Saturday, May 30, 2009

A GREAT DAY FOR A HEALTH CARE SEMINAR

The health care seminar was a great success. All of our speakers were very eloquent and enthusiastic as well as the audience. The attendance was better than expected and everyone showed a lot of interest.

Rep. John Conyers was fantastic as well as the always entertaining Dr. Rob Stone. Dr. Claudia Fegan just blew everyone away.

Thank you to everyone on the Kentucky and Indiana committees.

Friday, May 29, 2009

EVERYBODY IN NOBODY OUT

There have been several news releases about this event but I just want to remind everyone because this is so important. There will be a health care seminar at IUS in the Hoosier Room tomorrow from 8:30 to 12:30. Yes, I know this is early for a Saturday morning but I can guarantee that this is worth it.
The impressive list of speakers include:

Representative John
Conyers (D-Mich) author of House Bill 676.

Representative John
Yarmouth (D-KY) one of 88 congressional co sponsors of the bill.

Dr. Claudia
Fegan of Chicago, past president of PNHP.

Dr. Rob Stone of
Bloomington, state director and founder of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.

On a personal note, I joined this group because I felt sorry for the uninsured people including members of my family and friends. I felt fortunate to have "good" insurance (Anthem) which was provided by my employer. Of course over the years the premiums have increased drastically and so my employer was forced to select a lower level of coverage. It was either that or ask the employees to contribute to a portion of the premiums.


I had a real wake up call a few days ago. I had out-patient surgery on April 30. No big deal, right? Not until I received my bill from Floyd Memorial that is. After Anthem paid the hospital approximately $5,000 and the hospital wrote off around $4,000 I was left with a bill of $2,367.25 or
only $2,130.53 if paid before June 13. Needless to say I don't anticipate benefiting from the 10% discount. It just goes to show, you might think you have decent coverage until something happens, then you realize you don't have such great insurance. I know, I work as a medical biller and should have checked out my policy beforehand. But I'm just like a lot of other people. I don't think about something until it happens. Besides, I had little choice, my gallbladder was screaming "get me out of here".

So please come to the seminar tomorrow and hear the truth about single payer health care, not the propaganda on TV and in the papers.

Friday, May 22, 2009

10K COUNCIL MEETING

There was a marathon city council meeting last night, at least I felt like I had run a marathon, and all I did was sit there and take notes.

The council managed to pass 10 Resolutions and Ordinances and table one. That one of course was the sewer agreement changes with Georgetown. After listening to several residents, a council member, Billy Stewart, and two Commissioners, Steve Bush, and Chuck Frieberger, CM Zurschmeide rightfully tabled the Ordinance.

Among the Ordinances and Resolutions passed were R-09-10 authorizing the purchase of 8 new police cars, the Ordinance for additional appropriation of the EDIT Fund of $75,000, and the Ordinance amending the previous Ordinance regarding cleanliness of premises. This gives more strength to the Code Enforcement Officer.

The council also approved an amendment to the parking fee Ordinance raising the fee from $100 to $150 per year for downtown residents and business owners. And they will continue to collect old parking tickets. And CM Gonder's Resolution promoting the Smart Growth America Program passed 9-0.

All in all a busy and productive meeting without too much turmoil.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

AREN'T WE FORGETTING SOMETHING?

As we all know, there is a lot of planning on New Albany's agenda. The Lopp project in the west end, the New Horizons project downtown, the expansion of the Greenway and the Loop Islands.

All of this is very exciting but we are forgetting one important part of New Albany's demographic, our youth. The current Youth Shelter on Grantline Rd. is
still falling down and nobody is doing anything about it. It seems that eveybody is caught up in all of these shining new buildings and thinking about how that will increase their property value and make New Albany a more viable place to live. This is all true but our most vunerable children still live in squalor. The space currently occupied by the City-County Building is needed to expand the jail. Maybe if we help our children while they are still children we would not need so much space to house adult offenders. The Commissioners and the County Council really need to revisit this issue.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

ANYBODY WANT TO BUY AN HISTORIC BUILDING?

No this is not a crack at the Mayor. I think it is a great idea that the city wants to unload these properties that cannot be used.

I do hope that restrictions are placed on the sale so the buildings will keep their integrity under new ownership.

Any thoughts?

Thursday, May 7, 2009

POLICE CARS AND THE "TAKE HOME" POLICY

Councilman Price took a lot of heat about his decision to table the ordinance concerning the appropriation of funds to purchase new police cars.



I must agree with him on this one. If some of the police officers did not drive their squad cars out of New Albany the cars might last longer. I understand the reasoning about having the cars in plain sight at all times and having their equipment handy in case of emergency. But if an officer lives outside of New Albany, much less Floyd County, it makes no sense to take the car home since the officer will be out of his/her jurisdiction.



I was told by a retired fire official that several years ago it was mandatory that an applicant be a New Albany resident to be hired by the New Albany Police or Fire Department. While that policy might not be practical today, it would make sense for this rule to apply to take home cars.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

COUNCIL MEETING 5/4/09

I must apologize for missing last night's council meeting. I had minor surgery last Thursday and was not up to going. This is especially true since I returned to work this morning, at 6:00AM no less.

So if anyone wants to report, please feel free to do so.

thanks,

Shirley