epd activity report September 5, 2012

Gary Gulledge, candidate for Vanderburgh County Coroner, would like to take this opportunity to remind the citizens of Vanderburgh County of the Lifesavers’ Walk scheduled for September 8 th, 2012.

This event is sponsored by Southwestern Indiana Suicide Prevention Coalition.

Registration for the Lifesavers’ Walk will be from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Evansville State Hospital grounds, with the 1 mile walk beginning at 9:15 a.m. Registration fee is $20.00.

The purpose of the Lifesavers’ Walk is to raise awareness of the problem of suicide.

All proceeds will be used to promote suicide awareness, education, and prevention activities in this area.

The Lifesavers’ Walk continues to be an important factor in the better understanding of how suicidal behavior can be prevented.

Come join me for the 1 mile walk to raise awareness for the problem of suicide. Walk in memory of a loved one lost to suicide or to support local suicide prevention projects.

United States Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett will hold a press conference TOMORROW (Thursday, September 6) at 10:30am CDT in the Evansville Mayor’s Office.

Hogsett will be announcing an award of nearly $400,000 that will assist Evansville-area efforts to combat domestic violence. Attending the press conference will be Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, representatives from local law enforcement, as well as social service organizations that will benefit from the grant money.

INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Gail Riecken (D-Evansville) announced today that she will conduct four town hall meetings on September 15 and 29 to give area residents a chance to discuss issues of concern and ask questions about state government.

The meetings will be:

SEPTEMBER 15

9 to 10:30 a.m.: Nativity Catholic Church, 3636 Pollack Avenue.

11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1800 South Governor.

SEPTEMBER 29

10 to 11:30 a.m.: St. John’s United Methodist Church, 1900 N. Fulton Avenue.

Noon to 1:30 p.m.: Liberty Missionary Baptist Church, 701 Oak Street.

“These town halls are designed around the general themes of jobs, the Interstate 69 project, and the Ohio River, but they also give the people of this area the opportunity to make their feelings known about any subjects that concern them, and discuss problems that we can help address at the state level,” Riecken said.

“I always believe in giving local residents every chance to stay involved and play an active role in the decisions I make as their state representative,” she added. “I strongly encourage everyone interested in good government to stop by these town halls in the weeks ahead.”

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. MINUTES August 15, 2012

3. CONSENT AGENDA
a. Request Re: Permission to Seek Quotes for Installation of a Spray Park at Tepe Park. –
Boberg
b. Request Re: Permission to Seek Quotes to Replace a Sewer Pump at Kleymeyer Softball
Fields. – Boberg
c. Request Re: Approve and Execute Agreement with Maxitrol for Fire Panel Monitoring at
Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden. – Morris*

*Recommendation from Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden Advisory Board.

4. OLD BUSINESS
a. Request Re: Open Bids for Stadium Demolition. – Johnson
b. Request Re: Review and Approve Change Order #1 for the Pigeon Creek Greenway Passage,
Phase 3C-4. – Boberg

5. NEW BUSINESS
a. Request Re: Approve Termination of Management Contract with SMG for the Victory and
Mesker Music Theatre. – Johnson
b. Request Re: Approve Professional Engineering Services with Americas Engineering for
ADA Improvements at Golfmoor and Lamasco Parks. – Boberg
c. Request Re: Review Partnership with Athletes Performance Institute of Indiana at Swonder
Fitness Center. – Nadeau
d. Request Re: Review and Approve Adult Hockey Fees for 2012/2013 Season. – Nadeau
e. Request Re: Approve Budget Transfers and CIP Reprioritizations. – Boberg
f. Request Re: Any Other Business the Board Wishes to Consider and Public Comments.

6. REPORTS
a. Denise Johnson, Executive Director

7. ACCEPTANCE OF PAYROLL AND VENDOR CLAIMS

8. ADJOURN

Palm Springs, CA (September 5, 2012) – A national panel of seed investors, venture capitalists and corporate licensing executives selected three Coachella Valley Innovation Hub (CViHub) clients to be presenters for the WBT 2012 Innovation Marketplace in San Diego. Presenters for the nation’s showcase of the largest collection of vetted and mentored start-up companies and pure technologies hail from top universities, labs, research institutions, incubators and innovation centers.

About 100 start-ups are chosen from a broad international field to be a WBT Innovation Marketplace presenter at their annual conference on October 24 – 26 at the San Diego Convention Center. Judging criteria is rigorous, CViHub managing director Joe Wallace explained. Presenters have to demonstrate that their technology or product has strong potential for high-growth as a commercial enterprise or a solution to a market problem. “Having three clients deemed as market-ready innovators is a major step forward for them and for the Coachella Valley iHub,’’ Wallace said.

“We are extremely proud to see three Coachella Valley nurtured start-ups in the national spotlight,’’ said Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet. “We are equally proud of the progress the Coachella Valley Innovation Hub has made to mentor these promising candidates to market-ready status.’’

The three WBT 2012 presenters from the CViHub are:

• TransMedImage, a start-up business that intends to become the definitive medical image network for physicians, radiologists, hospitals, patients, insurance carriers, imaging companies and others. It plans to integrate proprietary technology, radiological services, electronic medical records and other services to store, retrieve and distribute information in a way that expedites and improves patient care across multiple platforms and locations.

