Posts Tagged “Tom Henry”

By Jim Sack

It was a bittersweet moment today for Graham Richard, our former mayor.

Graham stood at the very back of the crowd of 200 or so people, mostly heavy hitters, politicians and affiliates of one downtown organization or another, to watch current Mayor Tom Henry, Redevelopment Director Greg Leatherman and a few others give and take credit for the new hotel adjacent to the ballpark. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

September first is the grand opening day of the new hotel adjacent to Parkview Field in downtown Fort Wayne. It should be seen as a feather in the cap of Mayor Tom Henry, and should also call into question the administration’s support for Barry Realty.

When Mayor Graham Richard envisioned the massive central city development there were four components: the ball park, the hotel, the condo/retail building and a parking garage. Three are now operating. Only the Barry Realty promise to build the condo building -four stories, scores of condos, ground-floor entertainment and offices- remains unfulfilled. Read the rest of this entry »

All has been quiet on the Barry Real Estate, Harrison Square fubar situation.

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By Jim Sack

It was nearly a love-fest at the co-location summit yesterday. First, Sheriff Ken Fries and Police Chief Rusty York all but held hands as they sang the praises of the other and endorsed the idea of co-location. Then the architects gave their upbeat overview of numbers concerning the final two options, Scheme A or Scheme B, surprisingly with not many dollars separating one from the other. Then the elected officials from Roy Buskirk to Paula Hughes voiced their approvals. In the end, co-location a la Scheme A, was agreed to: public safety in One Main and development and administration in 200 Berry. Unanimous! Only Paul Moss, who had served as devil’s advocate and more during the months of haggling, sounded like he wanted to vote “no.” Three county commissioners, one mayor, three members of city council and three members of county council all clasped hands and sang, as one cynic noted, Kumbaya. Paul had no option.

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Last year we reported this.

Henry hired Palermo Galindo as Fort Wayne’s Hispanic-immigrant liaison back in June. Palermo Galindo operates Centro De Dinero, one of those high-priced check cashing services whose target audience is the Hispanic market, and undoubtedly Fort Wayne’s illegal alien population.

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Having seen the intergovernmental task force on co-location today I much prefer sausage making.

At least with sausage making you can drink a nice German beer, say a Kostritzer from Gera, to dull the pain. There was no such option today. The meeting was comical at times, disappointing most of the time, disrespectful, inarticulate, confused, and oh yes, a mess.

The highly respected John Stafford chairs the task force and even as capable and articulate as he is the meeting got away from him quickly. The seating chart should have been a giveaway. One the left (literally, not figuratively) were Councilmen Tom Smith, Tim Pape and Mitch Harper. On the right (literally and figuratively) were County Council members Roy Buskirk, Paula Hughes and Paul Moss. In the middle (to their misfortune) were commissioners Linda Bloom and Nelson Peters, moderator Stafford and placed uncomfortably near Councilman Moss our fuming Mayor Tom Henry. (Bill Brown fortuitously had scheduled something else moons ago so he was spared the confusion and confrontation and pettiness.)

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By Jim Sack

As one local government official said, “there was conflict between Pat Roller and Greg Purcell and Tom (Henry) chose her.”

Greg Purcell is returning to Michigan to care for ailing family members. Maybe that is the case, but it sounds as lame a reason to leave the high-paying job as Mike Pence saying he prefers the life of a Congressman to that of a Senator. Something is not right.

Purcell, is seems, did speak truth to power, was critical of the way matters such as the casino issue and the I&M fight were handled and eventually lost favor with the mayor. You might remember the mayor said he was neutral on the issue of bringing a casino to Fort Wayne and then was seen lobbying hard in the legislature for just that outcome. In the matter of the I&M lease of City Light property the matter was and remains poorly explained to the public, has become entwined in legal machinations and has not been the win for the community and himself that the mayor expected.

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By Jim Sack

Fort Wayne will miss Greg Purcell. He is a capable administrator, a relatively skilled politician and a nice guy, really.

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Karen Goldner, one of Tom Henry’s lapdogs is picking up where Henry failed in 2001 by introducing a change to Chapter 93 of the Fort Wayne city code.

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If anyone outside of Fort Wayne is following the story on Tom Henry and the Fort Wayne folly called Renaissance Square, they must be getting a chuckle as Henry whips out his mojo.

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One thing is becoming clear.

Engineering firms have a high level of interest in Fort Wayne’s “Combined Sewer Overflow” project, which is estimated in today’s dollars to cost upwards of 1/4 billion dollars.

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