCO commends the Mayor for his litter elimination efforts and encourages the people of this town to get on board with him?…that Evansville may not have the financial resources to fix a Billion dollar sewer problem rapidly but it most certainly has the resources to eliminate the litter problem?…the only question is whether the people of Evansville have the pride and will to implement that FREE SOLUTION?

IS IT TRUE Evansville has had a dog park that was built with private money in an existing park for over 10 years?…in this 10 years time the dues paying membership ($30 per year) peaked at 200 and is now at only 100 members?…that means they collect a whopping $3,000 per year in what is a land subsidized free market dog park?…100 dog owners constitutes slightly less than 0.1% of the population of Evansville that is using this park after 10 years?…the obvious conclusion is that a dog park that requires a drive to utilize will only be used by a scant minority of the population and is therefore a poor use of public funds?…this dog park very much resembles the 1 acre chain link dog parks in the Denver dog park plan published by the City County Observer a few weeks ago?…the cost to chain link an acre in an existing city park is well under $20,000 per park and can easily be absorbed by dog owners without taking money from non-dog-owning taxpayers to subsidize recreational facilities for Bowser and his pals?…if Evansville is to have dog parks the best plan of action is to allocate areas of existing parks and offer individuals the opportunity to contribute to a dog park fund for their neighborhood parks?…spending large sums of money to build a drive to dog park is a ridiculous misappropriation of public funds?

IS IT TRUE that even in the cold of November when there has not been any significant rain for weeks that the smell of what happens when the sewer does not do its job permeates Bee Slough, the south side, and right around Roberts Stadium as though a fresh dump was made this morning?…that eliminating this smell, the health issues that accompany it, and the lost commercial opportunities that happen when site selectors or corporate executives get a whiff of that jiff is looming as a $500 Million+ expenditure that will be borne by the taxpayers of Evansville?…this expense is not really negotiable and the failure of the City of Evansville to come up with a serious plan in the two years granted to do so may re-start the expensive fines levied on Evansville by the EPA during the Weinzapfel Administration?…the planning at this point could be and should be complete to the point that the EPA could evaluate and pass the plan that should be submitted 3 days from today?…rather than get on with the business of planning and spending the necessary $500 Million to become a functional city the government of Evansville has dallied and danced building a $127 Million temple to sport, is resubmitting a plan to spend about $50 Million to read the water meters through a fiber optic network, spending nearly a million bucks to tear down a perfectly good facility, contemplating a $10 Million dog and skateboard park, and are poised to ask the City Council for over $20 Million for a downtown hotel subsidy within sniffing range of Bee Slough?…just the non-essential spending for fun and games during the last 4 years and spanning two administrations now exceeds $200 Million and is rising?…the money spent on fun and games could have been used to ring Evansville up to the water and sewer standards of the 1970’s, BUTT NO, that is not the choice that our elected officials made for us?…the government of the City of Evansville has once again chosen the cheap thrill of fun and games over substance?…that this goes a long way to explain why our best and brightest of all ages vote with their feet and vacate Evansville in record numbers?…if pissing away the money needed to do the basic things that we expect of local government offends you the it is incumbent upon you as citizens to let your elected officials know what you think of paying for fun and games when the toilet is broken?

IS IT TRUE that the Winnecke Administration has quietly made a few changes totaling less than $10 Million to former Mayor Weinzapfel’s last folly in office better known as the Johnson Controls contract?…it has been resubmitted to the IURC for approval to move forward to spend yet more taxpayer money on a non-essential function?…the CCO will be posting the resubmission in a matter of a few days for our readers to evaluate?…the fun and games just never seem to stop in the city that always seems to be asleep at the wheel?