Kreg Battles was in attendance at the Monday Bicknell City Council meeting; he is from Vincennes, he's a Democrat and it is said that he seems to be bitter about the bill which is of course a Republican bill pushed through by Governor Mitch Daniels; I hear that he did give a thorough report on it though.
Maybe now the city can have somebody in who voted for the change and see what their report sounds like.

The council meeting was lively last night according to Ron Ackman.

Seems that they (the administration and council) believe that it is likely that tax revenues will be way down for the city of Bicknell and will require lots of belt tightening; it appears that the city fathers are not very happy when it comes to

restructuring the city budget so that they can operate with less.

This will of course require a lot of frugal money handling and each department must become efficient so that every dollar that they are given will be used in the most efficient way possible. Waste will not be able to be tolerated any longer like throwing away tons of road patching materials each year when they shovel it into dirty potholes and cars knock it back out within a few days.

Water rates will just about double I'm told. The mayor's committee cannot seem to find anyway of cutting costs; probably because they are not looking for anyway to cut costs, they are looking for ways to increase costs to the public.

The city rebutted some of the 'crap' on some websites (I'm not sure what website they were referring to but it is probably this one) about taking money from the general fund giving it to the water department, they're saying it was from the Riverboat fund which the city can spend any way it chooses.

Now we understand why they will be having trouble adapting to the fearful new lower tax rates that they are so afraid of. Right offhand I can't remember the amount but it seems like it was around $125,000.00 that North Knox Schools will be getting as extra cash because of the new power plant; now I am not really up on how the money is divided but it does seem a little odd that the school would receive a wind fall of extra cash while Bicknell is sold into poverty. I'm waiting for the Governor's response on that subject, of course the answer will not come from the governor but I will take what I can get.

Have you seen that commercial where the people yell “ it's my money and I want it now”? It appears that our new city fathers are yelling at the people of Bicknell and anybody else who will listen “it's your money and we want it now”.

Personally I like the idea of less taxes as do others that I have spoken to. I find it really unbelievable that all of those grown men and women up town cannot find a way to cut their expenses; I sent a letter to Councilman Frank Gugliotta to give him a couple of ideas on the subject of ways to cut water costs without a raise but I have heard nothing from him to date and I have made little effort to contact him so far; although I have been told that he has spoken to others and is in favor of some of the things to cut water department costs but the question is of course which ones and who else is in favor.

It appears that the new administration will defend to the death their right to do business behind closed doors with no disclosures to the public. It appears that Mayor Flickinger is sold on the idea of private meetings and private decisions so we may all be griping about it until the next city elections when we will change all of these people and put in a new group who look just like them and who thinks just like them. Of course this is just my opinion.