Agreement Available for Examination
In an attempt to allow our readers to read the lease and to make their own judgments with respect to the compliance of the ECTA with the terms of the lease agreement with the Evansville Parks Department, we are posting the lease on the following link.
Please review to your hearts desire and express your opinions with respect to the rights that the ECTA may or may not have to proceed with the tennis courts as they have proposed at their own expense.
Hardwoods and Horseradish
By: Brent Grafton
For a company to get started and make it in today’s economy, it needs an edge. It needs to have something that the other guys do not have. That edge could be a technology, a location, access to a natural resource, cash, or one of a thousand other assets. If you have an edge then your intrinsic advantage will help carry you through the time when most businesses fail, the pain of start-up and growth.
This philosophy is also true for communities. If we are going to compete for other people’s money in this new world economy, we need an edge. We need a sustainable reason for people outside of our direct market to send us their money.
Economic development is simple, if someone else sends our community more money than we send them, then we show prosperity. If they get more of our money than we get of theirs, then we get a massive number of empty unused properties, a whole group of politicians that try to distract us with “entertainment†venues and a declining tax base with a higher percentage of our government budgets spent on public safety.
Every market has intrinsic advantages, when the world markets change, as they have in the last few decades, new opportunities arise that we as a community should be aggressively seeking out and planning to meet.
We need to be talking about what we do have and could have instead of all the great opportunities that got away.
We need to have a public dialog about who we are and how we can help each other to become a more healthy and prosperous community.
Years ago I was searching for a Habitat fundraising project that the west side church I was serving wanted to help build. In talking with a banker friend, who used to sell horseradish jelly through his banks teller window to support the local food bank, he told me that Evansville was centrally located in one of two growing areas in the country that put the perfect snap in horseradish. Who would have guessed? Apparently we grow a very desirable ginseng root as well.
Evansville’s first real prosperity came from the virgin hardwood forest up and down the Ohio River. We had many prosperous lumber mills and furniture manufacturers. The best lumber trees were cut and the worst were left in the woods to reproduce.
Purdue University has developed a Black Walnut veneer grade tree that matures in 35 years. By some reports, at maturity, each properly cared for acre would have 90 veneer grade trees with a potential value of $10,000.00 each. Instead of paying someone else to do a study and tell us what we lack, why don’t we just use the money to plant Black Walnuts on 550 acres of our 2,300 acre park system. In 7-10 years we should be able to bond the “crop†for enough to make a large down payment on our CSO repairs.
Other resources we might capitalize on… potable water, kaolin, bio-mass, aerated concrete, shale gas, plastics, coal, etc…..
We need to find our edge and sharpen it, economically, socially and politically…it is our future, we need to own it!!!!!
IS IT TRUE? August 14, 2011
IS IT TRUE that the latest SNEGAL trick that the banking industry has implemented is called the “direct deposit loanâ€?…that the “direct deposit loan†works like a fee based practice known as “payday†loans that have been documented to have fees and interest that can yield effective interest rates in the hundreds of percent?…that this latest little SNEGAL scam plays on loyal customers who happen to have checking accounts with direct deposit?…that the fees for calling or going on line to access this SERVICING are typically between 5% and 10% of the “direct deposit loanâ€?…that this SNEGAL trick was recently exposed by the Wall Street Journal with Wells Fargo Bank, US Bank, and Fifth Third Bank used as prime examples of businesses that are working hard to grow “direct deposit loansâ€?…that in the case of Wells Fargo the fee for such a transaction is $1.50 for every $20 advanced?…that for a person that is paid weekly and chooses to be SERVICED on a Monday to the tune of $37.50 to get a “direct deposit loan against Friday’s $500 paycheck that the effective interest rate is 7.5% per week?…that a person with a weekly need for being SERVICED in this SNEGAL manner would pay $1,950 per year to keep $500 in front of the payday for an effective interest rate of 290%?…that this excludes day to day interest charges and assumes a duration of a week for each loan?…that we encourage our readers to reject even the option to choose to be SERVICED by USURY and PREDATORY practices like “direct deposit loansâ€?
IS IT TRUE that our very own AK STEEL has been featured in a national publication as an undervalued company that may provide higher than expected returns when and if a recovery ever happens?…that no one smart enough to be interested in an investment like AK STEEL would ever consider allowing themselves to be SERVICED by a bank with a “direct deposit loan†with its exorbitant fee?
IS IT TRUE that in all of the celebratory mood surrounding the contract that has finally been signed by the Evansville IceMen that the reported agreement between the City of Evansville and VenuWorks has been overlooked?…that the IceMen’s agreement was for 5 years and thus needed the voting approval of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission to be valid?…that now that VenuWorks is under a not yet released contract that the sale of multiyear contracts for premium seating and sponsorships can begin in earnest?…that there are no minutes to any public meetings that contain references to the approval of any contracts for premium seating or sponsorships by the ERC, therefore there can be no valid contracts executed?
IS IT TRUE that we stand beside our opinion that much of the build up by Mr. Kish about sold out seats that mainstream media has swallowed like a pitcher of Kool-Aid is thus far hype?…that we expect in the very near future that these sweetheart deals with cronies will come forward for approval by the ERC and that the people of Evansville may never ever be offered the opportunity to purchase premium seating in the Arena that they borrowed money to pay for?…that this kind of cronyism is part of the legacy of the “OLD BOY POLITICS†that has substantially contributed to the arrested development of the City of Evansville?…that the premium seating should have and still should be exposed to public markets before approving even one private contract that was acquired by back room political tactics?
