Posts Tagged “Fort Wayne”

Update: As predicated, WANE has killed all the comments on their article.

It looks like someone from WANE decided it wasn’t right for Emily Marini to essentially “lift” a story from this site for their use, (see here).

They decided to delete it and post a new story.

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Long, but worth the listen. Click here.

For the record, Dean is the brother of Vince Robinson, Fort Wayne Public Information Officer.

We promised a look at a few of the degrees of separation for Fort Wayne Board of Zoning Appeals and the Plan Commission. While this is not all encompassing, if time permits, we’ll have more.

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Here is a recap.

Jerry Henry, an honest guy, but a tough businessman, is said, by opponent Mark GiaQuinta, to be a principle of Earth First, the company which was low bidder for the city garbage contract. Gregg Walbridge, a real estate developer is the managing partner of the recently formed company. I heard a third name, but can not remember it. Earth First is also the name of the earth liberation people who burn buildings in Colorado. I love their work. This Earth First has no trucks and no dump, but can get a loan to rent trucks and will pay a dump fee to the Republic site. I also heard that there is a key player who owns the land to the north of the Republic dump who will greatly benefit from this as his land will now become more valuable, they say, I do not remember that name either, but the tax rolls should shed some light. GiaQuinta said the money in garbage is made by the landfill operator, not the hauler.

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Let there be war!

Last night Pat Roller, city controller, gave a PowerPoint presentation to city council as a preface to their work on the budget. Discussions have begun long ago, but the formal process is now underway and the next step will be a meeting next Thursday, October 1st.

Liz Brown was appointed by council president Tom Smith to manage the process and will chair the meetings. That, itself, could be the topic of a long dissertation, but in short, Brown has been the most critical of personnel costs, scrutinizes cost details of many projects, but seems quite angry when someone else criticizes expenditures she favors. It should be a lively discussion.

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Getting information out of the Henry administration here in Fort Wayne is harder than pulling teeth. Up in Fremont, they don’t seem to have that problem.

From WLKI.com

(FREMONT) – Efforts to get a referendum on next years ballot on whether or not Steuben County residents want a casino got a financial boost from the Fremont Town Council during a special meeting on Tuesday night. The Town Council agreed to initially commit $2,500 to the lobbying effort to get the issue on the ballot.

The Steuben County Economic Development Corporation has been working with local officials on trying to bring a casino to land on State Road 120 west of the Outlet Mall. Fremont Clerk-Treasurer Kathy Parsons says the money can be used out of CEDIT funds which are used to promote economic development.

Town Council President Loretta Smart said local officials had a positive meeting last Friday with casino owner Tom Barden. He runs the two Majestic Star Riverboat casinos near Gary and is looking to sell one of the licenses to a company that wants to locate a casino in northeast Indiana. In other business, the Town Council officially adopted the towns 2010 budget.

Looks like they’re full steam ahead.

This morning Vince Robinson, Fort Wayne Public Information Director issued a press release about Mayor Tom Henry’s budget for 2010.

2010 budget represents continuation of strong fiscal management of city services

Fort Wayne, Ind. – Meeting the challenge of doing more with less, Mayor Tom Henry has presented City Council with a balanced budget for 2010. At $132.2 million, 2010’s Proposed Civil City Budget comes in significantly lower than 2009’s $134 million budget. However, despite budgeting nearly $2 million in reduced expenditures, 2010’s fiscal plan contains no cuts in services to citizens.

Significant? How is 1.34% significant? If you look at the budget decrease, it’s almost the exact amount as the decrease in property taxes.

2009 receipts – 133,977,923
2010 receipts – 132,207,871 a drop of 1.32%

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By Jim Sack

The controversial toll bridge to the Embassy has a couple new wrinkles. First, it seems the city may well bow to public pressure to open the sky bridge so we rabble may enjoy what we have paid for. Secondly, the city has held on to this little secret for a year or more. Wonder why?

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By Jim Sack

It just seems so obvious. Marty Bender is a common council member and an employee of the city. His immediate boss is the chief of police, a great guy. His real boss is the mayor. They both, in essence, sign his pay check.

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Earlier today Ivy Tech terminated a friend of former Chancellor Keen, who worked on the Bliss Hall project, which is purportedly where Keen used school funds to rehab a nice living space for himself. Our original story is here.

From the News Sentinel:

Resigned Ivy Tech Chancellor Mark Keen will be forced to pay back to the school more than $5,700 for use of college resources and facilities, according to Keen’s release agreement.

Keen must reimburse the school, with a cashier’s check in the amount of $5,733.73, by July 1, and he will be required to return any college property he holds. The agreement also forbids Keen from pursuing any legal or equitable action against the college, and both Keen and the college shall not “disparage each other,” among other stipulations.

I guess the worker was ushered off campus without notice. Not being aware of the facts surrounding this worker’s release, it’s hard to surmise if the school might be unfairly discriminating.