Rose is a 1 ½-year-old, spayed DSH. She is all four declawed. Rose is a super sweet girl who loves to play. She would really love to have the company of another cat. She will do quite well in a home with older children as she can be a bit rough at times. Her favorite thing is watching out the window so her new home needs plenty of them. For more information on Rose and how to make her a part of your family, visit www.vhslifesaver.org or call (812) 426-2563.
VHS Pet of the Week: “Rose”
State of the City & Bicentennial Celebrations
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke will deliver his first State of the City address on Tuesday, March 27, at noon at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Coliseum, 300 Court Street, during the monthly meeting of the Downtown Evansville Rotary Club.
Following his speech to the Rotary Club, Mayor Winnecke will visit the Koch Family Children’s Museum of Evansville (cMOE), 22 S.E. Fifth Street, at 1 p.m. for a Bicentennial Birthday Party and Cake Cutting Ceremony. He will be joined by former Evansville Mayor’s Jonathan Weinzapfel, Russell Lloyd, Jr., Frank McDonald, II, and Michael Vandeveer.
The Bicentennial events will continue at 4:30 p.m. with the official Evansville Bicentennial Birthday Celebration at the Old Post Office Building, 101 N.W. First Street. At approximately 5:30 p.m., Mayor Winnecke will read a proclamation commemorating Evansville’s 200th birthday on March 27, 2012.
Update: Technology Company Thriving After “Graduating†GAGE’s Small Business Incubator Program
After graduating from Innovation Pointe, a small business incubator managed by the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville, AnalyCIS now has their own location at 5200 Washington Avenue where they employ nine people.
With its name being a combination of “analysis†and “Computer Information Systems (CIS),†their mission is “to provide agile, customer centric, platform/vendor neutral, and effective professional technology answers for the modern user.â€
The Limited Liability Company is owned and managed by Martin E. Richey. His credentials include a MS in Computer Information Systems from Missouri State University; a Post Baccalaureate Certificate of Computer Information Systems from the University of Southern Indiana; and a Baccalaureate of Liberal Arts from Ambassador University. He has extensive technical experience as a network engineer, programmer, technical project manager, and professor. After holding several senior management positions, Marty is passionate about making advanced technology accessible to users.
AnalyCIS has many local customers in several states, including for profit customers, as well as nonâ€profit state, county, and city governments. Recently, AnalyCIS was awarded a defense contract with the United States Navy.
City Council votes 5 – 4 in favor of $4.8 Million loan to Earthcare Energy
The Evansville City Council took an unprecedented step in voting to provide a $4.8 Million loan to a start up company from Houston, TX to manufacture a gas pressure step down device that they have a license for in the old Whirlpool Building. The City will also be covering two years rent for Earthcare.
The hotly contested vote was taken after a vote to forcefully extract the bill from the Finance Committee whose chairman Councilman John Friend was opposed to going forward due to the fact that many of the questions asked regarding the financial plan had not been answered and because no real world technical testing was presented.
Ken Haney of Earthcare testified before the council that he had orders from all over the world coming in and that they are on the cusp of getting a multi-billion deal in New York. No details of any orders were submitted. Mr. Haney also testified that Earthcare had been turned down for loans at 6 or 7 banks but provided no documentation with respect to why.
Councilman Conor O’Daniel voted to support the loan after giving every indication that he was against doing so and asking many articulate questions for which no answers were offered.
Other Council members voting for the loan package were President Connie Robinson, Councilwoman Missy Mosby, Councilman Johnathan Weaver, and Councilman H. Dan Adams who has an MBA from Washington University.
Council members Dan McGinn, Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley, John Friend, and Al Lindsey all voted against the loan. And so begins the saga of the City of Evansville’s foray into the world of investment banking. The $4.8 Million loan has no collateral associated with it.
IS IT TRUE March 26, 2012 Part 3
IS IT TRUE March 26, 2012 Part 3
IS IT TRUE that former elected official Steve Bagby has been working the phones today trying to convince members of the Evansville City Council to vote in favor of handing an unsecured $5 Million loan to Earthcare Energy?…that we wonder just what captured Bag’s attention to get him involved in the last hour robo-calling to get this passed?…that several members of the Mole Nation are saying that Mr. Bagby is the leading candidate to be appointed to be the Evansville City Clerk when Alberta Matlock retires for medical reasons as has been announced?
