Christmas Council Comes to Town

Have you taken a sneak peak along Broadway ? Have you seen the visions of sugar plums and all things yummy?

“Light Up Lorain and City Hall Square”

Saturday, November 28
Fabulous Fireworks display
Horse drawn carriage and trackless Train rides
Trolley Ride to Lakeview Park to see their wonderful displays
$1.00 per person per ride for all rides
Rain date is Sunday November 29th

photo Mark Teleha

ALL NEW for 2009!“Live” Toy Soldiers & Other Holiday Characters

The evening of November 28 &
every Friday from December 4th to December 18
12 noon to 1:00pm
Come and see live toy soldiers & other
live Christmas characters along Broadway!

NEW! Toyland & Santa Land come to our Downtown
Please join Santa and his elves at his NEW location for this
year.

This display is always a family favorite and sure to
bring a smile to all who come. Also experience the magic along
Broadway with many storefronts decorated in Toyland motif and
dozens of Toy Soldiers adorning the lamp posts! Sponsor one Today!

NEW for 2009!
Trackless Train and Horse – Carriage Rides
Train; November 28th and December 12
Carriage rides; November 28th and December 19
$1.00 per person per ride

“Caroling along Broadway” NEW!
Share the joy of caroling with downtown businesses
and visitors in the Broadway area. Groups,
individuals and families are welcome to sing holiday songs

Several NEW decorations for this year and a lighted corner of City Hall!
Please check our website for a
complete listing of holiday events, dates call the
Downtown Christmas Council at 440.225.2066
A Holiday Tradition
“Creating a Magical Broadway for the Holidays”

ED NOTE: There are a few elves and makers of magic inhabiting our area, they are working so hard to bring smiles and laughter and they could use your help too! This has been a labor of love and a huge amount of work has gone into this by these “positively passionate” volunteers.

Help “Lighten the Load and Light the Night ” won’t you and share the cheer!!!
SEE HOW TO BE A SPONSOR HERE
http://www.cityoflorain.org/announcements/?f=400

High Schools -Going- Going

Check out

No. 1 High
http://www.locophotogblog.com/?p=418

Remember Confucius- word to the wise?

Remember back in May 2009 when this blog covered “Chinese culture” and all things “tripping”

“HE WHO WILL NOT ECONOMIZE WILL HAVE TO AGONIZE!”

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/05/17/news/mj1042750.txt

The Agony of defeat:

Nov 4th 2009 Lorain School Levy Fails
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2009/11/04/lorain-schools-levy-fails-leaves-district-with-some-very-serious-challenges/
Morning Journal:
http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/11/18/news/mj1906978.txt

Chronicle Telegram:
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2009/11/18/high-schools-on-the-chopping-block-in-lorain/

Better to have foresight than 20/20 hindsight ……..

Champagne and Caviar- Off the Smith Menu

November 16, 2009
To the editor,
Champagne and Caviar in a Beer and Perch Town!

For the past 8 years Lorain’s public school system has been dining from a Champagne and Caviar menu. At the beginning of the 2001 school year, July 1, 2001, the school system had a new superintendent and a $9,000,000 surplus. Five years later the district had to borrow $5,400,000 to end the 2005-06 school year in the black.

A year later that money was gone and so was the superintendent. No, she didn’t take any money with her. She, with the school board’s support, just spent it all. Where did the money go? Well for starters, between July of 2001 and June of 2003 the payroll at the Charleston Administration Center grew by over 2 Million Dollars annually. Departments that once were staffed by 2 or 3 people now had grown to 5 or 6 people. That hasn’t changed but change it must.

I predicted that a financial crisis was looming 5 years ago. No one paid any attention. Now the chickens have come home to roost. In the past Lorain public school administrators knew Lorain had fewer administrators per student than other districts in Ohio. They also knew why.

They knew that the citizens of the school district could not afford a school system loaded with administrative costs. Every administrator took on more responsibilities and drew smaller salaries. The system had fewer administrators when we had 17,000 students in the 1970’s than we have today with 8,000 students.

Lorain is a town rich in heritage. It is a town full of wonderful people. It is a “Beer and Perch” town and I love it dearly. My dad grew up here, I grew up here, my children grew up here, and my grandchildren are now growing up here.

