IS IT TRUE December 7, 2012

IS IT TRUE that it has been over a year since then DMD Director Tom Barnett insisted on putting up a safety fence to protect the children of Evansville from the dangers associated with the big ROCK PILE left where the Executive Inn and its parking lot used to be?…Mr. Barnett was quite insistent that the ROCK PILE posed a serious danger and liability to the City of Evansville because kids like to play on ROCK PILES and sometimes hurt themselves doing so?…the state of that lot right now since the ROCK PILE is gone and the fence has been installed makes Tom Barnett look like a visionary and a genius?…today, that lot is truly a serious danger yet the gate that Barnett built with his fence is unlocked so that children and adults can enter and injure themselves or even worse treat that lot the way the dregs of Evansville treat many of our one immaculate parks?…at least one concerned citizen left a message at for Mr. Barnett’s replacement regarding the dangers and did not even get a call back?…this well known local resident then went to the lot and took the pictures included in this IS IT TRUE for all to see in hopes that the City of Evansville will be awakened from their coma and actually fulfill Barnett’s dream of having a secure fence around that empty but degrading lot?

IS IT TRUE after passing undetected through the open gate shown in the picture that one has the opportunity to fall through an open manhole to serious injury or death?…a pond seems to be forming in the muck of an unmaintained lot behind the unlocked gate that poses a different kind of danger?…it is also disconcerting to find evidence that some of our dregs have been using the lot where a hotel was promised by the Weinzapfel Administration without public money in it as a place to booze it up?…the real tragedy is that we are not even surprised at the neglect within a rock throws distance of the Mayor’s office?

IS IT TRUE a tour of the public cemeteries reveals that the conditions of the tombstones has continued to deteriorate since the CCO exposed the neglect last summer?…the City Council did appropriate money to do some restorative work at the cemeteries but it does not look as though a darn thing has been done?…that the public cemeteries run by the City of Evansville must be using some of that restoration money to pay for banner ads in the Scripps Howard website in town seeking additional corpses to move into their unkempt graveyards?…that once again the City of Evansville has proven that when it comes to fluff and marketing they are all about it but when it comes to maintenance and awareness they are totally inept?…this is the bunch that would be spending over $10 Million on new parks and $25 Million to subsidize a convention hotel if the people of this town and 5 members of the City Council do not keep them in check?…we have also been advised that the wish list for a new hotel includes about 30,000 square feet of storage to be used by the Ford Center because there was not any significant storage included in the original design and that now they operators are finding themselves in need of storage?

IS IT TRUE there are rumors of a private developer interested in turning the civic center into a mall downtown?…if that were to play out, the government bodies currently in the civic center may look to go to the Old National building on Main Street?…the devil is in the details and it would need to make financial sense to the community’s taxpayers?…that a downtown mall helped transform downtown Indianapolis?…such a proposal would need a thorough vetting?…that this early proposal is not getting much traction from local leaders just yet?…that Mayor Winnecke was spotted touring the ONB building recently but we are not certain whether he was there to look for his next office or to determine the feasibility of converting it to a hotel?…with the number of square feet that the old ONB building has that has been empty for many years filling it up should take priority over building anything new including a convention hotel that requires a subsidy?…subsidizing a competitive business like a new hotel is seen by many local business leaders as “BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS” by the City of Evansville?…that doing so will leave a lasting state of disdain for government action with some local businesses?…the massive spending on temples to entertainment downtown has not inspired much investment?…the squandering of money meant for business on Front Door Pride houses that sit unsold by the Weinzapfel Administration has not impacted the prices of the existing homes around them, and the nearly $8 Million in government dollars spent at the old safe house has produced 30 or so apartments that would have a market value of less than a Million Bucks?…the moral of these stories is that the government needs to stay out of free markets?

IS IT TRUE Mole #9 and a few others tell us that Mayor Winnecke will not only be faced with a strong primary challenge in 2015 but that a well recognized Libertarian candidate will be on the ballot for Mayor of Evansville?…if Mayor Winnecke runs on his first year’s record that he better hope people place a high value on trash collection and exercise videos because those are the things he has proven himself capable of doing well?

IS IT TRUE of our “MOLES” were pleasantly surprised to see city employees, Ben Miller and Rose Young at the Aihua International Market on North Greenriver road around 5:45 P.M. yesterday? …they were doing the people’s business by helping a businessman to start a new business in a vacant building located on North Greenriver Road?…we say thank you Rose and Ben for working beyond the call of duty?

IS IT TRUE the staff of the Deaconess Gateway hospital has been doing an absolutely commendable job with respect to the reason this writer had to make a quick trip to Evansville?

IS IT TRUE the CCO filed three Freedom of Information requests with DMD, the City Of Evansville Controller’s office and the Water and Utilities Department today? …we were told by our well placed “Civic Center Moles” that the multi-million bookkeeping software is still not performing correctly

IS IT TRUE that the 8 day strike at the Port of Long Beach was finally settled and that the hundreds of cargo ships that have been sitting offshore in the Pacific Ocean can now be unloaded? …the strike affected nearly $5 Billion in cargo and was causing ripple effects in the trucking industry, the logistics industry, and the 10,000 people who work at the port who refused to cross the picket lines of the clerks? …that clerks at the Port of Long Beach earn a compensation package worth well over $150,000 per year with base pay of nearly $90,000 and some of the best benefits in the USA? …the settlement happens only hours after federal mediators were sent in?…we wonder just how rough the feds were intending to get with the unions that were disrupting nearly 40% of the imports and exports of the entire country? …one could easily conclude that the port workers have the country by the throat? …it is good that the port is opened and we hope it has a sustainable business model in place going forward?

IS IT TRUE that President Obama has made an offer to supposedly avoid the overhyped fiscal cliff and that the Republicans in congress have delivered a counter offer? …these positions are apart by roughly $800 Million on how much to raise taxes with the President’s offer being heavy on taxation and light on cutting spending? …neither proposal balances the budget or puts into place a situation to promote growth? …neither the President, the Republicans, or the Democrats in congress seem to have a clue about how to balance a budget or get out of the way of everyday Americans so this MADE IN WASHINGTON FISCAL CLIFF is eliminated the right way? …it seems like it is time to ignore the whole batch of these sons of witches and get on about personal prosperity one person at a time? …the dance with governments being able to do something good for the economy is over and the easiest route to a decent life is to pretend these two packs of jackals to not exist?

IS IT TRUE speaking of a no confidence in local government there are a few people telling us that there may be an effort to remove Mayor Winnecke from office for failing to do his fiduciary duty and balanced the budget with a known set of reconciled books? …he surely is not the originator of this unbalanced books problem when it comes to Mayors of Evansville as this whole fiasco started under ex-Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel? …if it takes drastic action to get to the bottom of this embarrassing fiasco and get a solution in place then so be it? …if such a thing happened in the real world of business there would have been firings by now? …all government needs to relearn the lesson that they have bosses and that serving the people that vote for them is their job? …this is not happening locally or nationally? …the State of Indiana has been run fiscally among the best in the country under Governor Daniels who will leave office at the end of this month? …we hope the state continues to function well as many others are not? …that unfortunately a well run state does not isolate the people of the state from the economic ineptness of local and federal governance?