Sausage and savings

St. Luke’s Church in downtown Jeffersonville will be holding their annual Oktoberfest Friday Sept. 30 from 4pm-7pm. Due to renovations taking place at St. Luke’s the event will actually be held next door at St. Augustine’s Parish Hall.

The menu will include Bratwurst, German potato salad, kraut and homemade desserts. A $10 ticket for adults, $5 for kids, will buy you all you can eat of this homemade German fare. The Country Store will also be open, and music will be provided the Rascals of Ragtime.

Another downtown organization, Center for Lay Ministries, is raising money for their missions including the food pantry and Bliss House by selling Giving Back Cards. For a $10 contribution, the purchaser receives $20 in one-time savings coupons from local businesses plus a discount card which can be used repeatedly through August 31, 2012 for savings at local businesses including Jerry’s, Ann’s by the River, Zaxby’s, Perkfection Cafe, Hooters, Wall St. Cafe, Cluckers, Bearno’s, Arby’s and more.

If you’re interesting in purchasing Giving Back Card, please contact me or visit the Center at 213 E. Maple St.

The generosity of these local businesses in supporting the Center and the graciousness shown by St. Augustine’s parish in supporting their neighbor church are great examples of the community spirit of Jeffersonville as a whole and downtown in particular. 

 

Downtown Jeff on Sept. 24.

Be there or be square.

This Saturday, downtown Jeffersonville will be a hub of activity with at least three very cool events going on.

This is the second year the Hope Music Festival will be visiting the Jeffersonville RiverStage. This is a benefit for organizations that serve the homeless including Exit 0 which serves those living outdoors in the vicinity of their namesake highway ramp.

This year’s concert will be sponsored by 88.5 WJIE and will feature, among several acts, Addison Road. Come out between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. to hear live music for a great cause. See Hope Music Festival featuring Addison Road on Facebook for more information.

You’ll also be able to pick up some bargains and enjoy some neighborhood hospitality that day as the Franklin Commons Neighborhood Association hosts their annual neighborhood yard sale.

Franklin Commons is the downtown neighborhood bordered by 7th St., on the north, Market St., to the south, Fulton to the east and Wall St., to the west.

Saturday will also see Court Ave. go Italian for the Italian Festival. Portions of Court will be closed for this street festival which runs from noon to 6 p.m. and celebrates Italian culture.

All of these events have either admission costs or items available for purchase, so please check out the following links for more information.

Italian Festival

Hope Music Festival on Facebook

Post on last year’s Hope Music Festival

Hope to see you in the neighborhood Saturday!

We all deserve better

The J.B. Ogle Animal Shelter, which is managed by the City of Jeffersonville, has been front and center in recent news.

Last week, a volunteer visited the shelter’s kennels with the intention of taking photos of animals in order to help find them homes. Instead, the volunteer took photos of what appeared to be unsanitary conditions at the shelter.

The initial reaction from shelter management and the mayor was a very poor one. When confronted with photos of poor conditions, they seemingly were more concerned with the photos than the conditions they depicted. Their inane response was to deny volunteers and the broader public, including those visiting to adopt, access to the kennel areas.

The mayor and others directly responsible for the shelter are now chalking up the recent outcry about conditions to politics, as if thinking animals should be treated humanely, that government should be transparent and that taxpayers and volunteers should be respected are all part of someone’s shady “agenda.”

“Politics” and “agendas” are Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan’s go-to responses anytime someone questions the actions of the city, and it doesn’t have to be an election year for him to use them. The problem is, this allows him to just blow off legitimate concerns and gives us no reason to be optimistic that practices and policies will change, even when change is desperately needed.

This is not the first time there have been complaints about the shelter or the first time volunteers have tried to get problems addressed. Volunteers, who have long been treated as nuisances by shelter staff, have tried to discuss these issues with the politically appointed director, the mayor and the city council for some time, always cautiously respectful in fear the reaction would be that which it was in this case: restricting their access and, therefore, their ability to care for the animals, monitor conditions and promote adoption.

Documents that have been sent to me this week detail a long and disturbing history at the shelter. The most outrageous to me are instances in which assistance was being offered at no cost or extra effort to the shelter in order to better care for the animals and, very importantly, to try to diagnose, treat and halt the spread of disease only to have those offers rebuffed with no rational explanation.

I can understand any agency or individual who struggles to care for an animal because of a lack of resources. However, there is absolutely no excuse for turning down better care for the animals and greater value to the taxpayers when it would not diminish those resources. This is, to my mind, an indefensible and unforgivable position.

The volunteers and rescue groups that have been heading up the past week’s campaign for change are not politically motivated. The individual that took the pictures that stirred up the latest outrage doesn’t even live in the city (I’ll resist saying she doesn’t have a dog in this fight). Yet it isn’t an entirely apolitical situation.