IS IT TRUE that members of the management team of Earthcare Energy have been reported to be accompanying Mayor Winnecke in meetings to try and convince certain members of the Evansville City Council to vote yes on approval of a $5 Million loan for Earthcare TONIGHT?…that Mayor Winnecke may have deferred all questions to GAGE president Dewey yesterday when the CP called him but that making this personal makes this issue his issue?…that if this is jammed through TONIGHT without proper vetting that this loan has the potential to be Mayor Winnecke’s defining moment if things go even a little bit wrong?…that this could be his version of the Hudson Valley Christmas Tree debaucle?
IS IT TRUE that any member of the Evansville City Council that has had any discussion at all with Earthcare Energy officials with respect to employment, supplier contracts, consulting agreements, or any other self-serving propositions for either themselves, their relatives, or their businesses, should respectfully recuse themselves from casting any vote tonight?…that if any elected official votes yes tonight and this loan is made and then that official or a relative shows up somewhere in the pocket of this business that it shall be memorialized in the next city elections repeatedly?
IS IT TRUE that there was not even this much calling and coercion going on in the debate over the smoking ban?…that Councilman Al Lindsey as he often does boils it down to one simple question?…that Councilman Lindsey asked “is the City of Evansville a bankâ€?…that the answer is of course no but some of its members seem to try to play like they are?…that we wonder whether the loans that the City of Evansville has made in the past have a better or worse collection records than many of the failed banks in the recent banking mess?…that we are betting that the failed banks have a better track record?
Hudson Valley Trees, Roundy’s, & Shelf Staple Foods all Got Deals and Left Town
Excerpt from Evansville City Council Meeting in 2004:
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS
Vice President Watts: Is there anything under Miscellaneous Business? Councilman Melcher.
Councilman Melcher: Last week, about Tuesday or so, I was getting two or three phone calls about Roundy’s and I guess it came out in the paper Friday, I guess this is something I’ve talked about over and over and over when we get tax abatements that we’ve never had anything on there where if they would get out before the tax abatement is over that they owe the citizens of our community something. I don’t know what we can do. I’m going to try to look into that a little more now because this is the third company that has done this to us. You remember we had Hudson Valley Trees and I thought we had Shelf Staple Foods or something that did the same thing. Well Roundy’s is leaving and we feel we did everything we could to keep them which I think worked. I can’t project what their sales and that, so I asked DMD if they would get me, because I couldn’t remember the year, but they got a ten-year tax abatement and they are in their sixth year. So as you know the way a ten-year tax abatement goes, they only pay roughly 10 percent the first year and 23 percent the second year, so they have gotten by real well now and maybe where they are going they are getting a better deal and they’re going to get another tax abatement. We’re going to have a lot of workers out of work, and I just think it’s something that we need to be constantly looking at. We’re all for economic development. We want to help. I’m glad we’ve got the point system, but even when we have a deal of tax abatement or tax phase-in as we call it now, is so everybody works out. We get a business, we get people working, and we’re all investing back into the community, and we’re willing to give up a little bit because we know that down the road we’re going to get more out of it. So it’s kind of like a marriage and now we’re getting divorced I guess and moving on. They also got airport development zone credits with the State, and I don’t know how the State is going to handle that. It seems like they took all the incentives because you know the first five or six years is where the bulk of it is and now they’re leaving. And I think that is kind of a shame of them doing that and maybe they had to financially. I can’t speak for that, but there ought to be something built in somewhere in our tax phase-in if something like this happens. I even talked about one time that they put a bond up or something during this tax phase-in and it goes down every year for a certain time. I just wanted to get that on the record tonight that we’re for economic development but we need because this might be happening more and more since outsourcing seems to be the way the Federal Government wants to take it, so I think that’s something we need to look at and I just wanted to get it on the record this evening. Thank you.
Councilman Kniese: Steve, I think it would be interesting to find out how many companies over the “x†number of years have received tax phase-in and how many have left and how many are still here. I think that would be interesting to see what kind of success ratio would be associated with that program.
Councilman Melcher: That’s not a bad idea. The one thing I think we did with Shelf Staple Foods, we even loaned them some money. I really think we had a hard time getting it back, but I think we did. But it’s really tough when you are in business I know.
Councilman Kiefer: Mr. President. John, I have a question in regards to what Steve is saying. I think he makes a very valid point. Is there, can we legally, uh could we do something by ordinance that said that either they would post a bond to cover that diminishes as time passes or maybe we could even place, like in this case, they’re selling their property, maybe we have a lien on to the property if something like that.
