Flip the Fort

2010-05-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Headwaters Junction

2010-03-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

A possible collaboration between the city and the Fort Wayne Historical Train Society,

http://www.lynchpinpictures.com/headwaters/home.html

If the city was looking for something to anchor the North River project...this is it!

Dwenger teacher to run for state representative for 81st district | The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN

2010-01-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

Dwenger teacher to run for state representative for 81st district | The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN

Mr. Obergfell was my high school American History teacher, and football coach. He also is a member of my parish Saint Jude. He is a honest hard working man, and I know he is going to give the dems a run for their money.

Still on the move, and making history....

2010-01-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

JG
Published: January 16, 2010 3:00 a.m.
Marian University to open medical school
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS – Marian University announced plans Friday to open what would be Indiana’s second medical school, which would train osteopathic physicians and help provide primary care doctors.

Marian officials and the Indiana Osteopathic Association hope the new school opens in 2012 with its first class of up to 150 students. The university said it had a $30 million pledge from an anonymous donor toward the $75 million it needs to raise to start the school.

Marian President Daniel Elsener said the medical school fits with the nursing programs now at the 2,300-student Catholic school.

“We think we have a chance to really add something in terms of physicians to the medical community,” Elsener said.

Osteopathic doctors have similar training to traditional physicians, but also are trained in diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal problems.

The Indiana University School of Medicine had been aware of the osteopathic association’s efforts to open an Indiana school, Dean D. Craig Brater said.

“We have always assumed it’s just a question of time,” he said. “We agonize every year that we have to say no to a number of students that we know will make good doctors. This means that there are going to be more opportunities for more of our kids to get into medical school.”

The IU medical school admits about 320 students a year, but has had to drop plans to add 40 more students because of state funding cutbacks, Brater said.

Indiana has about 12,000 medical doctors, but that is 3,500 short of what is needed, according to a 2006 study by the IU medical school. One of the biggest areas of need is for family and general practitioners – particularly in rural areas of the state.

Sixty-two percent of the 855 doctors of osteopathy in Indiana are primary care physicians. By contrast, 44 percent of IU’s most recent medical school graduates went into primary care.

“The IU med school is an excellent institution, but their graduates are not going in to primary care medicine,” said Mike Claphan, executive director of the Indiana Osteopathic Association.

Some Indiana health care leaders say the two medical schools could complement each other.

“Indiana is unique inasmuch as we only have one medical school,” said Vince Caponi, CEO of St. Vincent Health, which runs 17 hospitals around the state. “That’s a lot of pressure on IU. IU produces wonderful physicians, but quite frankly, I think they could double their capacity and they still wouldn’t meet the need.”

Elsener said Marian officials know much needs to be done to open the medical school and that it could spend $30 million on its facility.

Copyright © 2010 The Journal Gazette. All rights reserved. News service copy is used with permission. The information contained in the report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Journal Gazette or granting news service.

State offers requirements, errr suggestions?

2010-01-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

The state BOE sent suggestions for making cost cuts out to the areas school districts today, see article. From article:

Specific suggestions include:

•Freezing salaries and benefits and examining health insurance plans to determine cost effectiveness.

•Reducing the number of activities or sports, or charging students participation fees. Also, eliminating weekend activities outside the varsity-competition level to save on energy costs and personnel.

•Focusing curriculum on core subjects and narrowing the offering of electives.

•Outsourcing transportation, cafeteria, janitorial and other services.

•Increasing class sizes, reconfiguring buildings to reduce staff and operational costs and not offering summer school beyond what the state reimbursement can cover.

OK, most of the districts are already looking at next years budgets. When we first heard of cuts, these suggestions should have came out. I have been in line with the Governor's office since he started, but when education starts slipping this bad we need a serious reevaluation of our state's priorities. Indiana is already struggling with education, we should have thrown caution into the wind and tried to save our districts from such huge cuts. Does anyone know where else they are cutting money from? Because all I am seeing is the schools getting the cheese cutter here.

New Bishop in FWSB

2009-11-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

Article from the New Sentinel

Welcome to Fort Wayne, Bishop Kevin Rhoades from Harrisburg, PA.
More than likely he'll be trading in his philly cheese steaks for some coney dogs. He seems like a very highly qualified bishop, canon law background, former head of a seminary. I can't wait to see what he is going to do to improve our diocese. Seems like a lot of emphasis will be put on catholic identity and education, especially the five colleges.

$45,000 Letter, what a joke!!!!

2009-11-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

From today's JG Letter costs city _45_000 | The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.

I can think of a list of things that would have been cheaper and saved city utilities this chunk of revenue.

-Passenger pigeons with note saying "I promise not to screw up the electricity"
- Put it on the Tincaps jumbo screen, it's still a viable billboard since the Harrison has been built......yet
-Call Indiana Newscenter and do a press conference, they always need a good story, emphasis on need good story
- Editorial in the JG or the Sentinel
- Put the letter on the city's website
- Put an extra reindeer on the side of National City bank wearing a t-shirt that says "Viva I&M"

Anyone else have any cheaper ideas???