The shelter director is a political appointee appointed by the elected mayor. There is an appointed board that oversees the shelter. It is funded by tax dollars. It’s employees are city government employees. The Jeffersonville City Council is responsible for city ordinances including how government itself operates and salaries for employees.

It is also the case that the particular volunteer coincidentally observed the conditions and felt moved to capture the images two months before a municipal election.

It is in the best interest of the animals, the animal activists involved and the taxpayers to use all tools necessary to force change, and that includes reminding the mayor of that upcoming election and the people’s love of animals.

If politics, and the threat of animal lovers supporting the mayor’s and council’s opponents, is what it takes to force change, so be it.

If being confronted with this political reality, images of poor conditions and other evidence of the long-standing problems at the shelter are not enough to force change, politics should be used to replace those making the decisions.

That’s precisely what elections are for. 

Learn more:

http://www.wdrb.com/story/15398291/accusations-of-abuse-at-jb-ogle-animal-shelter

http://newsandtribune.com/local/x601180109/Protesters-demand-better-conditions-for-Jeffersonville-animal-shelter

http://www.wdrb.com/story/15427443/dogs-at-ogle-shelter-being-immunized-after-canine-distemper-discovered

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110908/NEWS01/309080064/Jeffersonville-animal-shelter-under-quarantine?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome

http://www.wdrb.com/story/15420520/animal-activists-protest-jeffersonville-animal-shelter

ClarkCountyChatter discussion on this issue.

Unabashedly unfair and unbalanced

I’m not claiming any objectivity. I think Ron Paul hit it out of the park in last night’s debate among declared Republican candidates for president.

Ron Paul so kicked butt!

Huge rounds of applause. Was correct on every single point to my memory.

So what is the discussion on Fox right after? Romney and Newt won?! Newt had most applause lines?! I didn’t count how many, but I know who the loudest ones were for.
Ron Paul was the only person on that stage that, if we elected him and actually did what he said, many of the crises we constantly hear about or fear would go away. Only one.

War, debt, prison population virtually eliminated. What weirdo would want any of that?

TARP tick you off? He’d have vetoed it.

Think gay marriage isn’t a matter for the federal government to pass laws or amendments restricting? So does Paul.

Want an honest guy in the White House? Did you hear the stuff he said aloud?

I sound flip, and I admit I’m emotional. It’s exciting.

A guy who actually believes in freedom, equality and peace got up on stage among a group that ranged from frightening to feckless, spoke truth in front of God and everybody and was enthusiastically applauded for it. The best political occasion I’ve seen in a long time.

If he can’t win, on what do we blame it?

League of Women Voters update: change of location

Please note The League of Women Voters meeting scheduled for August 22 at 7 p.m. has moved to Preservation Station located at 100 Preservation Place in Jeffersonville.

Voting will be held on by-laws, officers, a name for the new group and on the non-partisan policy statement. New members will be eligible to vote after signing up and paying $40 for dues.

Math versus PR

Most Clark County residents have probably heard that our county is having major financial troubles. Decisions at the state level, annexations by municipalities within the county and a bad economy with falling assessments have converged causing the county to struggle to perform even its basic statutory responsibilities.

It would be great if every office and every individual within county government would be willing to work harder and sacrifice more to make up the shortfall. At least one office actually has, the auditor’s office led by Monty Snelling. As this article details, Snelling has been proactive in streamlining the office, including labor costs, and doing more with less.

Employees have been let go or had their hours cut while arguably accomplishing much more than when the office was under the management of Snelling’s predecessor. Had all offices behaved similarly and all county employees been willing to similarly sacrifice, we might be signficantly farther along in managing the financial crisis.

Snelling has proposed that given the additional work his office’s employees are doing and the money the office has saved the county, his employees deserve modest raises. The math shows the raises could be given while still showing a net savings for the office. They would also be paid for with funds that were already allocated for the office’s budget rather than with any new appropriations.

However, this is politics, so forget the math. The raises were initially approved at a recent county council meeting but have now been placed back on the agenda and in question.

“That’s a good business sense vote, but it’s not a good PR [public relations] vote,” said Kevin Vissing, county councilman and recent Jeffersonville mayoral candidate, to the News & Tribune. “I knew better. I shouldn’t have done it.” Vissing, probably inadvertently, summed up the matter very well.

It is understandable that upon first hearing, these raises sound wrong. Other offices who haven’t been on the ball as much as Snelling’s are still trying to figure out where to cut. Employee benefits and insurance costs are among the costs possibly on the chopping block as the county tries to get a grip on its finances.

Yet emotions aren’t facts. Government decisions should be made based on business sense rather than PR. The facts and math say these raises are reasonable, maybe not ideally timed, but reasonable.