Councilman Melcher: I don’t think there is anything you can do now.
Councilman Kiefer: I mean, I don’t think now, but I’m saying in the future could, would we have the ability to do that or is that something that has to go through the State Legislature?
Counsel Hamilton: It’s completely spelled out by the State Acts so I think it would have to be amended at that level. I could look into that….
Councilman Kiefer: Well, that would be worth checking into, because I think he’s made a very valid point on that.
Counsel Hamilton: The State spells out the requirements and gives you parameters that you have to live in between. But I’ll look at it.
Councilman Kiefer: Okay. Madam Clerk, were you able to contact anybody about doing a presentation on the efficiency study to the City Council?
Clerk Matlock: I’ll make a note to myself.
IS IT TRUE: March 26, 2012 PART 2
IS IT TRUE: March 26, 2012 PART 2
IS IT TRUEÂ that several years ago that the City of Evansville made a loan to a Christmas Tree Manufacturer from Newburgh, New York for a large amount of start up money, tossed in some tax abatement, a bit of reduced utilities rate charges, and provided them with prime location?…that they not only spent a short time in Evansville and quickly packed up and left the city taxpayers without repaying a red cent of the loans back?…that we wonder why this failed City sponsored start up venture didn’t receive the same political fanfare when they abruptly left this area as a failed Governmental sponsored business entity as they did when the administration in charge announced jobs with big smiles and self congratulations?
IS IT TRUE the Evansville City Councilman at-large, Dr. Dan Adams shall be challenging the authority of Councilman and Budget Chairman, John Friend’s, decision to hold the proposed Earthcare Energy project in committee in order to obtain more information about this startup company request for a $5 million dollar loan?…that Dr. Adams shall be asking City Council to force this request out of the Finance Committee in order for City Council to vote on this issue TONIGHT? …that CCO predicts that Dr. Adams political move shall fall on deaf ears and go down to defeat? …even with his back room political buddy helping (Council President, Connie Robinsons) this loan won’t be approved this evening?
IS IT TRUE: March 26, 2012 “Continued from Yesterday’s CPA Call to Actionâ€
IS IT TRUE: March 26, 2012 “Continued from Yesterday’s CPA Call to Actionâ€
IS IT TRUE that aside from a call to action from certain CPA’s who are close to the process a technical vetting project of substance regarding the Earthcare Energy device has yet to be made available?…that yes we have read the words of GAGE president Debbie Dewey where she claims that it has been vetted by the Department of Defense but there is not one shred of documentation originating at the DOD that validates this device in any manner?…that the Concurrent Technologies Corp. study authored by Roger X. Lenard for the Air Force Research Labs does indeed verify that there is a significant amount of energy that could be captured from this kind of device?…that the rest of that document basically recommend that the AFRL actually do a test to verify that the Langson device is a good device to capture this energy with?…that in the “Investment Summary†presented to the City Council with Dewey’s blessing it is explicitly stated that this test will be finished by March 31, 2012?…that anyone with even a slight perspective on risk elimination would either delay a funding decision until after this test is available or make funding contingent on the results being available within about 30 days?…that moving forward when this test is only a week away from completion is playing recklessly with the people of Evansville’s money?
IS IT TRUE that the youtube video of the Langson device in the Carson City, NV lab shows an inlet pressure to the “shroud covered box that holds the special sauce†is set a 70 psi (pounds per square inch)?…that that Concurrent Technologies study for the AFRL states in its “Bottom Line Up Front†section that the pressure let downs that merit real world conditions are from 600 psi – 200 psi?…that given that as truth that any design that will have a long life in field conditions should have a safety factor built into the design that will work without failure or leakage up to about 1,000 psi?…that the most preferable test of this device would therefore be a real installation that operates at a pressure of 600 psi augmented by a four corner test that goes from extrema conditions of 1,000 psi with a temperature range that reflects the reality of the situation of maybe – 40 degrees to +200 degrees?…that after all these devices will have to work from Alaska to the Arabian Desert so they need to be tested for such conditions?…that the world of engineering design at 70 psi and 1,000 psi are very different?…that the world of 70 psi is dominated by consumer items like bicycle tires, replacement windows, pool pumps, and water hoses?…that one should imagine what might happen to a bicycle tire or a water hose taken up to 1,000 psi?…that every one of them will fail by design?…that when a test at working pressures and temperatures has been done by a third party we might start believing too?
