Bank Street Brewhouse closed tonight, to resume normal hours on Wednesday.

Sometimes you just can't buy a break. You just have to laugh it off.

We can't open NABC Bank Street Brewhouse tonight (Tuesday) because the toilets are malfunctioning. Plumbers are on the way, but it looks to be a longer fix than a merely temporary closure. We'll be back tomorrow morning and try again.

Verily, this s**t is getting old (pun fully intended).

Good news: Indiana American Water is investigating last Friday's water outage calamity at the Pizzeria & Public House. So is our attorney.

Why us? Because Pogo was right, that's why.

Was City Hall in attendance, and did anyone from local government speak? What is the effect of this proposal on neighborhood revitalization? Are we at the crisis saturation point where there are simply too few (and far too exhausted) activists favoring a civil (as opposed to troglodyte) society to overcome the obstructionist looters?

Hundreds attend NA-FC's meeting on proposed school closures, by Tara Hettinger (Tribune).

Parents came to the New Albany High School Auditorium on Monday night, with many opposed to a plan by the school system to close elementary schools because of budget constraints.

State Representative Ed Clere's viewpoint was written prior to the meeting and published today.

CLERE: Let's point forward instead of fingers

... The state has accepted responsibility for funding schools, and we must fulfill that commitment. We cannot, however, deny economic reality. We're in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The last time we experienced such economic challenges there was a striking Richardsonian Romanesque elementary school at the corner of Vincennes and Shelby streets.

Finally, here is Shane Gibson's take. Gibson will be Clere's opponent in the House election this coming November.

Gibson on education: Takin' it to the state.

The Indiana Legislature in the final days of session is attempting to develop solutions to the education funding fiasco created by themselves and the recent cuts in education from Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Gibson on education: Takin' it to the state.

To my knowledge, this is city attorney Shane Gibson's first Tribune contribution since being offered what amounts to "equal time" (whether or not is is being defined explicitly as such) by Coach K.

Note that this even matters because Gibson (D) is contesting the House seat currently held by Ed Clere (R). I've spoken to both candidates during the past few days, and foresee an entertaining and informative race come summer.

GIBSON: All schools should be created equal, by Shane Gibson (Tribune).

... In simple understandable terms, does anyone think that a 4.5 percent decrease in funding is going to have the same effect on the daily operations of the Monument Lighthouse School who received a 45.17 percent increase for the year 2010 when compared to New Albany-Floyd County Public Schools? Monument Lighthouse will now only see about a 40.67 percent increase. On the other hand, New Albany-Floyd County Schools, after being shoved a .20 percent increase in comparison, will now have a decrease in funding for the year of -4.30 percent.

Final Monday reminder: Proposed school closing discussion.

Rather than confuse matters by starting a new thread, please revert to this post to join the discussion: Troubled by proposed school closings?

If I had the time to do more right now, I would. Work just has to come first. Sorry about that.

Reminder: Proposed school closing discussion.

Rather than confuse matters by starting a new thread, please revert to this post to join the discussion: Troubled by proposed school closings?

Troubled by proposed school closings? Meeting today, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Destinations Booksellers to organize, exchange & strategize.

Sorry if a garble something here, but this is breaking as I write, and I want to get the message out.

Destinations/Dueling Grounds is making space available from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. TODAY (doors open a bit before and after these times) for a meeting for ANYONE to come and organize/discuss ideas/exchange strategies about prospective school closings. Drinks will be available from the cafe.

Note that NA Confidential is happy to offer this blog space for publishing anything that neighborhood organizers wish to disseminate.

Consistency the chief casualty as Tribune editorial savages council, coddles school corporation.

In today's Tribune editorial, the editorial board offers yet another scathing take on the city council's persistent "penny foolish, pound foolish" approach to its duties.

TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: New Albany Council’s votes are limiting our options.

The editorial makes clearer than ever before the dimensions of the council's emerging anti-modernity bloc. Dan Coffey and Steve Price are givens, but Jeff Gahan and Pat McLaughlin both have consistently joined with the know-nothings in impeding legislative rationality.

