Excitement is building this weekend as all over Evansville council members are paging through their huge homework bundle of pink paper and preparing for a monster of a Common Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept 13, at 6:30PM in the 3rd floor chambers. Even Vegas is taking bets on how long this meeting will last....If you can attend this "historic" meeting, it is ok to bring coffee if it is properly covered, but no sleeping bags are allowed.
And----at the very end of the meeting, in closed session, the real excitement will begin---although the public will not see it.
The agenda printed for the meeting says,
"The Council will discuss the potential sale or other disposition of property owned by the city, the potential acquisision of property elsewhere in the city for, among other things, an expansion of the Eager Free Public Library, a new youth center, new senior center, or a new police station. ......"
The Observer has long argued that the four "walls" of the structure that is Evansville are the schools, the park, public safety and the library. I have also proposed a centralized EMS, FIRE and Police facility that would unite these folks. With proximity comes better communication. In some cities, these separate units all talk on diffeent frequencies. Eventually, Evansville is going to have to create something that shows how much we appreciate their service, and not just cheer them during the parades. So---I am all ears on the happenings of the closed session.
Stay tuned to the Observer for the latest news. You get the news when it happens, not a week later. The Observer, where you have answers....I have questions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Maybe Mr.Woulfe could get us a update on this building, as our daughter asks every other time we go to the park, when we are going to be able to 'there'. I don 't think it's big enough for alot of any real use, except for what it was intended for. Some of these issues that are going to be discussed are all part of Evansville's growth, they are going to happen, they need to happen. I think they need to proceed very CAREFULLY, there is no HURRY, I urge the council to take their time, show us a community that we do have a competent council and Mayor.
ReplyDeleteI think that sounds like a reasonable explanation for the closed meeting.
ReplyDeleteCueball you stated that you thought it would be nice if people would ask questions with out the baggage. The city has created this baggage. They need to be more forth coming with information without having to pry things out of them. We in the last two years have gone to meeting after meeting regarding a building project here in town, studied the site plan, asked questions about the site plan, etc. Now that the project is about done and we can see that this project does not comply with what was on the site plan, and we asked about why, are they being allowed to leave things as they are, we were told that they were some things on that site plan that did not meet city ordinance's thus, could not be done the way they are on the site plan , the way we were told they would be. Funny thing during all these meetings, not once did the planning commission mention during these meetings, no that won't work, they came to these ' conclusions' after the meetings, and never bothered to inform any of the neighbors of the changes, or why there were changes to begin with that were different from the original plan. Then they and you wonder why there is distrust and baggage. Plenty of reasons for it. I used to be a some what sane person before all of this.
ReplyDeleteI think Everyone has made some good points on these. Perhaps Cueball is correct and things aren't as they appear. Perhaps, alwayspackerfan is correct and people are less than objective on things they vote on.
ReplyDeleteI recall one plan commission meeting where there were strong objections from every citizen that made an appearance. The developer was told they could withdraw the plan and make modifications or they could proceed and would not be able to bring this proposal back for a year if it were denied. At that point the developers went into an office (off of the second floor where the meetings used to be held) to discuss what to do. Mayor Ringhand went with them and discussed this privately with the developer. Perhaps, it was completely innocent and she was strictly advising from a policy/procedure point of view as far as what the Plan Commission's ruling would be based on?
However, the Mayor and/or the PC shouldn't put themselves in these situations. Think about how it looks and don't give the impression that there is some impropriety going on. Tell the developer if they have any technical questions that would sway their decision they are welcome to come back out and ask them before they decide what to do. No one except the Mayor and the developers know what was discussed in that meeting. Fair or not, most people watching assumed the worst.