The lights are on but no one seems to be home....

2009-09-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Article published Sep 3, 2009
Consultant backs city's perspective on dispute with I&M

A utility consultant paid $95,000 by the city of Fort Wayne agrees with the city’s position on two major points of contention with Indiana Michigan Power Co.

Helping Fort Wayne prepare for the end of the City Light lease is much more difficult because Indiana Michigan Power Co. is not cooperating, Anand Gangadharan, the chief executive of NOVI Energy, a Novi, Mich., consulting firm, told the city’s Board of Public Works on Wednesday.

Gangadharan also backed the city’s position on its right to serve customers in the lease area after it ends.

He said he and his fellow consultants at NOVI Energy have been thwarted in their efforts on Fort Wayne’s behalf because they have not been allowed close access to the electrical transmission equipment. Instead, they’ve had to do the best inspection they can from behind fences and at a distance. He also said I&M has not responded to requests from the consultant for technical information.

“Is that normal?” City Utilities Director Kumar Menon asked.

“Not at all,” Gangadharan said.

Susanne Moorman Rowe, communications director for I&M, said the utility would allow such inspections, but I&M insists on escorting people around energized equipment.

“We said, ‘Just call us and schedule.’ They never called to schedule,” she said.

On another central dispute between the city and I&M, NOVI Energy also came down on the side of the city. I&M says that under state law, which assigns territories to utilities, it has the right to serve more than 60,000 customers located in the area of the lease – the area served by City Light power in 1974. The city says the lease gives it the right to serve those customers when the lease expires.

“I&M is refusing to acknowledge that the city still owns the distribution franchise,” Gangadharan said.

NOVI Energy was hired by the city in July to help develop a transition plan for the end of its 35-year lease with I&M. The consultant is being paid mainly for its technical analysis and assistance. It also is helping the city develop a request for proposals. Those proposals would come from utilities or utility operators, in addition to I&M, that could operate the utility if the city takes it back after the lease ends in March.

Gangadharan did not say exactly when the city might formally solicit proposals from companies that would operate a municipal utility. But he said it wouldn’t be long.

“There are plenty of qualified operators who can provide the same level of service,” Gangadharan said. “We are essentially hired to find those qualified operators, and we have begun the process.”

It's come to the point where I just can't stand to see the city spend more money on consultants. Every time a contract needs to be renewed or a big decision made, the city run to the bidding table to find someone else to tell them what to do. Between all the elected officials and city employees you would think that their would be a think tank big enough to do some work without all the outside help.
Even as far as this situation with I&M goes, why can't we send our own people over to talk with them, instead of playing the "he said, she said" game with a bunch of hack consultants. Has Fort Wayne government and business gotten so big that decisions can't be made with a couple meetings and a hand shake? I guess so, and I also want to point out the great job I&M did this past winter during the ice storm, they were incredible.
So the next time a decision like this roles around, grab all the six sigma trained employees and the city managers, and lock them in a room until they figure it out.

Student Loan Help Doesn't Help Student with Loans

2009-05-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

It seems like on a steady weekly basis I read an article or catch a web ad for student loan assistance. These look like they could offer me some much needed help with my student loans. However, upon further investigation I find out that the help is only for those who are just now applying and going to college.

I attended rallies for both the republicans and the democrats last fall, and I heard the same thing from both parties...."Those with student loan debt will be helped", I took this as a sign that after graduation I would have some sort of avenue to get some financial alleviation, if at the least I was hoping for consolidation with out a steep raise in interest rate.

Turns out that the DC think tank that we elected can't figure out how to get me a few extra bucks. Instead it's much easier for them to help people who are just getting started with college. And let me just be clear I'm 23 I have a BA in Education and I'm in my first year of my career. Someone who is 18 and has only accomplished high school and someone who is 20 years into a career and stalling because of a lack of a diploma can both get more student loan assistance than I can.

So I propose that if you are a college graduate who has at least a 4-year degree from an accredited college, and you have started a career within the first year of graduating, and you have stayed in your home state to work. You should have half of you student loan debt forgiven by the US government. This would reduce our monthly debt, and cut our payment plans in half, making our ability to spend money that much more powerful.

Chances are that I am going to organize some recent graduates into a activist group and we're gonna tug on ears until we get some help.......anyone interested? I have all summer to do this.

Pirates are real?!?!?!?!?!

2009-04-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, but MSNBC really doesn't need to dumb it down for us this much. I understand that there are pirates in modern seafaring times. This women acts likes she is reporting on a UFO sighting or an Elvis sighting, quit with the funny and give me the news. And while I am complaining, who is the genius funny guy in the art design dept. that thought about using the jolly roger as the symbol for that backdrop. Jack Sparrow and the commodore of the queens navy are going at it in the south seas. speed boats with machete and AK-47 wielding Somalians are taking down corporate tankers.

Oh well, at least Blackwater will get a second chance at the security market with the new need for armed personnel on ships. Not that it is a real need, but with all this press people will demand it be done.