CM Gahan opted for scattershot indecipherability a long time ago, and lacking any coherent, stated notion of where he's coming from and why, we can only surmise that agreeing with Coffey this often constitutes a full-scale descent into the depths of the Dark Side, where CM McLaughlin -- whose picture currently adorns the Webster's Dictionary entry for "disappointment" -- also seems to have taken up residence.

But of more immediate significance is this section, wherein the editorial board commends school administrators:

New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. Superintendent Bruce Hibbard, and his administrative team, recently announced recommendations to close four elementary schools and make other cuts that will impact and anger many. Right or wrong, these were not popular decisions, but they were necessary. School administrators didn’t sit around and blame each other for the $6.6 million deficit that was thrown in their lap. They made, what they believed, were the necessary cuts.

There it is, and you can take it to the bank, folks: The Tribune will be punting when it comes to the impending school closings.

What's this analogy intended to convey, Coach K? That it's bad to dither, and therefore, it's far better that potentially catastrophic long-term decisions are reached quickly and confidently, even if they're tragically mistaken?

A fairly bad analogy, guys. While we're on the subject of sidesteps, has any editorial board discussion of the bridges project yet been undertaken?

Normal hours at the Pizzeria & Public House today, and HBG at Bank Street until 4:30 p.m.

NABC's Pizzeria & Public House is open from 11:00 a.m. today (Saturday, March 6) for business as usual.

NABC Bank Street Street Brewhouse is hosting a private party for the visiting busload of Hoosier Beer Geeks (Indianapolis) during lunchtime today, and will be open for business at 4:30 p.m.

If you are an employee of Indiana American Water, you'll be charged an additional 300% at both our locations to help begin recouping the money lost owing to your company's incompetence yesterday. Thanks for understanding.

Consider downtown New Albany tonight.

If you are reading on Friday afternoon, and were planning on coming out to the Pizzeria & Public House tonight, you cannot, because we're closed for Friday owing to a water problem in the neighborhood.

No State Police poaching at the Pizzeria & Public House tonight, because IN-AWC learned "routine" in Pyongyang.

I'd like to suggest that instead of abandoning the drive to New Albany, consider coming downtown and exploring the eateries and watering holes that have come into existence the last few years.

I say this less because our Bank Street Brewhouse is downtown, although it is, and more because perhaps not all readers have yet experienced what downtown New Albany has to offer. I'm thinking River City Winery, and Steinert's, and Wick's, and Connor's Place, and Windsor, and Studio's (all with adult beverages, and still others without for dining).

If our usual Friday night crowd at the Pizzeria & Public House came downtown and dispersed among the establishments there, not only would our regulars have a good time. They'd get a chance to see what we've all tried to achieve in the historic core of the city.

Think about it. Thanks.

No State Police poaching at the Pizzeria & Public House tonight, because IN-AWC learned "routine" in Pyongyang.

The NABC Pizzeria & Public House will not reopen on this, customarily our busiest day of the week, during this, usually one of the biggest weekends of the year.

Bank Street Brewhouse operates normally, in spite of troglodyte indifference to Progressive Pints.

Hats off to Indiana American Water for making something called "scheduled maintenance" from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. (which we were not once told was even happening) into a neighborhood catastrophe lasting all day on Friday. If they were in a mood to return phone calls, I'd give you their side of it.

The Pizzeria & Public House will work normal hours on Saturday.

I think. Ask IN-AWC. Wait. There are no humans there with whom to speak.

Water's off, so the NABC Pizzeria & Pub closed until around 5:30 p.m.

2:15 p.m. update: Semi-official word is, no water service at the Pizzeria & Public House until somewhere around 5:30 p.m. Suggestion is they were routinely checking hydrants, found a leak, and are fixing it. There goes the after work crowd. We think we'll be good by 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. with no ill effects after that. I will be back to update you.

As of 12:30 p.m., water service has been cut off at the Pizzeria & Public House in what Indiana American Water's far-off customer service representative describes to me as scheduled maintenance. For three hours.

That's right. For three hours. On a Friday. With no warning whatsoever.

