Catching up with Cannelton, Part 2: Indiana Landmarks announces development opportunities in Cannelton.

Can-Clay outlined in red.

Catching up with Cannelton, Part 1: Recalling fun times at the Cannelton Heritage Festival.

NABC poured beer three times (2012, 2013 and 2014) at the Cannelton Heritage Festival. When Rob called in 2015, there wasn't much I could do to help him; my time at the brewery was drawing to a close, and I always knew our involvement wouldn't last forever.

I've no idea what happened next. It seems that Diana and I might have driven through Cannelton in 2016 for some reason, but this isn't clear, and in all likelihood four and a half years had passed since my last visit when Mark Cassidy invited me to accompany him on an errand to Tell City earlier this year. We planned lunch at the Pour Haus and Mark resolved to show me around his old haunts in Tell City.

After lunch, I suggested a Cannelton drive-through. Mark confided that it had been a very long time since his last time there. In all honesty, it looked like little had changed from 2014; Can-Clay must have just closed, and frankly the shuttered factory with its mounds of clay pipes reminded me of derelict sites in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s.

This is not to be taken as critical. Both Mark and I were deeply affected by the extent of the problems facing Cannelton. Obviously the city isn't unique in America. Perhaps those three festivals gave me a rooting interest in the outcome. 
Here's the Indiana Landmarks release that prefaced these ruminations.

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Cannelton Announces Development Opportunities

Indiana Landmarks is working with Cannelton city and economic development leaders on two projects that could help spur much-needed revitalization.

In the late 1800s, coal, cotton, and easy access to the Ohio River made Cannelton a bustling commercial center, its streets lined with handsome houses and commercial buildings. More recently, decades of economic decline have taken a heavy toll on the Perry County community, leaving many of those buildings vacant and landing the Cannelton Historic District on Indiana Landmarks’ 10 Most Endangered list two years in a row. Today, we’re working with the city and economic development leaders on two projects that could yield big results and help spur much-needed revitalization.

The first involves an unassuming-looking building targeted for demolition adjacent to Cannelton City Hall. Local preservation group Renew Cannelton and Indiana Landmarks convinced city officials to grant the building a temporary reprieve to see if a rehab-minded buyer would step forward. Built in 1855 as a German Methodist church at the corner of 7th and Taylor streets, the building occupies a key location in downtown Cannelton, where its redevelopment could have a big impact. The city is looking for a developer who will restore the building to its historic appearance and renovate the interior for office or commercial use. Proposals are due by Friday, September 27.

We’re also working with the City and the Perry County Development Corporation on a larger-scale project at the former Can-Clay property, now owned by the county’s redevelopment commission. The Can-Clay business closed earlier this year after more than a century of manufacturing clay sewer pipes and chimney flues. The city’s original plans called for clearing the 30-acre site in hopes of attracting new development, but Indiana Landmarks encouraged local leaders to see the property’s historic buildings – including a four-story factory and several beehive kilns – as assets that could be the centerpiece of a unique redevelopment. We’re currently applying with local community partners for a grant through the American Institute of Architects to develop a vision for the property.

Can-Clay factory, CanneltonTo learn more about either of these projects, contact Greg Sekula, director of Indiana Landmarks’ Southern Regional Office, 812-284-4534, gsekula@indianalandmarks.org.

Duggins: 100% compliance rate on tax abatements we seldom bother auditing.

Because after all, businesses can be trusted not to lie.

What we've learned since our friend Mark Cassidy began demanding simple attention to detail from city officials and the common council is that tax abatements have not always been filed correctly, with the incorrect filings being rubber-stamped along with the rest ... until Mark's questions started.

During meetings in August and September, the council tabled several abatement renewal requests because the forms were incomplete. The abatements had been suggested for approval by the administration, though they lacked information about job totals and other information.

“I think that if we’re going to give somebody a tax abatement, it’s not asking too much to have forms filled out correctly,” said Mark Cassidy, a New Albany resident who has asked the council and administration multiple times to pay closer attention to the abatements they reward.

By signing the forms, the companies are essentially promising that the job totals are correct. But how does the city really know?

“It’s illegal to sign an [abatement] form that’s not correct. That’s also true about filling out your income tax form, but they still do random audits of income tax forms,” Cassidy said.

It would create more public trust in the program if the city randomly audited the abatement-receiving businesses to ensure the job totals they are vouching for are correct, he continued.

In which case, if the forms cannot be filled out correctly, how do we know they're truthful in the sense of tax abatement conditions being fulfilled?

