I have been trying not to post a bunch of rants about the fed gov't on my town blog but here's something to think about. The new fed program for incentives to buy a new gas miser car is set up to give those wanting to trade in their "gas guzzler" for a new car will get up to $4500 dollars from the government (our tax dollars actually). The real issue is that the list of "guzzlers" includes toyota's, honda's, nissan's, hundai's on it and you know there is no stipulation that the new vehicle be U.S. made. So in a nut shell. The moron who bought a hundai 8 yrs ago and sent the money overseas now gets to buy a new hundai sending the money overseas and then gets $4500 dollars of our tax money back as a reward. There will be nothing left of our country in 4 years.
Joe
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
In the town 6/09
The town coucil last night approved a new town brand (logo). Which will be showing up in the future. I, and we, feel that the council is trying very hard to make a NEW Cumberland not just the same old one with a new sign. With everything that is going on, Washington street rebuild, the street scape, east intercept for the sewer and the pensy trail system it was imparitive that we make any brand changes now before the ordering of the signage and things begin.
It is a real nice piece. It should be available for viewing at the town hall and on the web site shortly. It is a round logo of country blue color with a red curving road (us40) running through it and has a sillouette of the Indy sky line, old town Cumberland and a us40 sign. All elements can be extracted and used on various sings, letter head etc.
I, and we, are very excited about the new look for the new Cumberland we are trying to form. We hope you will agree that it is a good look for the town as we move forward.
On another item, I again asked last night that the sanitary sewer board review the current sewer billing rates. I feel it has taken far to long to address this issue and many of you have also voiced your concerns. Going to the current 4.21 from the old 4.00 per unit at using 5 units a month will cost about a buck but I feel the biggest issue is with the minimum of 4 units/month regardless of actual usage can cost 10-20 dollars a month if citizens not only use less than 4 but even if they use more in a month where Indy water uses an estimated usage. Hopefully that explaination is not confusing. A comprimise may be to let the 4.21 stand but bill actual usage rather than a minimum. I would rather it all go back to rates from the past x number of years since the sewer fund got by on what it was taking in in those years.
It appears that the developer (M/I homes) has withdrawn it's request for a zoning change at us40 and 600w due to opposition from citizens and county council members. I did meet with our councilman, Derek Towle and discussed our concerns. I, and I think most of you, feel that that corner will become one of the main focal points of hancock county and we should stick to our desire for nice, attractive developement with stores and businesses that we want to frequent. Thanks to those of you who also called the councilmen to express your thoughts.
Joe
It is a real nice piece. It should be available for viewing at the town hall and on the web site shortly. It is a round logo of country blue color with a red curving road (us40) running through it and has a sillouette of the Indy sky line, old town Cumberland and a us40 sign. All elements can be extracted and used on various sings, letter head etc.
I, and we, are very excited about the new look for the new Cumberland we are trying to form. We hope you will agree that it is a good look for the town as we move forward.
On another item, I again asked last night that the sanitary sewer board review the current sewer billing rates. I feel it has taken far to long to address this issue and many of you have also voiced your concerns. Going to the current 4.21 from the old 4.00 per unit at using 5 units a month will cost about a buck but I feel the biggest issue is with the minimum of 4 units/month regardless of actual usage can cost 10-20 dollars a month if citizens not only use less than 4 but even if they use more in a month where Indy water uses an estimated usage. Hopefully that explaination is not confusing. A comprimise may be to let the 4.21 stand but bill actual usage rather than a minimum. I would rather it all go back to rates from the past x number of years since the sewer fund got by on what it was taking in in those years.
It appears that the developer (M/I homes) has withdrawn it's request for a zoning change at us40 and 600w due to opposition from citizens and county council members. I did meet with our councilman, Derek Towle and discussed our concerns. I, and I think most of you, feel that that corner will become one of the main focal points of hancock county and we should stick to our desire for nice, attractive developement with stores and businesses that we want to frequent. Thanks to those of you who also called the councilmen to express your thoughts.
Joe
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Latest town news 5/21/09
1, there will be a small antique tractor/steam engine show at the Saturday farmers market on june 6. Also they are doing the market coop again this year with a farm tour on 6/27 and a new event "art goes to market" on aug 8th with an art show on some of the streets on and off of south muessing.
2, Bad news. Indianapolis water (veolia) and the metro water sewer advisory board has decided to raise the rates for water service for all of marion and surrounding counties that are serviced by veolia. That means us included. No info yet as to how much the rates will go up. The town has no plans to raise it's sewer rates and this increase will not effect the sewer bills as it is on a per usage basis. I am still trying to get the town sanitary sewer board to make the changes to our ordinance so that everyone is charged only what they use not a flat minimum and that the rate be $4 not $4.21 per 100 cu/yd.
