A bad idea. The City of Fort Wayne and New Haven do not have bridge engineers. They do not have the internal capacity to maintain these bridges. There will not be consistency in maintenance of these bridges. There is not quality, single oversite when the County does this. Its just plain dangerous to the Citizens of Allen County. They should come up with a way to charge back the City and New Haven and I believe that the City and New Haven said they would pay to keep this at a single point of contact. Additionally, they continue to have the extra $8-10 million hanging around for the Maplecrest Extension project which should be reallocated to bridges, plain and simple. Let me be clear about the Maplecrest Extension project: 1)its a 40 year old idea that predates I-469. I-469 captures some of that business traffic. 2) Maplecrest is fully developed and it is not going to develop more. 3) Lehman Road provides yet another entrance into New Haven (albeit you have to go over railroad tracks–so what). 4) South Coliseum is underdeveloped and needs to be developed–this plan takes away from that development. 5) if the economic justification for the Maplecrest Extension is it will provide an incentive for yet another Walmart to be built in New Haven that is the worst economic justification that I have ever heard. New Haven is filled with small businesses that would be put out of business by a Walmart located there and we don’t need “another” Walmart in Allen County. We are plenty saturated. 6) The Maplecrest Extension will go right squarely through the middle of the City’s Biosolids Handling Facility. There will be a continual dust storm on that bridge. It will stink and biosolids will have to be displaced to make room for this project. That will cost the taxpayers additional money, lots of money, and this is not even accounted for in discussions about the Maplecrest Extension. I hope this helps to clarify my position. That money and Mr. Souder’s $11 million earmark should be reallocated to the County bridges. The County bridges should NOT be relegated to the City, New Haven or any subentity in Allen County.l

By the way while I am at it, let me state a couple of other items that need looking into: 1) Budgets for the County. They scrutinize general fund but barely look at special funds (Bridges—get it?). 2) Hiway Department for the County: they waited until last year, until everything broke down at once to pay $1 million to buy everything at the same time. The Hiway Department budget for equipment this year $0 dollars. How the heck is anyone supposed to budget with there needs floating between $1 million and $0? How about some planning around here instead of shooting from the hip? How about staggering equipment replacement instead of doing it all at once? How about using a lease (and the extremely low interest rates available now) to spread out the cost? We still budgeting in the 1800’s here?? This needs to change and change fast. 3) Stormwater ditches in the City of Fort Wayne: The City of Fort Wayne is ready and able to take over management of stormwater ditches in its limits. Right now it manages the rest of the stormwater drain system BUT not the ditches, which are managed by the County. Make Sense? Nooo. How about the Commissioners transfer this responsibility to the City instead of bridges? (I learned this by talking to the Engineers—its very helpful to talk with the engineers— Commissioners???).

That’s a few for now. Got to take my kid to softball practice. In the words of the Terminator: I’ll be back.

Jim Howard
Allen County Council at Large
May 6th Republican Primary

Jim - That’s Landin Road not Lehman. Other tyhan that, I’m in full agreement with your take on this - including the dumb assignment of diches to the county when they are located within the city limits.

I am also in full agreement with Jim.

The only thing I have to add is the current design of Maplecrest Ext will be it will limit flood waters of the Maumee from moving downstream. Hence, it will take the St. Joe and St. Mary’s longer to drain down during a flood. Which also may mean higher river levels during a flood. Of course we can then spend millions more building hiker dikes and purchasing more homes.

Thanx for the correction John. I met Landin Road but was in a rush. Sorry for the error.

Now, let me address some other items: 4) Bonding Bridges: Roy Buskirk is solidly against bonding for repair of bridges because of not wanting to pay interest and not wanting to pay attorney’s fees for the bond. Couple comments on this: I agree attorney’s fees for bonding are ridiculous. Its probably the biggest racket attorneys have going, unquestionably. Having said that if money can be obtained at a low interest rate to fix bridges and cost can be deferred in a wise matter for an absolute necessity then why would we burden a Recession economy with another Tax that it can’t handle? There are smart ways to handle financing and they should be looked at. I don’t like interest or attorney’s fees either but in some cases (not all) its a wiser thing to do. This economy requires that we act smartly on behalf of the taxpayers.
5) Fuel Hedging: I have been personally pushing this idea since well before gas was at $3.50 a gallon. It was an opportunity for the Municipal and County entities to get together and lock in prices for 1, 2 and 3 years out. The resistance was that Governmental entities could not buy into futures. But where there is a will there is a way. A solid structure is being set up at the Indiana Bond bank right now (because of ME) to allow for every City, Town and County to lock in all or a percentage of their fuel prices for future use. There was absolutely NO leadership from the County or the City on this issue. Jim Howard Advocated continuously on this issue and was ignored by those that thought FUEL was not a problem. Guess What? It is a problem and its not going away. Whether the County is going to join in or not I will have the City on this program by the 1st of the year. If I am on County Council you can bet that the County WILL be on this program. Consider that next time you fill up your GAS TANK. 6)911 Communications: It continues to make absolutely no sense to me to have a separate 911 group for the County and the City. Now this may surprise some but I strongly advocate that the Sheriff’s Department take over 911, period. The Sheriff is elected and accountable (and should continue to be elected and accountable) for this very important system for ALL County residents. 7) Kernan-Sheppard Report: I will say it again: the people that put this report and recommendations together are not stupid nor politically motivated. They made recommendations that make sense for this State and if we want to move forward as a State we had BETTER listen to them. There is absolutely no need for 3 County Commissioners in this County. It is top heavy, cumbersome and bueracratic. There is absolutely NO WAY that County and City government is going to be streamlined EVER if County Government does not change as outlined in the Kernan-Sheppard Report. Purely functional positions which require expertise should not be elected but Appointed. Liz Blosser is a great Auditor and she shouldn’t have to run for office all the time to prove it. Its ridiculous. Bob Lee should have been able to stay County Treasurer if he wanted to and was doing the job well. The problem with mulitiple elected officials (who don’t need to be elected officials) is that a) instead of rationale competent decision-making petty political power plays happen and b) County Citizens don’t KNOW who to hold accountable. Accountable Government? Are you kidding me? There is so much pass the buck with the multiplicity of elected officials that it has never and will never happen. Transparency? About as Transparent as a London Fog. Ask the News-Sentinel or the Journal if they understand County Government. They can’t begin to understand it or report on it—and that is why they never report on it but in election season. 8)Streamlining City and County government functions. Truth is there are no success stories here. Every move to put together functions has been PAINFUL and DIFFICULT. This is not the model of efficiency that all of our Political SALESMEN would make it out to be. I would want straight answers for Allen County Citizens instead of a Used Car Sales job (no offense to Used Car Salesmen because I think recently I have gotten a more honest pitch from you than from those in political leadership on some of these things). When we look at putting government functions together we need to look in an honest fashion. Does it save the taxpayer money? How much does it cost for us to do it now? Should it wait until we can afford it? Know what? We are in a Recession right now and the tax base is not scheduled for growing. Jumping on ideas to get headlines is ignorant and a disservice to the taxpayers.

