Your Weekly Report

FYI, all future weekly reports will start with a brief summary of some historical event or person who celebrated a birthday.  Or maybe even an off beat item that ties into local events (I came very close to doing football with sign-gate and the start of college and pro season's approaching).  The title's will reflect that.  But I didn't want any confusion for the first one so just went with the generic title.

While I considered many items for the inaugural weekly round-up, including football, Sean Connery and a few others.  As I watched the news late week, we had a clear pick.  This past week was the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew.  One of the most destructive weather events in U.S. history and the last Category 5 to hit U.S. soil.

It struck south Florida early in the morning of August 24th, with winds of 165 mph.  While Miami was spared the worst of the damage.  Homestead Fl., just a few miles away was leveled.  Over a 177,000 people were left homeless by Andrew through out its path (it would later affect the Gulf Coast)  and 65 people lost their lives.

It was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history at the time and still ranks third.  The fact that it still ranks third after 20 years of inflation and some of the most active tropical seasons in recorded history is a testament to its destructive power.  It is the only hurricane not in this century to be ranked in the top ten costliest.  And for most people still ranks high in peoples minds when the word hurricane is spoken.

Now on to the news.

-One of  two  three  several big stories for the week was the removal of the sign designating a football field "Thomas R. Galligan Field" by mayor mikey.  At first I deemed it just to be a petty move to give some of his pettiest supporters something to hang their heads high about.  And I'm not yet backing away from that.  But mikey informed the people of the CCC that he had replaced the sign as was and was just doing it to teach the council a lesson for not being overly enthused, in his opinion, of some names he had chosen for some basketball courts. 

Truth be told though, he probably saw some of his reasonable supporters on the Chatter objecting to it on top of the council's letter to him and decided "I best be getting that thing back quick."

So our choices for his reasoning are petty PR move or "I didn't get what I wanted so I threw I fit."  Feel free to pick your favorite.

-Another big story was that Glen "Tubby" Muncy is suing the city for items he lost when the city of Jeffersonville demolished the old "Tubby's" building earlier this year.  He has set the initial dollar figure at nearly $173,000. 

While the city settled with his brother who was the owner of the building and property, Glen is claiming that he had personal property stored inside the building that was destroyed when it was demolished.  Wasn't one of mikey's claims heading into the election that he would save the city from all these lawsuits?  Hmmm.

I will freely admit that I'm no fan of Glen Muncy either and this whole ordeal just makes want to take a six-pack and bag of popcorn down the old site and watch these two have at each other.

-Speaking of lawsuits, Mindy Christian is also suing the city.  She claims she owe over $100,000 in overtime pay she should had received while being on-call. 

Mindy was the emergency coordinator for the city and left to take a job in Louisville earlier this year.  The dollar figure would seem to indicate that this would go back to the Galligan Administration as well. 

Several questions for this matter include:  Is she legally owed money?  Is she owed this amount?  Is she bitter over how she was treated by her new boss and it has led to this lawsuit? 

This one is much more complicated than the previous lawsuit but I would expect we will find out most of it in the coming months and would actually bet on a settlement.

-Also this week, Matt Owen requested a history of the city's computer activities.  While nothing has been confirmed, most believe this to be the pending scandal that  Oracle and Goliath had been telling us about.

Most also believe (although with no evidence really) that has to do with the old J-pol site that shut down recently and was little more than place to push mikey's agenda and bash all that would stand in his way.  It was shut down after it went after Vickie Conlin shortly after it was mentioned that she could be considering possibly running for mayor in 3 years.  It really back fired and the site was shut down. 

This is number one on the "Must Watch" list.

-Also this week the council has made it so that they have final approval over all capital purchases made by the city.  The explanation was that this is a safe guard from departments getting cheaper than estimated purchases and then using the money elsewhere. 

While we can all agree this is a fiscally responsible thing to do, I have to wonder if this is also the council tightening the leash even more.

-This week the city also received a grant to help with the Big Four Bridge project.  I'll give credit where credit is do.  This is a good thing. 

-Finally, mikey wants to do something more to hide the pumping station at the entrance to the city on tenth street.  The problem is the city does not own much more of the land except what the station sits on.  Several options are being looked at.

Now only if we had something across the street to grab people's attention away from the station...

More to come later this week as I hope to set some what of a schedule for post and have some ready to go.  And as always you can keep track of the post by liking the FB page here.