IS IT TRUE that the Courier Press has an article up that strongly implies that the founder of Earthcare is basically threatening to pull the plug on this if the City Council of Evansville does not vote his company a $5 Million dollar loan TONIGHT?…that if and we do mean if this is true that it is time to pull the plug by taking it off of the agenda and wishing him well in some place that responds to ultimatums?…that NO SERIOUS BUSINESS PERSON would make such a demand and NO LOCAL GOVERNMENT WITH ANY STRENGTH WOULD GIVE IN TO SUCH DEMANDS?…that we were shocked to read the subtitle on the following CP article?…that if this is true that the giver of this ultimatum should be sent a strong message that EVANSVILLE DOES NOT RESPOND WELL TO THREATS and good luck in South Carolina?…that ultimatums whether given to city governments, people or small shops are the domain of bullies and despots neither of which we can recommend as business partners?
CMoE Celebrates Evansville’s 200th Birthday – 3/27/2012
Schedule of Events
· Explore local history with the Daughters of the American Revolution
· Vote for your favorite cake in the “200th Birthday Cake Challenge†(Cakes by: The Donut Bank, A Pinch of Sugar, and Daily’s Bakery)
·Performance by Magician Don Baggett (11 a.m.)
· Sing “Happy Birthday Evansville†with the Duke Boys
· Blow-out the candles with the Honorable Mayor Lloyd Winnecke (1:30 p.m.)
Doors open at 9 a.m. Regular Admission Rates Apply.
www.cmoekids.org
SpringFest offers weekend of family fun
Students and employees and their families, and families from the community, are invited to attend the 2012 SpringFest at the University of Southern Indiana from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Friday, April 13 and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 14.
“This year’s SpringFest weekend will be huge,†said Tim Buecher, SpringFest advisor. “There will be fun for the entire family; more carnival rides than ever, great festival food to choose from, and free live music from more than 20 bands and vocalists on both days.â€
The carnival-like atmosphere will include bands, rides, food, and festivities for all ages. The main event happens Saturday evening at 7 p.m., when national hit sensations Mike Posner and Karmin take the stage inside the USI PAC Arena. Tickets for the show are $20 for USI students and $30 for the general public and can be purchased now on campus at the USI Bookstore or on their website: http://usibook.usi.edu.
Free outdoor concerts will begin at 1 p.m. each day.
Friday, April 13
1:00-1:45 – Vulpes
2:00-2:45 – Stella
3:00-3:45 – Cleo
4:00-4:45 – 90s Teenage Angst
5:00-5:45 – “USI Idol†competition
6:00-6:45 – Unkle Samm
7:00-7:45 – Willz Da Renegade
8:00-8:45 – The Machinery
9:00-9:45 – Quin
10:00-10:30 – Paranormal Gang
10:45-11:30 – “USI Runway Showcaseâ€
Saturday, April 14
11:00-11:45 – Deja Blu 5
12:00-12:45 – Blast Off!
1:00-1:45 – A Worst Case Scenario
2:00-2:45 – The Scandalmongers
3:00-3:45 – Be My Doppelganger
4:00-4:45 – Julian Spark
5:00-5:45 – A Stockholm Robot
6:00-6:45 – Elle Maze
7:00-7:45 – Angry Nerdz, 2 Face, Nupin
More than 20 carnival rides will be coming to campus for SpringFest. The list includes Scrambler, Loop-O-Plane, Hurricane, Tempest, Merry-Go-Round, Zipper, Construction Zone, Strawberries, Cha/Cha, Granny Bugs, Tilt-A-Whirl, motorcycles, kiddie ferris wheel, kiddie karousel, The Dragon, Tubs of Fun & Hampton Combo, boats, kiddie swings, super slide, The Jungle, Wacky Shack, and Bounce Castle.
Carnival food such as walking tacos and pronto pups will be available along with fish and chicken sandwiches, beverages, ice cream, and more.
Tickets for rides are $2 each or a wrist band will be available for $16 to ride all day. Rides are free for USI students, and children and grandchildren of faculty and staff members. All events take place in Parking Lot C on campus. Parking is free and handicap accessible. More event details can be found on the SpringFest web site:http://www.usi.edu/springfest.
SpringFest and the concert lineup are supported by an SOS Grant from the Student Government Association and coordinated in conjunction with the USIActivities Programming Board.