I'll be back to let you know when the coast's clear. I hope we're open again by 4 p.m., but we're at the mercy of the water company, and I'm waiting for a call back from some poor unfortunate whose ass may well get ripped.

Bank Street Brewhouse is open.

A little Clere-ity, please.

I have become increasingly perplexed with State Representative Ed Clere's usage of the free weekly campaign ad space afforded him by the Tribune.

In his latest column, Clere defends his support of property tax caps in relation to proposed school closings by claiming that "property tax caps have almost nothing to do with it."

What he fails to mention, however, is the school funding scheme changes that were necessary to facilitate the property tax caps. Realizing that schools would suffer from the caps, the governor and some state legislators changed the funding stream that supports school systems' general funds. Instead of being supported partially by local property taxes and partially by state revenue as they had been in the past, a decision was made to make state revenue the only source of school general funds so that local property taxes, which would be lessened by the caps, could be removed from that particular equation.

In order to gain support for the caps, citizens were promised by cap advocates that a 1% sales tax increase would help cover school funding deficits created by the loss of property tax revenue. Opponents of the change warned that sales and income taxes, the major components of state revenue, were too unstable a source to make school funding dependent on them, particularly during difficult economic times. Those warnings were ignored and between 2008 and 2009, the NA-FC School Corporation's local property tax levy was reduced by 47.9% as Indianapolis took control of school general funds statewide.

Unfortunately, during that same period of 2008 to 2009, state revenues declined despite the sales tax increase. Projections at the time predicted that revenue would continue to decrease through 2011 and still do, with an additional $1.85 billion drop recently predicted for 2010 and 2011. In other words, concerns about the instability of those funding sources were proven valid. Armed with that knowledge, however, property tax cap supporters, including Clere, continued to advocate that the caps be made permanent. Since nearly half the property tax allotment had already been removed from the school corporation's budget and intended replacement revenues were plainly not materializing, it's difficult to believe that local cap advocates did not envision substantial school cuts and/or potential closings resulting from their favored policy.

So while Clere notes that property tax caps have little to do with impending school closings, that's largely because the forced cuts are being made to the NA-FC general fund which, in accordance with policy he supports, is no longer directly connected to property tax revenue in the first place. It makes for nice rhetoric, but confuses rather than clarifies the issue as the caps changed the entire way funding occurs.

Ironically, Clere also says that "legislation I supported last week would allow the schools to replace up to 100 percent of the amount the governor cut. The replacement cash would come from funds that normally are restricted." Though again unmentioned, all but one of those other restricted school funds are still supported by local property tax dollars. In combination, his recent statements suggest that when the sales tax revenue stream doesn't work as tax cap advocates said it would, we should use property taxes again as a solution while simultaneously claiming that property taxes have little to do with the situation. Notable, too, is that the cash in question will not "replace" the money being cut. If I lose a $10 bill, moving another, completely different $10 bill from one pocket to the other obviously does not get me the $10 I lost back, regardless of how well I describe the pocket swap.

Perhaps even more generally confounding is that while Clere and other state level cap advocates suggest that putting more money in the classroom is their ultimate goal, they've chosen to marry teacher salaries, paid out of the general fund, to the verifiably unstable sales tax revenue stream while leaving capital, debt service, and other funding tied to the more stable property tax source. Governor Daniels, too, has made much of exorbitant new school construction as a waste of resources. If that's the problem, why not just purposely cut capital and/or construction funding instead of threatening teacher and aid positions? Exurban demographics and party allegiance provide clues to a possible answer, but I'm not sure that alone is enough to explain such a convoluted approach to stated goals.

It's clear that Clere's a talented writer. What's less clear as a result of that writing is what his intentions regarding our local schools actually are. I think we deserve a much better explanation than what we've gotten so far.

This being America, it's too bad we aren't allowed to vote on it. Are the little people outraged yet?

I prefer option two, below, which our new school superintendent has chosen not to attempt.

A referendum would permit a person like me, who has no children of his own, to nonetheless vote with my wallet in favor of the principle of secular public education, because I believe that secular public education is one significant hallmark of a diverse and civilized society. I do not believe that a diverse and civil society is furthered by fragmentation into various tax-supported Madrasahs.