3, The east interceptor bids have been opened and awarded and the winning bid was about 2/3 what the engineer estimated so we are asking to use the balance of the grant money from the state that was going to cover the job to work on other shovel ready repiping or relining of existing sewer main issues in the town.
4, The parks board will be advertising for nominations for names to be placed in honors park in the paper in the near future. You should also be able to get a nomination form from the town.
5, At the next meeting we will also be looking at changing the grass hieght ordinance to make it faster (from 30 to 10days) that the town has to give after notice to mow and also add an administration fee along with the actual mowing fee that is assesed to the property owners who have not kept lawns mowed. This mostly applies to forclosed and abandonded homes where the lawn is let go and the town has to mow it to keep it presentable and keep bug levels down. The town currently has to give 30 days notice to mow and by then the grass is really long and become hazardous to the equipment when we mow and can't see what's there. The fees are placed as a lein on the property to be recouped later. We are also looking at contracting this work out as the town equipment is rather large for yards and it takes longer for our staff to do the work with hand mowers. The bill from the contractor will then be passed on with an administrative fee to the property owner/mortage holder.
Joe Siefker
Town council dist 5
2, Bad news. Indianapolis water (veolia) and the metro water sewer advisory board has decided to raise the rates for water service for all of marion and surrounding counties that are serviced by veolia. That means us included. No info yet as to how much the rates will go up. The town has no plans to raise it's sewer rates and this increase will not effect the sewer bills as it is on a per usage basis. I am still trying to get the town sanitary sewer board to make the changes to our ordinance so that everyone is charged only what they use not a flat minimum and that the rate be $4 not $4.21 per 100 cu/yd.
3, The east interceptor bids have been opened and awarded and the winning bid was about 2/3 what the engineer estimated so we are asking to use the balance of the grant money from the state that was going to cover the job to work on other shovel ready repiping or relining of existing sewer main issues in the town.
4, The parks board will be advertising for nominations for names to be placed in honors park in the paper in the near future. You should also be able to get a nomination form from the town.
5, At the next meeting we will also be looking at changing the grass hieght ordinance to make it faster (from 30 to 10days) that the town has to give after notice to mow and also add an administration fee along with the actual mowing fee that is assesed to the property owners who have not kept lawns mowed. This mostly applies to forclosed and abandonded homes where the lawn is let go and the town has to mow it to keep it presentable and keep bug levels down. The town currently has to give 30 days notice to mow and by then the grass is really long and become hazardous to the equipment when we mow and can't see what's there. The fees are placed as a lein on the property to be recouped later. We are also looking at contracting this work out as the town equipment is rather large for yards and it takes longer for our staff to do the work with hand mowers. The bill from the contractor will then be passed on with an administrative fee to the property owner/mortage holder.
Joe Siefker
Town council dist 5
Monday, April 20, 2009
Nationalism (aka. socialism)
Anyone remember when the 700 billion financial bailout went through and the government saying "it's not nationalism, we want no part of owning the banks, we are just trying to help them out of a bad situation." Lie Lie Lie.
Now here we are 6 months or so later and what is the latest plan from the feds to help the banks out some more. They say they can further help the banks and not ask for more money by SIMPLY converting the LOANS the COMMON STOCK (ie; own a part, a LARGE part of each of the banks and have voting rights with those stocks). That's the backdoor politics way of starting nationalism which is for most purposes to you and me, socialism. Still everyone just loves the political leaders in Washington. We need to wake up before there is no more America left to save.
Joe
Now here we are 6 months or so later and what is the latest plan from the feds to help the banks out some more. They say they can further help the banks and not ask for more money by SIMPLY converting the LOANS the COMMON STOCK (ie; own a part, a LARGE part of each of the banks and have voting rights with those stocks). That's the backdoor politics way of starting nationalism which is for most purposes to you and me, socialism. Still everyone just loves the political leaders in Washington. We need to wake up before there is no more America left to save.
Joe
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tax Day
Well, it's tax day everyone and hope all of you are well and surviving these times. I would like to give an update on the town projects. The street work on Washington is moving along and the east interceptor for the sewer system and the trail project are also.
To date the town has obtained more than 5million in stimulus monies from the state and federal programs for these projects.
Weather you agree with the stimulus and bailout packages really does not matter to our President in Washington. They are a done, signed, sealed and being delivered.
