Enjoy The 4th
I hope everybody is enjoying their 4th of July. Earlier today I went down to the rifle range at Huntington and celebrated my 2nd Amendment rights. Tonight, like most people, I will shoot off a few fireworks and watch the IPFW show. Whatever you do, don’t end up like I did a few years ago. After years of shooting fireworks without incident I had a whole string of knockoff blackcats blow up in my hand.
It hurt like hell, and my hand was blistered something fierce, but I refused to go to the emergency room to be counted as a statistic in the July 5th paper. So just remember to set those suckers on the ground before lighting them off…
Happy Father’s Day
This is the first year I get to celebrate Father’s Day. I’m not usually a big fan holidays in general as they seem to be overrun with commercialization that fails to capture the essence of what the day should be about. Instead of going into a rant I’ll simply say that I really did enjoy this one - at least until I had to watch my baby get on an airplane. Oh well, there will be many more opportunities in the future.
Happy Father’s Day to all you dad’s out there - including my own.
Now back to our regular scheduled programming of contempt, outrage and cynicism…
Tornado Tears Through Kansas State
This evening I received the news that my alma mater was struck by an EF4 tornado last night. The storm tore through the city of Manhattan and caused $20 Million in damages at the university. Many of the buildings that were damaged were ones I spent a significant amount of time in when I was there. Most of the time these stories seem so far away but this one struck a little closer to home and I’m thankful that there appears to be no serious injuries at the university. Unfortunately two people were killed in town just outside of Manhattan. You can see photos (like the one below) from the storm at the Manhattan Mercury’s website…
Amherst Storage
Citizens Allowed to Speak On Citilink Resolution… Eventually (video)
At last night’s meeting councilman Harper attempted to have the citizens that showed up to support the Citilink resolution speak before council. However, councilman Didier and clerk Kennedy tried to shut it down by saying that it wasn’t a legal public hearing. Harper pointed out that citizens can speak any time as long as the council allows it - legal public hearings are simply those times in which the council must allow citizens to speak.
Didier eventually came around and his argument really seemed to be that there wasn’t any reason to have the public speak since the resolution already had the support of the full council. Harper and Karen Goldner then rightfully pointed out that several citizens had waited nearly two hours to speak and they should be given the opportunity.
Clerk Sandy Kennedy was also opposed to allowing the citizens to speak because they didn’t follow the appropriate process of calling her or Didier before the meeting. She felt it would be unfair to allow these citizens to speak when previous individuals had been turned down for not following the proper procedure.
The quote of the night came from Harper:
Frickin DVR
For some reason my DVR didn’t record tonight’s city council meeting despite the fact that it’s recorded the last umpteen meetings. So there won’t be any video in the posts tonight but I’m attempting to record the 7am replay so hopefully I’ll have video up Wed evening. Sorry for the technical difficulties…
Kudos To Mayor Henry & SACS Students
I don’t think any traditional media outlet covered this story but I think it shows what kind of person Mayor Tom Henry is. On May 1st the Fort Wayne Jewish Federation observed Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). For those that might not have heard of this day here’s how the FWJF described it in their May newsletter:
Let us take time to pause and remember those who died and those who survived, yet suffered through this unprecedented time in history. We must remember…and we must remind people everywhere–that evil happens because of intolerance and indifference. As citizens of a great democracy, we must understand the importance of seeing that high moral standards prevail. As the years pass and the eyewitnesses to that terrible time are gone…we are faced with the question: Who will remember?
The Service of Remembrance commemorates the memory of the nearly six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered on the whim of an ideology and the simmering anti-Semitism of Europe.
Mayor Henry was the first mayor of Fort Wayne to have ever attended the event. He did it with no fan fare, publicity or press release. So I tip my hat to Mayor Henry and may future mayors follow his example in observing this day of commemoration.
Also, several students from Southwest Allen Community Schools won the sixth annual “We Must Remember” essay and poetry contests associated with the event:
HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST
1st Place – David Greco, Homestead High School
1stPlace – Molly Zweig, Homestead High SchoolMIDDLE SCHOOL POETRY CONTEST
1st Place – Hanita Epstein, Woodside Middle School
2nd Place –Nicholas Litchin, Summit Middle School
3rd Place – Christopher Busack, Summit Middle School
Congratulations to these students for their outstanding essays and poems.
H/T - Charles Langley
City Pools Open For Memorial Day Weekend
From the city’s press release:
McMillen and Northside Pool to Open - Fort Wayne, IN: McMillen Pool will open Sunday, May 25 at 1:30pm and Northside Pool will open Saturday, May 24 at 12:30pm. The pools will be open for Memorial Day weekend with $1 admission each day.
It also notes that all pools will open on May 31st. Seems like it might be a little chilly for swimming tomorrow but what do I know…
County Tells Harper They Want To Increase Taxes But They Don’t Want To Be Held Accountable
The gist of this bridge maintenance discussion is that the county can raise the wheel tax but a major portion of that increase will go to the city. So the county is requesting that the city agree to send revenue from this tax increase back to the county so they can use the money for bridge maintenance. But councilman Mitch Harper gets the county council to admit that they really want two things from the city
- An agreement from the city to reallocate the city’s portion of the increase wheel tax revenue back to the county for bridge maintenance
- A resolution from the city asking the county council to raise the wheel tax
Yes you read that right. The county has the responsibility and authority to raise taxes to pay for bridge maintenance but they want to try and dodge that responsibility by getting all the municipalities to send them resolutions requesting the tax increase. Nearly this entire mess is the county’s doing and if they want to raise taxes to fix it then they should have the courage and political will to do so. Attempting to blackmail the municipalities is nothing short of political chickenshit - and yes that’s a technical term…
Councilman Smith Educates Paula Hughes On Maplecrest-Ardmore Differences
County councilwoman Paula Hughes tried to compare the Ardmore Extension project with the wasteful $55 million Maplecrest Extension and even went as far as calling it a mirror image. Councilman Smith didn’t like the comparison and explained quite eloquently that there is actually no similarity whatsoever…
Silence From the JG Is Very Telling Isn’t It?
As readers here know the county council had a public hearing yesterday to discuss the wasteful $55 million Maplecrest Extension project among other items. Although if you only read the Journal Gazette then you wouldn’t even know this discussion took place. They had no story about yesterday’s county council meeting whatsoever.
Now I’m no conspiracy theorist but at some point you have to question what’s going on over there. This is a massive project proposed by the county commissioners and the county council spent a significant amount of time grilling them and the authors of their economic impact study. Yet the JG just happens to decide that’s not newsworthy?
Just for fun here’s a few other storys the JG did decide were newsworthy:
- An Orland lawsuit was settled for $5k
- 2 People were arrested for drugs
- Construction continues at the children’s zoo
- A check forger got 2 years in the slammer
You get the point.
It certainly appears that the editorial board is unduly influencing the reporters on this subject as it’s unbelievable that a reporter could sit through that meeting and not write anything about the Maplecrest Extension discussion. I would suggest readers turn their attention away from the JG and towards the News Sentinel’s Kevin Leininger as he appears to be doing his job.