About a year before she left, the superintendent in a leaked e-mail to a board member, revealed her true feelings about Lorain’s citizens’ abilities to think. She wrote that they were “Brain Dead”. Close to $100,000 was spent trying to locate the source of that leak.

The school system can no longer dine on Champagne and Caviar. The failure of the school levies in 2008 and 2009 verify that Lorain’s citizens are not brain dead. Lorain’s public schools must operate to serve Lorain’s children and for no other reason. As my grandmother liked to say, “A word to the wise is sufficient”.Jim Smith

Note: Jim Smith is a member of the Board of Education

Another lawsuit- Lorain

With more to come I am thinking!!!
from today’s Plain Dealer
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/lorain_family_sues_city_for_wr.html

Remember When?????

Lorain family sues city, says negligence caused wrongful death
By Thomas Feran, The Plain Dealer
November 16, 2009, 7:00AM

LORAIN, Ohio — The family of a Lorain woman is suing the city for wrongful death, charging that her fatal illness stemmed from a 2006 sewer break caused by the city’s negligence.

Charles and Mary Williams, of Oak Point Road, say that doctors blame mold and bacteria from the flood of sewage for the chronic infections that last May killed Mary’s 84-year-old mother, Dorothy Dulick.

CT Consultants, which designed the sewer line, and Insituform Technologies Inc., which was under contract to repair the corroded line, were also named as defendants in the suit filed in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.

Unspecified damages are sought.

The Williams family earlier joined neighbors in filing a suit that continues against the city for property damage caused by the sewer break.

Raw sewage, feces and other debris flooded the Williams house and others on Nov. 30, 2006, after a 36-inch sewer line collapsed under Old Lake Road, at the corner of Oak Point Road near Lorain’s PQM Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Williams’ suit says. The homes flooded a second time when the sewer system failed again on Dec. 25.

The flood caused structural damage to the house. But the Williams family, including Dulick, continued to live amid the damage and smell because they could not afford to move, said Andrew Goldwasser, the family attorney. And Charles Williams lost his home-based business because of the damage, the attorney added.

The city of Lorain knew about the sewer line problem from a rupture in 2004 that was fixed with a “short-term concrete patch,” Goldwasser said.

Attorneys for the city did not return messages for comment on Friday.

Contact Tom Feran: feran@plaind.com or 216-999-6251.

Mark Stewart- You got Mail!!!

Mark Stewart . ” I am a General of the County ”

He is at it again…. just loves the US Postal Service….. but then of course he has his own private real estate fund to draw from … watch this space

YOUR INPUT NEEDED!!!!

UPDATE!!!! A LETTER SENT TO THE LOCAL MEDIA FROM JIM SMITH BOE MEMBER

November 12, 2009

Dear Editor,

I voted no on a resolution to consider placing a school levy on the ballot in a special election in February 2010 for several reasons.
1. According to the Board of Elections it could cost the district as much as $52,000.
2. Even if it passes we will receive no new money until 2011.
3. We can put it on in May for far less.
4. The economy is not likely to improve in the next 3 months.
5. Until a recovery plan is adopted by the board we really don’t know what we need.

I believe that for a district that will be broke within 12 months, the board should be more prudent in spending public funds. I am still open to changing my mind based on public comment received at the November 17th special meeting and strongly encourage citizens of the school district to attend that meeting and voice their opinions.

The meeting will start at 6:00pm at the Charleston Admin Center, 2350 Pole Ave. I will make my final decision at that meeting. The board wants to hear from the public.

Attention Citizens living the Lorain City School District
The Lorain School Board is holding a special meeting to seek public comment on whether or not it should it should spend $25,000 to $35,000 of public funds to place a tax levy on the ballot in a special election in February 2010.

The public is encouraged to attend the meeting and inform the board of their opinions on the matter. Your opinion is important. If you cannot attend you may send me your comments via e-mail. My e-mail address is
jsmith@lorain.k12.oh.us.
Special Board Meeting
November 17, 2009
6:00pm
Charleston Center
2350 Pole Ave.
Lorain, Ohio

Kelo Case- A home lost for what???