Here again is my stance - that even if we don't agree (which I do NOT) we will not be able to say the the U.S. government that since we do not agree we do not want to have to help pay it back. So since myself and my fellow hoosiers and our children and their children will be asked to pay it back we should do what we can to be sure that our portion of the money actually gets spent here locally. That is why I have backed our obtaining of these funds. Furthermore the town has pretty much saved up the money to do these projects already I say we save part of our money for next years budget (to help LOWER taxes), use some for projects that may not have been done this year and definately pay off some of the debt on the sewer plant (to get the operating costs down and hopefully get rates in check)
Come to the council meetings and help me get the town in order becasue I am only 1 of 5 votes and we need more citizen pressure.
Thanks and take care.
Joe
To date the town has obtained more than 5million in stimulus monies from the state and federal programs for these projects.
Weather you agree with the stimulus and bailout packages really does not matter to our President in Washington. They are a done, signed, sealed and being delivered.
Here again is my stance - that even if we don't agree (which I do NOT) we will not be able to say the the U.S. government that since we do not agree we do not want to have to help pay it back. So since myself and my fellow hoosiers and our children and their children will be asked to pay it back we should do what we can to be sure that our portion of the money actually gets spent here locally. That is why I have backed our obtaining of these funds. Furthermore the town has pretty much saved up the money to do these projects already I say we save part of our money for next years budget (to help LOWER taxes), use some for projects that may not have been done this year and definately pay off some of the debt on the sewer plant (to get the operating costs down and hopefully get rates in check)
Come to the council meetings and help me get the town in order becasue I am only 1 of 5 votes and we need more citizen pressure.
Thanks and take care.
Joe
Monday, March 16, 2009
Outrageous
Well, I have to say something. Now the Obama administration is trying to distance itself from the BAILED OUT banks and AIG by pointing a finger and saying shame, shame, shame. They are trying to do this before telling us that the financial sector will need another bailout and they have to tell us that our future tax dollars are going to pay for it. Meanwhile, AIG handed out 165mil in bonuses to executives from the bailout money it received. When are we going to learn that the government works for us and not the other way around and when we will actually STAND UP for something and tell them NO!
I am still working toward having the towns budget decreased for next year. The one for this year had an increase and I voted NO to it. I was the only councilor but maybe I can get 2 more to side with me now that they see how out of control the federal government is getting. If next years budget has an increase I will again vote NO.
Joe
I am still working toward having the towns budget decreased for next year. The one for this year had an increase and I voted NO to it. I was the only councilor but maybe I can get 2 more to side with me now that they see how out of control the federal government is getting. If next years budget has an increase I will again vote NO.
Joe
Friday, March 6, 2009
DOW and Stimulus
Has any else noticed that every time our new president announces some big spending and bailout or restructuring plan the stock market dumps 4-5%. I have and believe it to be intentional. He is in such a hurry to pass everything and change the structure of our whole country and it is a lot easier to have government intervention and total and complete control over everyone and everything when all aspects of our system are in the tank.
Here's hoping Americans will pay attention and make sure where we are headed is where we want to go.
Also of note is that I have stated that it would be irresponsible to not go after some portion of the spending going on in D.C. Since we will ALL be asked to pay our fair share back I think we should get our fair share to begin with. With that in mind the town of Cumberland as obtained a sum of money at 0% interest that we will use on our east interceptor sewer project. We have been working towards this job for some time and had everything ready to be what they call "shovel ready" and we were granted the funding to do so. This will be a huge asset for our town since we will be able to use the Fed's money for the job and pay it back with no interest and do so with out raising any rates. This will allow us to focus our resources on other needy projects and we have also applied for funding for road and infrastructure work as well and it sounds promising.
We have a nice town here and these projects will help us be more noticeable and not forgotten by the entities above us which will no doubt help with our relationship to those entities.
There are a lot of things changing in our world and in our community and with your support and patience I will continue to try to make our small part better.
Joe
Here's hoping Americans will pay attention and make sure where we are headed is where we want to go.
Also of note is that I have stated that it would be irresponsible to not go after some portion of the spending going on in D.C. Since we will ALL be asked to pay our fair share back I think we should get our fair share to begin with. With that in mind the town of Cumberland as obtained a sum of money at 0% interest that we will use on our east interceptor sewer project. We have been working towards this job for some time and had everything ready to be what they call "shovel ready" and we were granted the funding to do so. This will be a huge asset for our town since we will be able to use the Fed's money for the job and pay it back with no interest and do so with out raising any rates. This will allow us to focus our resources on other needy projects and we have also applied for funding for road and infrastructure work as well and it sounds promising.
We have a nice town here and these projects will help us be more noticeable and not forgotten by the entities above us which will no doubt help with our relationship to those entities.
There are a lot of things changing in our world and in our community and with your support and patience I will continue to try to make our small part better.
Joe
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