• Indy Power Systems, developer of the Energy Router(tm), a patented hardware and software package that can optimize the flow of energy between different sources or loads, regardless of voltage. It is the only company blending energy into different types of storage devices, making it possible to use renewable energy like solar and wind at night or when the air is still. IPS has already delivered its first micro-grid management system. A battery cycler system will be installed in the fourth quarter, along with a second micro-grid system for Pratt Whitney Rocketdyme. IPS also signed a letter of intent with a manufacturer that is worth $5 million annually.

• EV Enterprises, developer of a prototype device the size of a key-fob that enables the presence of radiation to be detected. EVE’s product came about in response to a concern expressed by an organic food supplier who wanted to be able to offer their customers the security of knowing whether or not the food they were buying was radiation-free. The need for a practical, inexpensive and portable radiation detector came to the forefront in the aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami that caused radiation to leak from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor complex. Although it is hard to say what levels of contamination in our food and environment are ultimately dangerous enough to cause harm, the device provides shoppers with the ability to test for the presence of radiation as they go about their day-to-day activities.

“The fact that three start-up companies from the CViHub were chosen as presenters at the World’s Best Technology conference less than a year after that iHub was officially opened speaks volumes about the rapid positive impact that California’s Innovation Hubs can have when engaged local stakeholders take the bull by the horns and commit to the iHub concept”, said Louis Stewart, Deputy Director of California Go-Biz (California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development).

“The benefit of presenting at an internationally recognized forum represents an opportunity of a lifetime for start-ups,’’ Wallace said. At the deal-focused event, the CViHub clients will give a 6-minute presentation to over 100 seasoned venture investors and Fortune 500 licensing scouts from a variety of industries. Since the first WBT Marketplace in 2002, more than $786 million worth of early and seed-stage funding and licensing has been awarded to the more than 680 presenters from the U.S. and 26 other countries.

“We are impressed by the caliber of our clients,’’ said Cathedral City Mayor Kathleen DeRosa. “They typify the mission of the CViHub and the goals of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership to diversify the economy through renewal energy initiatives.” “The Coachella Valley will be watching these companies, and all others nurtured by the Innovation Hub, as they continue to evolve and ultimately contribute to the vitality of our region,’’ Desert Hot Springs Mayor Yvonne Parks said.

The CViHub is a regional project funded by the cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs and is an integral part of the blueprint strategy of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP).

To learn more about the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership and the Coachella Valley Innovation Hub, visit www.cvep.com or call (760) 340-1575.

About CVEP: Coachella Valley Economic Partnership is an action-oriented, non-profit corporation dedicated to expanding and diversifying the economy of the Coachella Valley desert region while maintaining the quality of life for a resort environment. CVEP has been devoted to strategies to attract, expand and retain business and workforce development. Now, it has broadened its focus to plan and nurture new job clusters, such as: Healthcare and Life Science, Clean Technology/Energy, Supply Chain Management/Logistics and Creative Arts, Media & Design.

About the Coachella Valley Innovation Hub:
The CViHub housed in the Rabobank Regional Business Center, along with CVEP, offers services, programs and incentives to attract and cultivate new, clean technology business across multiple fields. Those fields include solar energy, wind power, green building techniques, water filtration and conservation technologies, biofuel and geothermal production and smart grid technology.

Excerpts:

“Republicans and Democrats spent last summer battling how best to save $2.1 trillion over the next decade. They are spending this summer battling how best to not save $2.1 trillion over the next decade. In the course of that year, the U.S. government’s fiscal gap — the true measure of the nation’s indebtedness — rose by $11 trillion.”

“The fiscal gap is the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue. It captures all government liabilities, whether they are official obligations to service Treasury bonds or unofficial commitments, such as paying for food stamps or buying drones. Some question whether “official” and “unofficial” spending commitments can be added together. But calling particular obligations “official” doesn’t make them economically more important. Indeed, the government would sooner renege on Chinese holding U.S. Treasuries than on Americans collecting Social Security, especially because the U.S. can print money and service its bonds with watered-down dollars.”

“The U.S. fiscal gap, calculated (by us) using the Congressional Budget Office’s realistic long-term budget forecast — the Alternative Fiscal Scenario — is now $222 trillion. Last year, it was $211 trillion. The $11 trillion difference — this year’s true federal deficit — is 10 times larger than the official deficit and roughly as large as the entire stock of official debt in public hands.”

“Governments, like households, can’t indefinitely spend beyond their means. They have to satisfy what economists call their “intertemporal budget constraint.” The fiscal gap simply measures the extent to which this constraint is violated and tells us what is needed to balance the government’s intertemporal budget.
The answer for the U.S. isn’t pretty. Closing the gap using taxes requires an immediate and permanent 64 percent increase in all federal taxes. Alternatively, the U.S. needs to cut, immediately and permanently, all federal purchases and transfer payments, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, by 40 percent. Or it can mix these terrible fiscal medicines with honey, namely radical fiscal reforms that make the economy much fairer and far stronger. What the government can’t do is pay its bills by spending more and taxing less. America’s children, whose futures are being rapidly destroyed, are smart enough to tell us this.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-08/blink-u-s-debt-just-grew-by-11-trillion.html