SICK AROUND THE WORLD

Please join us Wednesday, October 15th at 6:30PM at the Library 180 W. Spring St. There will be a showing of Sick Around the World. a film by Frontline and T R Reid.

Healthcare is one of the most important issues today. And the members of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan support HR676.

See you there.

MEET THE CANDIDATES

COME TO THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS TONIGHT AT 6:00 AND MEET OUR LOCAL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES!!!!!!!!!!

DINE ON CHILI, HOT DOGS AND TOO MANY DESSERTS TO LIST. ALL FOR JUST $5.00.

SEE YOU THERE.

SHORT & SWEET

The council meeting of 10/6/08 was quite unusual. First it was quite short and secondly it was extremely pleasant, for lack of a better word.

The first item on the agenda was R-08-41 in which Mrs. Garry requested a loan of 1,000,000 from the TIF fund to cover salaries and other benefits. When asked why she did not borrow from the EDIT or Rainy Day funds she replied that these funds were already depleted. As everyone knows, the tax bills have not been prepared so our tax revenue is down considerably.

We are due for installments of TIF and CAGIT from the State in November, this should see us through until the end of the year.

The Resolution was introduced by CM Messer and seconded by CM Coffey and passed unanimously.

Next on the agenda was A-08-13 the $250,000 for storm clean up also passed 9-0. They even agreed to amend the rules and had all 3 readings last night.

The last item was G-08-09 which was to replace G-08-31 which had a few typo's.

For the most part all of the council members were so pleasant to each other and agreeable I thought I was either in the wrong meeting or possibly in an alternate universe. Whichever, it was indeed a rare occasion.

BORROWING FROM POOR OLE PETE AGAIN

Tonight's City Council meeting is short but sounds interesting.

First of all Mr. Messer is sponsoring a resolution to transfer emergency funds to meet the payroll. R-08-41 It seems that since the property tax bills are so late in being prepared and mailed the property owners have not sent any money. Surprise Surprise.

I don't work in the City-County building but for the sake of those who do I hope the Council does not delay his resolution. Somehow I don't think these people's mortgage companies, and other creditors would be especially understanding during these times. And can you imagine going to Kroger with an I.O.U. to pay for your groceries?

As far as A-08-14 and G-08-09 I'm not clear on these two, they will just have to wait until tonight.

I'll be sure to take notes and pass the word along about the meeting. Please come to the meeting if you can, the more the merrier.

HELP FOR NEW ALBANY 101

City Clerk Marcey Wisman conducted a round table discussion today entitled Solutions for Indiana. We were supposed to be joined by some people from Indianapolis but they did not show up. So Marcey, Lloyd Wimp and I had our own discussion which was recorded by Daniel Suddeath of the Tribune.



Marcey was well prepared with many facts, some were familiar but several were new to me and I must admit rather shocking. Following is a synopsis of our discussion.

• The unemployment rate is the highest in 21 years, 6.4%. In January 2001 it was 3.6%.


• There was a loss of manufacturing jobs in Indiana of 109,800 from 2001 to 2007. Manufacturing jobs make up 28% of Indiana's GDP, 550,000 Hoosiers are employed in manufacturing jobs.


• John McCain voted for NAFTA but voted against job training funding bills SIX TIMES!


• Health care premiums have gone up 42% since 2000 and 13% of Hoosiers are without health care.


• John McCain wants to tax our employer furnished health care benefit as taxable income.


• Foreclosures are up 26% this year in Indiana.


• Barack Obama wants to pay dividends to taxpayers on any profit made by the bailout.


• Obama wants to create 2,000,000 new jobs for repairs to our nation's infrastructure, ie. roads, highways, bridges. This would add 42,000 new jobs to Indiana.


• Obama also wants to create 5,000,000 green jobs and establish a National Infrastructure Investment Bank which will enable people to invest in our infrastructure.

We also had a long discussion about our local economy. Marcey suggested that New Albany needs to find it's niche as far as how to market itself. We decided as a group that we are best suited as service orientated town. We may not have enough acreage for a huge auto plant but we have a lot of empty buildings which would work well for customer service companies. The first one that came to my mind was Heartland in Clark County. This is a company which services bankcard scanners and ATM owners. New Albany would be well suited for this type of business. These types of jobs are being farmed out to other countries. Have you ever tried to call your credit card company and talk to someone with an American accent?

We also talked about the condition of our streets and sidewalks. It is hard to walk down many of our streets without tripping over cracks and tree roots. And lo and behold our community development grants have been cut.

Another worrisome issue is home ownership. We all want to improve our ratio of home owners to renters but worry about how these homes will be financed.

Additionally we had a brief discussion about the Greenway project and the flood wall. We need to quit thinking of the flood wall as a barrier. The Clark County residents are very excited about their part of the Greenway. Are we going to continue to be Clark County's little sister?

I know that several groups are trying to put New Albany "on the map". We need the help from our elected officials. Please Mr. England and City and County Council members, we can't accomplish these goals without your help. Let's all work together to make New Albany a destination, not just a pass through to the Horseshoe Casino.

SPRING ST. HILL

Mayor England broke ground on the Spring St Hill project Friday. I know many people pushed for this street to be opened because it is one of the roads to access Silver Hills. I understand that they need quick access in case of a fire or someone needs an ambulance.

I just wish they had replaced the fire station on West Main which was torn down to accommodate the waste treatment plant expansion.

The Spring St. Hill road repair will cost $1,325,000. That's a lot of TIF money and block grants. How many people will this help? Yes, I know this was a campaign promise. But I can't help but wonder what could be done for the entire first district with ONE MILLION, THREE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS! I can't even imagine. Just think what could be done to help Pine View School, open a community center, create a park (with a playground), repair/restore/replace dilapidated houses, the list goes on. Call me a dreamer (or a fool).

IKE GOES THROUGH NEW ALBANY

Ike is gone but the devastation remains. We finally had our power restored late yesterday afternoon after losing all of the food in our refrigerator and much of our freezer. I know this is a small loss compared to what other residents lost.

My niece and nephew, who live in Sellersburg, told me yesterday that their power may be off until Friday, they said Sellersburg is like a ghost town. And tragically a woman and baby were killed when a tree fell on their car.

My church's steeple was damaged by the wind shortly after we left Sunday. Thank God no one was there, I heard the bell crashed through the roof.

I don't know if this is a fact but I heard that Indiana-American Water wants the power to be turned off again for a time so all of the energy will be diverted to their plant so the water can be purified. If anyone has more information on this please comment. Hopefully if this happens it will be on a schedule and we the residents will be notified so we can prepare.

But through is all, I want to thank all of the street department employees for their quick removal of trees and limbs and the Duke Energy employees who worked so hard to restore our power.

I will leave this open for further comments from any readers who wish to post.

Shirley