In My Opinion by John R. Stanczak

www.johnstanczak.com

Concerning the landlord tax that Councilwoman Lydia Duncan, Councilman Jack Parker, Peggy Magill, Kerry Currier, Greg Boulard, and Lisa Provines are trying to pass at the city council meetings. Maybe Vincennes is calling us names but let's just call it a cockroach tax or maybe a Critter People tax; I am against this tax under any name because it is not a workable solution no matter what Vincennes says. Vincennes has already spent a lot of money on legal fees over this same issue and are now just setting and waiting for Bicknell to follow them through the inevitable court dates to see if we can establish a win that they can use to engage a tax of their own.

There are already ordinances to force exterior cleanup and we are not enforcing them. To add one more fee for living and investing in Bicknell is not the

From: John Stanczak

To: lydia-duncan

Monday, June 05, 2006 9:49 AM

Subject: Asper your request

A short list of “to do” for the council.

Here is the list:

Change Election Day to match state and federal elections Days; this will save Bicknell money and would attract more people to the poles to vote for the city elections.

Change the council districts in Bicknell to match existing county voting precincts to assure proper public representation; one council person to one council district which would allow Bicknell to have only one councilman at large instead of 5 councilpersons at large as we have now.

Remove all council members from the Board of Works and replace them with Bicknell citizens; it is nonsense for council members to report to themselves at the council meeting then vote on their own research.

Install new council rules that require that all expenses be brought to the full council for approval with the Board of Works being the research arm of the Bicknell City Council.

Combine the

I'm thankful to my grand father who suffered injustices in his home country by an over seeing big brother government, I'm thankful that they picked up and left to find a better life for me and mine.

I'm thankful to my parents who grew up during the depression era and began to raise children during the great war and suffered a lifetime of hard work to make ends meet.

I'm thankful to my father and mother who spent a lifetime of hard work to make it better for their family because they wanted us to have a better life than they did.

I'm grateful that I was able to suffer 45 years of hard work and hardships to make it possible for my children to surpass everything that I have done.

I'm thankful to my children who are now able to provide their children a much better and easier life than my wife and I was able to provide to them.

I'm thankful that my grand children have a great opportunity to even surpass their parents and I'm thankful that my children are giving their children the work ethics, the moral ethics, and the necessary help to assure that their lives will be the fruit from a garden that was planted so many years ago by their great great grand parents and cultivated by each generation and every lifetime in between.

Bicknell getting tough: new city officers to crack down on laws, other issues
Bicknell’s all – new administration plans to get tough on law – breakers while filling city coffers by holding negligent and naughty residents accountable.
Mayor Tom Trowbridge, leading his first city council meeting Monday, said that those who break the law will pay the price.
“If you break the law, we’ll go after you,” he told council members and the residents who attended the meeting. “And we’ll generate money for the city while we do it.”
By enforcing city ordinances against trash, abandoned houses and vehicles, and prosecuting minor criminal offenses, the mayor. Council and new city attorney Kerry Currier plan to make use of the city court while

First posted on 12/15/04 

Tonight, I believe, the Bicknell City officials, Mayor Trowbridge, are going to ask the Bicknell City Council to raise the sewer rates by 135% and that will effectively destroy the Bicknell economy for years to come and force down our property values, but of course not our property taxes; that is unless the people of Bicknell stand up and forbid such a poor solution to solve our sewer problems.

I have written a lot on this subject on this website, I have contacted grant writers, I have contacted several State agencies, I have had correspondence with newly elected Mitch Daniels who intends to clean up IDEM and come to the aide of Bicknell as soon as he takes office. I have put forward the proper way to handle the rate problem but the city officials do not respond. I have placed write ups in the Bicknell paper and the Vincennes paper; now it is time for Bicknell to stand up for them selves.

I have requested that the Mayor and City Council create one council person per district instead of having all Councilmen-at-Large to no avail. It appears that the

Knox County Sheriff Department will be taking donations for hurricane Katrina victims.

All donations can be left in the Sally Port area.

From the Sheriff’s office

I believe that it is from J. Vendes

* I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
* Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
* The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
* Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
* There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
* Life is sexually transmitted.
* Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
* The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
* Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
* Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
* Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
* Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
* All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
* In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
* Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
* How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
* Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
* If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
* Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
* If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
* If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
* Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
* Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
* Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
* Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
* Do you ever wonder why you gave me your email address?
God Bless You
Sue French

A History Lesson

This is an updated list of ideas for a positive Bicknell I proposed on Monday, January 31, 2005; each reader can determine whether the current administration has developed a better plan. I would hope that people in Bicknell continue to want this and to be against that because that is where change comes from.

This is a limited outlined of things that I believe would help Bicknell grow.

1. Dogs can be controlled by controlling the owners.

2. All trash should be put out in containers that can lock animals out.

3. Lose the trash stickers and go to a monthly fee then pick up everything; provide and ordinance to control spills that city employees are required to clean up.

Probably Losing Another Main Street Business

Casey's is opening a store on Highway 67 in Bicknell; they say that they intend to keep both stores open!!!

 

And I'm sure they will...

At least until they can kill off a couple restaurants in town then they'll close the Main Street store in order to give us better service; just like Union Planters Bank closed their Main Street bank "to make it more convenient for their Bicknell customers".

As if having two locations to serve us was such a hassle not to mention the extra local jobs.

Of course it couldn't possibly be that they wanted to maintain their revenue and cut their overhead.

On February 11, 2005 Mayor Trowbridge and Councilman Gary Goodwin was on the radio.

"Streets need repair after the long hard winter but it is still too early to begin. If repaired to early the patches won?t hold." (Mayor Trowbridge)

When is this too early time over??? (John R. Stanczak)

"Our sewer plant plans and construction are moving slow." (Mayor Trowbridge)

If they were moving correctly they would be stopped. (John R. Stanczak)

A lot of citizens are concerned about the new sewer rates but we had no choice because IDEM threatened to turn it over to the EPA and the Mayor and Council was told that the EPA would raise our rates a lot higher. (Mayor Trowbridge and Councilman Gary Goodwin agreed)
"If they knew what I know they would understand why we raised the rates." (Mayor Trowbridge)