Archive for the “City & County Government” Category

Equipment repaired, landlines unaffected during outage

Fort Wayne, Ind. – 911 emergency service has been restored for cell phone users in the City of Fort Wayne and Allen County.

Earlier today an equipment failure in Indigital Telecom’s Indiana Fiber Network prevented 911 calls from cell phones from going through. The equipment was repaired and service has been restored. Cell phone users needed to use an alternate 7-digit number to reach the City or County’s emergency communications center.

Landlines were unaffected during this outage.

Landlines unaffected, will update when service is restored

Fort Wayne, Ind. – People using cellular phones to reach the City of Fort Wayne or Allen County Communications’ 911 service need to use an alternate number until further notice. Landlines are unaffected by this outage.

For cell phone users only, they should call 427-1222 to reach the City or 449-3000 to reach the County. The problem is expected to be resolved later this evening.

Indigital Telecom identified an equipment failure in the Indiana Fiber Network’s 911 system for cellular calls and is working to resolve the problem.

Hardball Capital and Barry Real Estate responded to Fort Wayne’s request to find out just what the hell was going on with the never-to-be-seen downtown condominiums. Normally you would hop on a plane and go sit down with your business partner when a multi-million dollar development hangs in the balance. Or, at the very least send a nice letter in the mail, and maybe even follow it up with a phone call. Instead Hardball/Barry sent a couple of emails.

Mayor King Henry is keeping the emails a secret.

Go figure.

Jeff Pruitt is speaking and states he’s all for consolidation, but against moving city/county government into two separate facilities with the city’s proposed acquisition of Renaissance Square. He’s questioning the $7.3 million dollar price tag and the millions required to renovate the facility. Pruitt stated he’s not opposed to moving if it’s going to save money, but thinks we should pay substantially less than the “asking price”.

Now comes Timmy Pape and believe it or not he’s saying council and local government should embrace social networking, like Twitter, etc. Maybe he’s jealous of John McGauley and Allen County government who have been on Twitter for some time.

Harper is speaking now. Talking about the CSO project and moving the police headquarters and giving the F&B tax control away. Says the CIB should give relief to taxpayers and the CSO first.

Liz Brown is looking hot; Michelle Obama can’t hold a candle to her

Below is a press release from the city. What are your thoughts?

Fort Wayne, Ind. – Reaffirming his pledge to build a more competitive community with a more responsive and effective government, Mayor Tom Henry today presented plans for a new city hall at 200 East Berry Street. The location will bring together City of Fort Wayne operations, including the Fort Wayne Police Department, Neighborhood Code, Fire Department administration and all departments currently housed in the City-County Building, except 911 Communications. It also paves the way for greater city and Allen County cost savings and cooperation benefiting all taxpayers and residents.

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The South Bend Polic Department is now using Twitter as another way to keep the public informed. They already allow people to subscribe to email alerts as well as voice-mail programs. For now, two officers are officially tweeting the updates.

Some of their latest Tweets:

- Help identify and apprehend this suspect from several area drugstore robberies. Know him? Photo at http://TwitPWR.com/gPP/
about 21 hours ago from web

- DID YOU KNOW? City Ordinance prohibits panhandling or solicitng at all city intersections or in traffic? $100 fine>> http://TwitPWR.com/gyr/
4:17 PM May 31st from web

- Child found safe in South Bend yesterday approx. 11pm. Great job to SBPD officers and community alike for assistance!
10:29 AM May 29th from web

- SBPD currently searching for missing 9 year old mentally challenged boy in River Park area. More details @ http://TwitPWR.com/g9X/
6:48 PM May 28th from web

What a great idea. Maybe the FWPD could do the same thing?

You can see their Tweets here: http://twitter.com/southbendpolice

FBI-led probe yields drug-network arrests

After more than eight months of investigation, a federal task force announced charges against more than a dozen people believed to be part of a citywide drug-trafficking network.

Interim U.S. Attorney David Capp, flanked by local, state and federal law enforcement officers, announced Thursday that 16 people had been charged in the conspiracy, with 15 arrested so far and more than $200,000 seized.

This is an interesting visual in how they spread their operations all over the city. You may have to zoom out to see all of the locations involved in the bust.

View Cocaine Bust in a larger map

Via Frugal Hoosiers:

So much for that downtown casino we’ve been hankering for in the FH newsroom. At a press conference today, Sen. David Long made it clear that he will not allow gaming issues to be considered during the special session.

He blamed gaming for derailing the budget in the House and asserted that he will not let that happen again. In place of a debate over license transfers and other controversial issues, he proposed the creation of a special commission to sort out all gaming matters during the interim and address them next year, you know, when things are less political.

By killing gaming issues for the special session, he did Pat Bauer, and himself, a big favor. Large blocks of the House Democratic Caucus had locked up their votes unless a land-based casino for Gary was included in the budget bill. Senator Long’s preemptive move here might help Bauer get his house in order. Now, if they could just kill that charter school cap we’d be making some real progress…

Tough luck Tommy, maybe next year?

[Long] said a summer study committee of legislators should be appointed to examine a number of lingering gambling questions and make recommendations for the 2010 session.

The city has been touting the fact that Fort Wayne is one of the 30 finalist for the All-American City Award. 10 winners will be selected. The city has been attempting to raise money to send some 25 or so individuals at a cost of about $1000 per person on an all-expense paid vacation to the newly renovated Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina where they will participate in the American Idol of Cities grand ceremonies.

The goal is to raise $25,000 for travel, hotel and other expenses. The city has already raised more than $6,000, said Rebecca Karcher, spokeswoman for Henry. Local businesses and people are also encouraged to donate to the travel fund.

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