Instead of crying foul, perhaps other county offices and employees should peek into the auditor’s office to see what Snelling and his employees are doing right to be able to afford raises while saving money and staying under budget. The entire county would be better off for it.

What he said

It’s always encouraging to find someone making a point I’ve tried to make but often failed. This essay does a good job contrasting the perception people have of libertarians’ concern, or lack of, for the poor with the reality.

Personally, having experienced poverty and having a strongly ingrained suspicion that many of those who wanted to “help” often wanted to use or control, when assessing any proposed government policy or action, my first inclination is to think of how that policy will affect the most vulnerable.

In looking at just two local issues that have been discussed here, Vissing Park and the proposed canal project, what I can’t help but see is the disproportionately negative effects on the poor, as well as the disproportionately positive effects for those with greater means.

Vissing Park, prior to its deforestation was accessible to anyone. For kids living in the projects, this was a place to enjoy nature. Now, a great deal of the park will be reserved for those with the means to participate in adult softball leagues, and another section will be for those with dogs and the resources to properly license them and provide required documentation.

The canal project will eliminate a substantial swath of affordable residential and business property. If successful, it will raise property taxes and rents making it difficult for those remaining in the district to get by on low or fixed incomes. It will, however, be a boon for landlords.

In both cases, had government taken an approach of, “first, do no harm,” and really considered the impact of these moves on the poor, the correct prescription would have been for less government action.

How Libertarianism helps the poor by Matt Zwolinski

League of Women!

…Voters, that is.

Please consider joining others and me this Thursday at Perkfections in downtown Jeff at 7 p.m. in an effort to get a League of Women Voters group going in Clark County.

I’ve heard others’ concerns that the League tends to be a Democrat- and/or liberal-leaning group. Those concerns are understandable, and I share them. However, the only way to help make this new local organization more diverse is to participate.

The individual organizing this has reached out to me directly, though she understands I’m hardly an advocate for big government, and has stated a desire to have a balance of ideologies. You can help make that balance a reality.

Please don’t make me be the only pro-small-government type in a room full of liberals!

In theory, having such an organization in the area should lead to a better-informed and more engaged citizenry.

Update: Thursday evening’s meeting had a good turnout. The LWV members from other areas and those who remember its earlier incarnation in this area did a good job selling the organization as a force for greater education and participation among voters, getting more people to vote and do so in a non-partisan way. There was considerable emphasis on respect and consensus.

A committee has been formed to craft a statement of non-partisanship. That statement and officers should be voted on at the next meeting: August 22, 7pm at the Jeffersonville Library.

Perkfections was a generous host for the first meeting providing cookies, space and keeping a server on later than usual to be accommodating.

If you missed this one, please consider attending the next.

I ain’t in it!

My family took an extended camping trip recently – eight days in a tent in the Hoosier National Forest. Readjusting to “real” life complete with drama and conflict, schedules and to-do lists that don’t relate to either pure relaxation or basic survival has been difficult. There have been many, many moments when I wanted to just head back to the woods.

This is a bad spot for a busy mother, wife, political candidate and writer with a social life and organizational commitments to find herself in. Time spent with nature and away from the daily grind is supposed to help us gain perspective. It did, too much so, so much so that the regular routine seems petty and insignificant.  

So what now? Seriously, I’m asking.

Pizza and Pancakes

Pig out, have fun, help the homeless. What more could you want for a weekend?

Enjoy live music and good food while supporting the mission of Clean Socks Hope Friday night at Bearno’s Pizza in Jeffersonville. The event starts at 7 p.m. and includes a speaker and music by the Jake Parker Band.

A $15 ticket includes an all-you-can-eat-pizza buffet and soft drink. The proceeds go to the organization’s “No Child Goes Hungry,” campaign.

Clean Socks Hope is a local non-profit that focuses on fundraising for organizations that serve the homeless. They hosted a show last year on the RiverStage which benefitted Exit 0 and plan to be back at the RiverStage for their Hope Music Festival this year.

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Clean Socks Hope Executive Director Jeffrey Minton at 502-533-1135 or email jeff@cleansockshope.org. Check out the group’s website cleansockshope.org for more information.  

After stretching your belly with pizza Friday night, head out to Beef O’Bradys Saturday morning for an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast benefitting Exit O.

From 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m., $5 gets you all the pancakes you can handle, face time with Dora the Explorer  and the satisfaction of helping an active and compassionate local ministry.

Exit 0 is a faith-based organization serving the homeless who live in the vicinity of Exit 0 in Jeffersonville. For more information about the group or their event, contact Paul Strensrud at 502-541-2353 or look for Exit 0 on Facebook.

Happy eating and caring!