My guess is that in terms of property tax, it would cost me a dollar a day for the entire year to keep neighborhood schools open. A referendum would also permit us to identify quite clerely who supports a diverse and civil society, and who isn't sure. This would be instructive, allowing us a chance to debate openly the nature of selfishness as furthered by tax "rebellion."

Superintendent asking board to close four schools, by Chris Morris (Tribune).

Option two would have been to go to the public with a referendum to raise property taxes — which would have been on average of $225 a year on a $100,000 house ...

As expected: School corporation to suggest closing four schools.

It looks like Mitch Daniels is winning: Children's Academy, Galena, Pine View and Silver Street (Tribune breaking news).

It should be interesting to observe the spin on this one. In fact, ever since the leaks began, the silence has been fairly deafening.

If the recommendations are to be made this Monday, that's leaving very little wiggle room.

For the record: Matt at the meeting.

A Tribune reader implies that she didn't see Matt Nash at the infamous sewer rate information meeting a short time back, but as this photo shows, he was there.

Today's Tribune column: "No EPA receivership for hypocrisy overflows."

More on sewers, the New Albany Syndrome, and a local preference for malice.

BAYLOR: No EPA receivership for hypocrisy overflows

None of this is going to endear me to those area residents who have determined that anger, and anger alone, is somehow the proper cure for what ails them. So be it. I'd rather be in this together, seeking constructive dialogue and substantive solutions, but that seems unlikely. Defeatism is in the water here. I'll drink beer, instead.

Facts, not jihads: More required reading on sewers.

Randy Smith boils down his sewer series to talking points ...

To make a long story short

I’ll admit it. I write “long.” I try to be careful with my writing and I try to be complete. When I write about public policy matters, I choose my words carefully, try to address even the most esoteric of possible objections, and strive to accommodate readers who may just now be paying attention.

Accordingly, sharing facts and opinion with a wider audience is often prevented by the sheer length of what I write.

So, let’s try to boil my recent 5-part essay into its essence, shall we? Here are the elements.

... and explains why certain EDIT-based "relief" proposals stem from intended cultural jihads, not the hard facts about the sewer utility.

A sewer fix we can accomplish now

Let’s be clear about one thing right off the bat. I would not fault any city council member for calling “time out” when asked to increase the $5.04 per unit sewer rate by another $1.81. There’s nothing insignificant about that.

But when any council member tries to blind us from the facts with irrelevancies, personal grievances, and boogeymen, I call foul.

A reader submission: "Fractious Fractured Fairytales."

The following was submitted by Kathleen Martin. Readers, feel free to discuss.

---

FRACTIOUS FRACTURED FAIRYTALES

[Recommended: Read the text below with Mr. Peabody's voice in mind.]

Today's episode: Robbin' the Hoodwinked or What's That I Smell?

Once upon a time, very recently in fact, a wealthy landlord purchased a sizable piece of property. It included a big house in front, which he leased to a college fraternity (henceforth the FRATS), with a cozy guest cottage behind just right for the little old lady (LOL) he rented it to. Before any residents moved in, the owner bought a washing machine he felt suitable for the two households to share between them, but he quickly needed to recoup his expenses for this amenity.

So the landlord added to each household's lease the same "minimum use" charge of $10.08 per month and gave the FRATS and LOL each a debit card to activate the washer. A swipe of the card allowed each separate household two wash loads a week, per the "minimum use" clause, and any use beyond that would cost $1 per extra load and charged to the household's card.

Now the LOL only had one load to wash each week, so the minimum fee worked out to about $2.30 for each use of the shared washer. The first two FRATS living in the big house were splitting that $10.08, so their weekly loads cost them just $1 apiece. As the FRATS added tenants, one by one, they were pleased when the cost per load was further reduced, and soon the washer was working away as hard as the students partied, which was a considerable amount. Still, the landlord's smile only grew wider as his revenues mounted on the debit card of the FRATS.