NOTICE OF REGULAR MEETING OF
THE EVANSVILLE LOCAL PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT BOND BANK
¬¬TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2011 AT 12:00 P.M.
ROOM 307
CIVIC CENTER COMPLEX
ONE N.W. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. BOULEVARD
EVANSVILLE, INDIANA
The Board of Directors of The Evansville Local Public Improvement Bond Bank will meet to conduct such business as may properly come before it on August 16, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. in Room 307 of the Civic Center Complex, One N.W. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Evansville, Indiana.
For further information, contact Jenny Collins, Executive Director, The Evansville Local Public Improvement Bond Bank, 300 Civic Center Complex, One N.W. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Evansville, Indiana 47708-1833; Telephone: (812) 436-4919.
Trafficestimate.com pure visits places CCO ahead of 14wfie.com for first time
The tabulations for monthly internet traffic published through August 6th by Trafficestimate.com have propelled the City County Observer past the Indianapolis Star and the Louisville Courier Journal for time online when Alexa.com’s one month time online per visitor is combined with it to form a product indicating pure time online.
The City County Observer leads these media sites with a product of 10.4 Million, followed by Indystar.com with 7.7 Million, the Louisville Courier Journal with 3.6 Million, and the Evansville Courier Press with a respectable 3.2 Million.
Alexa.com’s one month trailing time per visitor ranks that City County Observer at an eye popping 77.59 minutes with the Evansville Courier Press at 6.50 minutes, the Louisville Courier Journal at 3.62 minutes per visitor, and the the Indianapolis Star’s Indystar.com site captivating its visitors for 4.22 minutes each.
Trafficestimate.com reports that the City County Observer now is attracting visits at a rate of 133,700 per month while the Courier Press, the Courier Journal, and the Indianapolis Star websites come in at 494,000, 985,200, an 1,827,700 respectively.
References:
IS IT TRUE? August 13, 2011
IS IT TRUE that a Facebook post on the site called “Evansville Community Tennis Association†is gleefully stating that the materials to start building the indoor tennis courts at Wesselman Park have been ordered?…that there is some level of complication and even controversy about whether or not their contract to build anything has been breached?…that there are other details like submitting a design for approval, getting permits, getting the approval of the appropriated government bodies, etc. that should certainly be completed and verified before any materials were ordered?…that if the ECTA is delusional enough to order materials before getting written permission and permits to proceed then that tells us something?…that the post is as follows:
“I received some very good news this evening from two (2) highly reliable sources…the materials for the indoor tennis facility at Wesselman Tennis Center have been ordered!!!! Sounds like the countdown to indoor tennis by ECTA has begun!!!! WAY TO GO, ECTA BOARD and all the other non-board members who’ve devoted much time/energy and more to making this dream a reality! On behalf of our entire tennis community, THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK and DILIGENCE!!!â€
IS IT TRUE that the Evansville IceMen finally have a deal that they are pleased with that officially makes them the hockey team in the new Evansville Arena?…that the deal reflects much confidence on the part of Ron Geary and the IceMen that hockey will be a major attractor of fans in the new Arena?…that the deal is more complicated and a bit more risky than what the simple two sentence plan that the City County Observer had suggested?…that when it comes to private enterprise and negotiations that what we really wanted to see is a deal that Ron Geary and the Evansville IceMen are enthusiastic about?…that we plan on attending some games ourselves and encourage the people of Evansville to come out and support our hockey team?…that if Ron Geary is happy with the deal then the CCO is happy with the deal?…that we are even going to get out or our normal mode and offer congratulations and thanks to the Evansville Redevelopment Commission for intervening and accelerating the signing of a deal that the IceMen see as a partnership with the City of Evansville?…that we say THUMBS UP to the Evansville IceMen and the ERC?
IS IT TRUE that we are relieved and feeling safer already since we now know that both candidates for Mayor of Evansville opposed meth labs?…that at least 80% of the decisions that government makes are decisions that can be made by a rational mind and that opposing the manufacturing of meth is rational position?…that opposing meth making is not policy and that we encourage both candidates to get on board with Evansville City Councilman Dan McGinn in his crusade to disrupt the material supply chain of the key ingredient in the meth making process?…that over the counter products that contain pseudoephedrine should be prescription based
IS IT TRUE that with all of the drugs that are near the expiration date for their patents that some American drug companies like Pfizer and Merck should seize the opportunity to obsolete pseudoephedrine based medicines altogether with a new patentable formulation?…that maybe something in the Federal Lab Consortium patent portfolio would be applicable to such an effort?…that GAGE has a tech transfer agreement that enables them to make the FLC patent portfolio available to businesses within a 28 county area around Evansville?…that to do that they need the technical talent available to read and understand patents and to recognize the not yet identified potential of local businesses?…that politics and self limiting policies are keeping them from even considering such things?
August 12, 2011
For Immediate Release: Response to Rick Davis’ Proposed Meth Solutions
Members of the Media:
I am encouraged that Rick is following our lead on this issue, but his announcement today charts an uncertain course for the city. He rightfully suggests working closely with our local legislators on methamphetamine issues at the Statehouse. However, I firmly believe this is an issue for law enforcement, and while well-intended, the idea that voluntary enforcement can discourage criminals who are already enterprising enough to circumvent current state law is highly dubious. Further regulation is only part of the answer. We must start by educating our youth, schools, and the community at large to the destructive power of meth. We must also focus on giving our police and fire departments the tools they need to tackle the problem and relentlessly pursue the people perpetrating this menace in our neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Winnecke
