New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
Monday, April 08, 2019
In which Deaf Gahan regales public housing residents with ribald tales of the "superstar" Warren Nash.
On April 2 a "handful" of Mark Elrod Tower residents (the mayor's words, not ours) witnessed a full-throttle City Hall team in glorious campaign mode. Mayor Gahan, Gauleiter Duggins and BOWhisperer Nash each spoke.
In this excerpt, Gahan attempts to answer a question about Grant Line Road repairs.
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Question: "When is the anticipated finishing date on Grant Line, just to get it open without construction, whether there’s pot holes or not?"
Jeff Gahan: “Everything is supposed to be done by September. I’m talking about we have five roads under construction now, Market Street – we just tore that one up – uh, Grant Line Road, Mt. Tabor Road, Old Vincennes, yeah, and so they’re all supposed to be done by September, on top of the paving we’re going to do. So all this stuff is messy, I mean, change is messy, construction is messy, plans are hard, communicating is the toughest thing we do – the hardest thing we do is talk to people about, hey, this is what we’re trying to do, it’s hard to get out to 38,000 people and say hey, this is what we’re trying to do, yeah I know, this is good stuff, it’s not bad stuff, this is all good stuff, but you know, how many people do we have in this room, a handful? To have this one on one with people and to make ‘em feel good about their hometown, and say hey, they’re not all bad guys, we take money and all the resources we can get, we’re packing it into service, stuffing it into service to make sure it’s working for you. Uh, it’s difficult, it’s difficult, but we do this every day now, so that’s what we try to do, communicate like this, uh, I’m a little – I like this format a little bit better than typing things out on social media, but uh, you know it’s real, it’s real stuff, you guys, we’re a community that has a long history of caring about housing, and do all of you know this guy, who this guy is right here? This is former mayor Warren Nash, and he runs our -- Warren Nash is a superstar, he was the mayor when he was in his 30s, and you guys talk about that tower? Guess who was around, said let’s build that tower and give people a place to go? This guy, and he was way ahead of his time. Way ahead of his time. Nobody else was doing that stuff, Warren was. Warren serves every day at the board of works, every Tuesday the board of works, he deals with things just like this. What about this, what about that – what about this pothole, how about that stop sign, how are we going to build this road, why are you paving that road instead of this one. Hey, I got a sewer bill, can you help me with the sewer bill. That’s what Mr. Nash does every single Tuesday."
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For obvious reasons and maximum humor, these transcriptions will be kept brief.
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