And, as such, how utterly vacuous is the highlighted statement by the city's chief tax abatement rewards desk clerk, David Duggins?

The city hasn’t voided any abatements since Mayor Jeff Gahan took office, and it’s quite uncommon for cities to take away a tax cut for a business, Duggins said.

Pulling an abatement could lead to a business closing its doors, and so the city’s procedure has been to meet with companies struggling to match their job levels and assist them instead of ending their credits, he continued.

“No company [in New Albany] has warranted having their abatement removed,” he said.

But if no one ever checks the veracity of the information, how can there be this level of certainty?

Is there a magic wand?

If so, might it be wielded in the general direction of independent local businesses in downtown, which have collectively enabled the ongoing revitalization that this and other administrations love to take credit for impelling, but have actually done next to nothing to assist, because there is no economic development plan for downtown New Albany?

The article: New Albany touts tax abatements; some want more oversight, by Daniel Suddeath (Royse City Herald Banner)

Redistricting in 2009, 2012 and for as long as the Cappuccino is frothed.

It has been long established that to live in New Albany is to accept one fundamental axiom: The more things change, the more they stay the same, and so it is today that I provide you with more entertainment along these lines.

We begin with now, or more specifically, last week's council conclave.

Redistricting still a hot topic in New Albany; Work session renews gerrymandering accusations, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)


 ... Mark Cassidy was one of the 2008 redistricting committee members, and attended Thursday’s work session. He took exception with Coffey’s accusation that the committee had a politically motivated agenda when it formed its plan.


Cassidy yelled “that’s not true” as Coffey alleged the committee had gerrymandered the districts, and it wasn’t the first time the two had exchanged words about the topic.


When Coffey was council president in 2009, he cut off Cassidy while he was speaking during the public comment portion of a meeting. Cassidy was asking if the council intended to form another redistricting committee when Coffey interrupted him.


During that 2009 meeting, Coffey said the council only agreed to form the redistricting committee to “try to appease the group” that had filed the lawsuit ...

The late, lamented Highwayman -- Lloyd Wimp -- was there on January 15, 2009, and he provided a report to NA Confidential for publication the following day.

What The F@#* Opie? Ya Ain't Seen Nothun Yet!


 ... Then came the first round of the Headliner of the evening ie; Non-Agenda Items! Our good friend and comrade-at arms Mark Cassidy took the podium to ask this council to consider the US Constitutionally mandated redistricting of New Albany’s voting districts.


If you’ll recall, the previous Council’s prime objection was that action had been initiated without having first requested that they (the Council) do their duty. Mr. Cassidy was merely attempting to abide by the Council’s wishes by bringing it forward again.


However President Coffey was going to have none of it. He cut Mark off in mid sentence explaining that in these dire times there were much more important issues facing New Albany ...

Back in 2009, I missed the council meeting and subsequent eruptions, which were explained in greater detail in a column (January 29, 2009) I wrote for the Tribune -- you remember, the weekly column that was taken away from me when I did my civic duty and ran for council in the hope of keeping the violent copperhead shake closer at hand, and foolishly trusted the newspaper to keep its word?

Hot toadstools and cold cappuccino


... It is incredible, shameful and indefensible. New Albany’s council president refused to permit a citizen to speak during the time allotted for it, and then both verbally and physically accosted another citizen in a public place. Is there any better example of the New Albany Syndrome than Dan Coffey’s skewed perspective of “leadership,” as manifested by these lamentable outbursts?

Here we are, in 2012, and with the redistricting issue again at the forefront (those pesky constitutional obligations, council folk), CM Coffey's shamelessly waving the very same bloody shirt as before. He always will, just the same way as a cat endlessly regurgitates hairballs. But remember: It could be a lot worse, like it was when the Gang of Four terrorized decency and syntax hereabouts ...

REWIND: Council's smoke ban back in the late summer of '08 ...

... and an excuse to publish this photo of IAmHoosier and the late Lloyd Wimp, which I found this morning while going through old back-up discs. I miss Lloyd a lot, but it helps to remember him in his element, as pictured here.

A jeer to the school corporation for sending tax revenue elsewhere.

Seeing as the newspaper's random archiving generator missed it, here's one of those occasional "just for the record" moments: Loyal blog reader Mark Cassidy's Jeer in yesterday's Tribune.

JEERS ... to the NA-FC School Corp. for sending out a summer reading list and just listing "big box" stores such as those in Louisville. Are they not aware that sales tax revenue funds the schools and purchases at local book retailers add to that pie? Not to mention all the other benefits of buying local. Grade "F".

Did Tony Bennett and Mitch Baby approve this message?