The End of an Eminent Domain Error:
Pfizer R&D Headquarters Closes in New London, Conn.

Land Taken in Infamous Kelo Supreme Court Case Remains Empty More Than Four Years After Ruling

Arlington, Va.—Pfizer, Inc., announced today that the company will be closing its former research and development headquarters in New London, Conn. This was a project that involved massive corporate welfare and led to the abuse of eminent domain that ultimately bulldozed the home of Susette Kelo and her neighbors in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. City of New London.

This was the same bogus development plan that five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court refused to question when the property owners of New London pleaded to have their homes spared from the wrecking ball. Justices mentioned that there was a plan in place, and that so long as lawmakers who are looking to use eminent domain for someone’s private gain had a plan, the courts would wash their hands. Now, more than four years after the redevelopment scheme passed constitutional muster—allowing government to take land from one private owner only to hand that land over to another private party who happens to have more political influence—the plant that had been the magnet for the development is closing its doors and the very land where Susette Kelo’s home once stood remains barren to all but feral cats, seagulls and weeds.

Scott Bullock, who argued the Kelo case for the Institute for Justice on behalf of the New London homeowners, said, “Today’s announcement that Pfizer is closing its research facility in New London demonstrates the folly of government plans that involve massive corporate welfare and that abuse eminent domain for private development. The majority opinion in Kelo v. New London described the Fort Trumbull project as a ‘carefully considered’ plan, but it has been an unmitigated disaster from start—and now—to finish.”

Bullock continued, “Project supporters blame the economic downturn for this turn of events. That is all the more reason why taxpayer dollars should not be put at risk in speculative and risky development schemes.”

Despite the Court’s Kelo ruling, much change for the good has occurred.

Dana Berliner, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice and co-counsel in the Kelo case, said, “In the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo ruling, 43 states have now reformed their laws to better protect property owners. What’s more, seven state high courts have stepped in post-Kelo to protect the rights of homeowners against eminent domain abuse. The high courts of Hawaii, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New Jersey and Rhode Island have all ruled in favor of property owners and against eminent domain for private gain. None has made Kelo the rule under their own state constitutions.”

The tragic saga of the Kelo case is detailed in Jeff Benedict’s book Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage (Grand Central Publishing; 2009). In it, Benedict shares with readers how Kelo took on the City of New London, a cast of politically powerful villains and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case that sparked a revolutionary change nationwide in eminent domain laws—except in Connecticut.
# # #

Christina Walsh
Director of Activism and Coalitions
Institute for Justice
901 N. Glebe Road, Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22203
(703) 682-9320
(703) 682-9321 – fax
www.ij.org
www.castlecoalition.org

“Don’t Let The Memory Of Them Drift Away”

Please also check the articles here
http://twbrit.com/2009/11/11/the-11th-hour-of-the-11th-day-of-the-11th-month/

and here
http://www.locophotogblog.com/?p=417

Photo Source Original Through EPA Evening Standard

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

Here it comes CRA(PPPPP)

DEPENDS ON THE DAY IT SEEMS..what the politicians have to say

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/11/10/news/mj1869084.txt
HAVE THEY CHANGED THEIR TUNE??? Not what they told us ??

Before the vote, Mayor Anthony Krasienko told council the city’s legal advisers have said the original ordinance, passed in 2006, is “illegal, unlawful and flawed.”

He said the program was administered poorly by the then-Mayor Craig Foltin and former Community Development Director Sanford Prudoff.

HOWEVER LET US GO BACK TO:

Thursday January 29th-2009
http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/01/29/news/doc4981224403197887573517.txt
Krasienko said the CRA program is working well despite those possible problem areas. He said no changes need to be made in the Community Development Department’s administration of the program because the auditor’s office has a check on them.

“Ziance said the CRA program is perfectly legal and falls within what the state statute allows.”
and then there is this from the attorney’s to this blog

http://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/cra-questions-and-answers/

QUESTION
The legislation stating the abatement period “should”
provide the percentage of abatement….
Q. Does the stated abatement in the contract held by the property owners meet that requirement . For instance back to the 50% abatement for 1 year UNLESS……..100% for 15 years or 12 ( depending if it is a rehab etc.

ANSWER……..