By the time five FRATS had moved in, however, they decided their household deserved a volume discount for all the extra $1 loads expensed to their card. The landlord figured it was a fair enough request -- after all, he wasn't getting anything beyond the $10.08 minimum from his deadbeat LOL tenant -- and so he reduced the price of loads beyond the two minimum a week down to 80 cents, six beyond to 60 cents, ten beyond to 40 cents, and so on. With this volume deal for the FRATS -- now numbering eight -- well, whew-ee, that washer was agitating night and day, often spinning a solitary puked on t-shirt just because it was so dirt cheap. The FRATS continued to party hard, while the LOL could hardly find a time the machine was free for her single load each week.

It turned out the skinflint landlord unfortunately had not purchased a Maytag -- he heard of a real steal on a machine advertised as "worth every penny" -- so by the time there were ten FRATS in residence, the overworked washer broke down one day while the LOL was doing her weekly load. The landlord now had repair bills to pay and replacement parts to purchase, so he felt he had no other choice but to raise the monthly minimum on both households to $20.

The LOL found the new minimum use fee a terrific hardship, but made no protest since she couldn't afford to move from her cozy cottage. She cut corners by taking half doses of her prescribed medicine and buying twice the cat food, though people noticed she didn't even own a cat. The FRATS coped by adding two more tenants and continuing to split the increases, but a month later the newly repaired machine broke down again, and it continued to break down from overuse on a regular basis. The landlord and FRATS remembered the quickest way to pay for repair expenses was again increasing the minimum use fee to both households equally. The LOL was too weak by now to disagree.

Now I'd like to say the landlord, the LOL and the FRATS all lived happily ever after, but that would be a lie. [At least I can reassure you the little old lady wasn't mutilated late last night.] Finally the cottage's tenant stopped taking her medicine altogether, hoarding the pills so that after she'd cut the very last corner she possibly could, she had the means to go peacefully to sleep one night and forget her troubles forever.

The big house tenants graduated and dispersed to places far and wide. Some enjoyed Maytag machines at their new households, and a few of them even learned the high price of not paying for playing. And the landlord? Sadly, no one wanted to lease his cottage due to its inequitable minimum use fee, which he stubbornly refused to see as unfair. The big house also couldn't be rented, because the party-hardy FRATS had trashed it so badly. So, he learned his lesson the hard way. He finally sold the vacant property at a great financial loss, and spent his final years neglected by the staff of a dirty and decrepit nursing home.

The story's moral? Now I'd like to say it's "Waste Not, Want Not," but this fairytale didn't really wind up that way, especially for the LOL. Perhaps instead it's no Bullwinkle, Sherman, that our sewer system and fee structure is on the precipice of a treacherously Rocky cliff. And fixing it revolves around the word "hard": Hardy partying vs. hardship; hardened hearts vs. hardheadedness. From hard choices to hardly caring and from hard sell to hard-pressed. Fix it, yes, but first make it fair.

Kathleen Martin 2/26/2010

Leak the plans, win a hundred bucks.

At his new blog, Dan Coffey wrote:

Also, there are those that want to use the EDIT money for a $12 million parking garage and a multi million dollar city hall. I feel we should use our resources to fix the problems at hand before we bond millions of dollars that we do not have.

Fair enough.

Note that the two sentences express very different ideas. The first implies that EDIT money will be spent on one or both conjectured projects. The second sentence expresses the viewpoint that if such projects actually were on the table, other ideas would be better. However, the impact of the second sentence is dependent on the implications of the first being true.

Are there spade-ready concrete proposals for a parking garage and/or city hall? If so, shouldn't we be able to locate them?

I have a hundred dollars for the first person who can provide written proof that any such proposal, either for a parking garage or a city hall, actually exists.

I won't ask for the copies of the city council ordinance approving one or both, because we all know that hasn't happened. Barring any such evidence, we can assume that while Coffey is not lying outright, that he is using scare tactics with no basis in fact. If such evidence exists, then he's nailed it. Which is it?

Do ward heelers s**t in the woods?

Only if they've lost the only key to the public toilet.

As an experiment, I posted the following as a comment at Dan Coffey's blog.

The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west.

2 + 2 = 4

Abraham Lincoln made a speech at Gettysburg.

The comment was quickly removed.