I have more but I will pause here for a breather. By the way: Journal and News Sentinel talked with me about these things but did not feel them important to publish. Phil Marx: its hard to get ideas out there in that kind of climate and I can’t afford a website at this point.

Jim Howard
Allen County Council at Large
May 6th Republican Primary

Jim,

A web page is very easy and very cheap! I will donate my copy of Microsoft FrontPage and you can use HostMonster for a mere $70 per year.

Now, I am not claiming the site would have all the bells and whistles available, but you can certainly build one that expresses your views for all to see.

Check out my site, I built it with NO knowledge of the Internet or programming language. Granted, it isn’t a fancy place like Dan could build, but for $70/yr……a great start! It is easy to update….I add recipes to mine every weekend…..so you can address the “hot” issues as they arise.

Kevin “The BBQGURU” Taylor
http://www.thebbqguru.net

Somehow I think if asked, AWB would be more than happy to help Jim with a website I bet.

Could be, but I figured I would offer.

Okay, okay. I need to set up a website. I am probably a little late here.
I had gotten mixed signals on this one. Should have stuck with my instincts.

Jim Howard
Allen County Council At Large
May 6th Republican Primary

Will someone please explain to me how this is any different than a tax increase? I live in Allen County and pay the same tax rates as everyone else. Why does it matter where in the county the bridge is located? The point is it IS IN the county!

Jim Howard,

I think you have done a very adequate job of explaining your position here on many different issues. And I understand your frustrations of not having the newspapers tell the complete story - that’s why we blog!

Try setting up a blogspot account. It’s free, and if I can do it then probably anybody can. I’m sure you could get plenty of advice from Dan or other bloggers if you have any technical difficulties with it though.

https://www.blogger.com/start

One final piece of advice, Jim. Wait until after the primary to set up a blog. You probably won’t reach many people or change many minds in the next week. And blogging has a slight learning curve to it. If you start now, that will probably be just long enough for you to make a lot of trial and error mistakes.

If/when you win the primary, you should set up a blog though. For someone who is as able and willing to explain themselves in detail as you are, this will probably only help your image.

By the way, I must be among the 10% or so of the people who actually thik the Maplecrest project is a good idea (albeit unwisely managed). But I like the way you explain yourself when you voice your opposition to or questions about it.

Good luck in the primary. If you survive, I’ll most likely be voting for you in the general election.

Thank you for your support Phil.

Jim Howard

If cities are required to maintain their own bridges, they will have two choices:
1. Pay the county to fix the bridge.
2. Pay a contractor from outside the county to fix the bridge.

OR 3) Hire an inhouse bridge engineer and do it themselves because I am quite sure that if its their responsibility they are going to want to inhouse it in Fort Wayne. Then, of course, we get into an entirely new discussion as to how that contractor from outside the County is selected and yet another layer of bueracracy is added to the maintenance of bridges which further jeopardizes people’s lives. Aren’t the bridges worth centralized maintenance and control or am I asking too much? Is the Minneapolis Bridge incident too far removed from our memories?

Jim Howard
Allen County Council at Large
May 6th Republican Primary

Well, Jim,…..remember the Minnesota bridge was GW’s fault…

Let see… Are the County people the same ones who speak of streamlining local gov? Are these the same ones who support consol. of the 911 with the Sheriff running it?

If there is a problem with the law then they should state that they seek to have the law changed at state level so Allen County has the legal right to collect the fund instead of it going to the sub groups. PLUS, that said money can only be spent on BRIDGES. Then again this would show real leadership and doing the best for every taxpayer in Allen County. Show some leadership you dummies or resign.