Yes, combined with the language in the states CRA Act

( what is a reader supposed to think??)

AND NOW BACK FROM THE FUTURE THE BETLESKI BACKERS
Chronicle Telegram:
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2009/11/10/lorain-council-rejects-deal-with-county-auditor-on-tax-breaks/

I maintain those who voted against this don’t understand it and never have and want to get out of dealing with it by passing the buck to the 9th District Court,” Holcomb said. “The only issue the appellate court can rule on is whether (Common Pleas Court) Judge (Mark) Betleski can hear it.”

That’s something Stewart confirmed Monday night, saying it’s “an impossibility” for the appellate court to decide whether the CRA legislation now on the books is legal.

AND let us not forget that Mr. Greg Holcomb had more than a passing interest

http://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/is-it-the-fish-that-stinks-or-the-company/

Why were the two Lorain council people free to speak to the Plain Dealer in that article -
Councilman Holcomb and
Councilman Snodgrass

when at least one informed the public and myself, on at least two occasions, they were unable to discuss the CRA program due to pending litigation. Yet, apparently, no such “gag order” was in place for the PD article and why wasn’t the fact mentioned in that PD article, that the two most outspoken critics of the City CRA and fellow council person Dan Given ( as noted on the pages of WoM and page 5 PD article)of THEIR other hats?

The question that begs to be asked “were they acting in the City of Lorain’s best interest as City Council people or as EMPLOYEES of Mark Stewart, their boss, the respondent in the lawsuits?”

WHAT HAT?

although now working elsewhere was also a Stewart employee during much of this argy bargy ..

and Here comes THE FRIENDLY JUDGE YOU can run but you can’t hide – we still see you with Mon Generale Stewart

http://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/is-it-the-fish-that-stinks-or-the-company/

Just to repeat:

And speaking of too many hats:

People in CRA 4 cannot even complain to their council person (Craig Snodgrass)

because he is under a “gag order” and is also the Chief Deputy of Finance for County Auditor Mark Stewart. ( enough to make you gag!)

The other argument that Chandra and Stewart make in their dismissal

The City is a party to two pending actions, a declaratory judgement and an administrative appeal, before the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas etc

TOO MANY HATS

Mark Betleski, The Judge

is the brother of Phil Betleski
(‘Nervous’ Betleski avoids jail time for theft in office)
http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/03/04/news/mj697177.txt

the former Lorain City Councilman who voted AYE on the amendments and then was running against Dan Given for Council at Large, contacted the Chronicle with his concerns, which the Chronicle then wrote about AFTER the election,

LORAIN — Councilman Phil Betleski has accused two fellow councilmen of violating the Ohio ethics code and is calling for one of them to resign from a committee position. Betleski, D-2nd Ward, sent an e-mail to Councilman Dan Given dated May 1 in which he asks Given to recuse himself as chairman of the Tax Incentive Review Committee. He also wrote that Councilman Tony Krasienko, another committee member, was in violation, too.

Then we have Judge Betleskis Law Clerk- John Keys -who just happens to be married to Linda Keys who sent out the letters of denial ( you guessed it )works for Mark Stewart as well

The abatements were first called into question earlier this year when they came across the desk of county auditor employee Linda Keys…… The chief deputy for the real estate section in the Lorain County Auditor’s office, Keys is the official who processes abatement applications

I wonder why the PD isn’t asking about that seemingly conflict of interest? And they have a problem with Dan Given wearing too many hats !!! Can we say hypocritical? And can we say

people who wear too many hats themselves -shouldn’t toss them

AND THEY FEEL COMFORTABLE SHARING THEIR LUNCH WITH HERE COME THE JUDGE!!!!!!

-
Let us remember the “Betleski Connection” as we read these words of wisdom from the Generale
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2009/11/10/lorain-council-rejects-deal-with-county-auditor-on-tax-breaks/

“The case is assigned to Judge Betleski,” Stewart said. “You have to go to the local judge before you can to the appellate court.”

AND HE WITH THE DEEPEST POCKETS WINS AND WE THE TAXPAYERS LOSE!!!!

A question: can it be that if the Judge rules in favor of the County then the City of Lorain can indeed be held harmless for future litigation ???? Just a thought