We’re looking forward to a busy week in New Albany.
Tuesday, May 17
The S. Ellen Jones Neighborhood Association meets at 6:30 p.m. at S. Ellen Jones Elementary School, and it has invited members of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association to attend and greet a very special guest.
It’s 3rd District Councilman Steve Price, who will be attending this meeting only two days before he casts votes critical to the city’s future … but will his “handler” dare to permit Price to comment on an increasingly regressive voting record and the fumbling public advocacy of positions that aren’t favored within the 3rd District?
Verily, only The Cappuccino knows for sure.
Word on the street is that Price’s politically conjoined benefactor, 1st District Councilman Dan Coffey, fears the messy outcome of an unscripted meeting between Price and his constituents.
Recognizing that Edgar Bergen remains dead and thus is unavailable for the job, Coffey plans to attend the meeting, presumably intent on performing selected arias from the “Bloviate’s Shuffle” while protecting his acolyte, Price, from well-deserved scrutiny.
Previously on NA Confidential:
The Coffey/Price dumbumvirate's rear-guard action against progress
This just in: Council's Coffey announces Anschluss with city's 3rd District, appoints Price as property manager, announces "drainage in our time"
Also on Tuesday, May 17
“Pizza and Preservation: Keeping the Paint on Your Historic Home,” at the Carnegie Center from 6:15 - 8:30 p.m. Call the Historic Landmarks Foundation at 812-284-4534 for reservations.
Thursday, May 19
Our City Council meets at 7:30 p.m.
A divided council (and for this meeting, a shorthanded one) must come to grips with a plan proposed by Mayor James Garner and the City Controller, Kay Garry, to balance New Albany’s books in accordance with Indiana state directives.
Otherwise, layoffs and cuts in services will begin on June 1.
First-reading approval has been given to two of the three main planks that comprise the Garry Plan, but the third, a short-term loan from the sewer utility, has become ensnared by factionalism, with New Albany’s “no progress at any price” band of flat-earthers dancing joyously to the syncopated rhythms of Coffeyist demagoguery, while lone Republican Mark Seabrook scans his dog-eared copy of “Hamlet” and studies the rhetorical tea leaves.
As usual, caught without coherent or constructive ideas of their own, opponents of the Garry Plan have sought to dismember the Scribner Place project, which in reality is to attack progress, progressive thinking, and progressives -- something so transparently obvious that even the New Albany Tribune sees it.
Stay tuned for more important information about the Thursday evening City Council meeting.
And please contact your council representative.
Recent Volunteer Hoosier commentaries on this topic:
Running Scared
Frontal Assault on Common Sense
Mugging
Adopt the Garry Plan
Friday, May 20
Book signing for “Temples of Knowledge: Andrew Carnegie’s Gift to Indiana,” by Alan McPherson. 6:00 p.m. at Destinations Booksellers.
Saturday, May 21
The Da Vinci Downtown festival.
http://www.developna.org/news.htm
The Tribune’s Kyle Lowry wrote about the festival in the newspaper’s Sunday edition, but the link has not been posted as of this writing.
I've removed Tim Deatrick's previous post because it contained an unfortunate mistruth. However, in the interest of fairness to Tim, who of course would never exercise the same consideration in return (CONCERN TAXPAYER, where are you now?), here is the complete text with only the untruthful passage removed.
ReplyDeletetim deatrick said ...
"Once again Mr. Blogspot host, (words deleted), you show your inability to face the reality of the true financial situation brought on by not the previous administration but the current mismanaged Garner administration.
"Bottom line they overspent and now he wants to take a "short term" loan from the sewer utilty, a board that said no to him 4-1.
"The city is being further scrutinized by the EPA for possible non-compliance issues and a sub-contractor is bringing suit for a change order dispute. Both compelling reasons to leave the sewer utility intact.
"If the EPA situation leads to legal disputes I doubt the sewer board attorney will be retained, most attorneys who usually represent municipalities with EPA experience run about $350 per hour. The city spent over $3,000,000 negotiating the consent decree that The EPA expects to be adhered to.
"And you and the Mayor want to take $500,000 from that fund to pay for Garner's incompetent fiscal management?
"I hope you are prepared to finance a $16,000,000 million dollar fine the EPA will assess if we dont fix the sewers as agreed
Tim "Dances with Truth" said:
ReplyDelete"Now he (Garner) wants to take a 'short term' loan from the sewer utilty, a board that said no to him 4-1."
But isn't it the case that there actually was no vote at all, and therefore, could not have been a 4-1 vote "against," because there wasn't a motion made to vote?
That's not splitting hairs, either. How very disappointing coming from someone whose by-line continues to appear in the Tribune in spite of "attribution malfunctions."
Not that I didn't try ...