Juneteenth

Link to Juneteenth.

Extra Info for Thursday

Before the City Council meeting, Thursday May 20, the Council will hold a work session which is open to the public. The purpose of the session is to see a presentation on the Medical Trust plan offered by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. While such plans have a track record of controlling medical insurance costs, one of the largest expenditures for municipal government, it is a newly available option in Indiana. In recent years New Albany has spent in excess of three million dollars annually to offer this important benefit to its employees. Many health insurance plans were hit with premium increases in the 20% range. You may recall some plans in California asking for increases near 40%. Increases at these levels are unsustainable and threaten the very notion of employer-provided health care. Personally, I have no affinity for employer-sponsored health insurance anyway, but that is the box we are in for now.

The linked article on the IACT Medical Trust points to increases in the mid single-digit range, still an increased cost, but significantly less onerous than what may have hit municipalities in other health insurance plans. If we can find a way to offer comprehensive health care benefits to City employees, while limiting cost increases, other vital City services may not feel the sting of budget cuts, or at least those cuts may not need to be as deep.

It is time to look for better options than we have currently.

I would encourage any who are interested in fiscal responsibility to attend this meeting which I am sure will be informative.

It will begin at 6:00 PM in the Assembly Room, the regular Council chamber.

Dr. Stone's Unfinished Business

Early last year the New Albany City Council looked at the issue of universal health care. It passed a resolution in supoort of single-payer health coverage for all U.S. citizens. With that vote, New Albany became only the third city in the state to join many other cities across the nation in support of this basic human right. The presenter at that meeting was Dr. Rob Stone the director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.

Although a health insurance reform bill was passed, Dr. Stone continues to work for universal coverage. In an article published Wednesday in The Huffington Post, Dr. Stone said, "That's why we say, Healthcare Reform, We're STILL FOR It... and we're not done yet."

Earth Day, Every Day

This is a day late for Earth Day. But I think these words of Sister Mary Kownacki, below, state the significance of that day and how we should venerate the boundless beauty of our planet in the mundane and the grand, along with the inherent worth of all its inhabitants. The very fact that we are here is the greatest gift we could receive. Earth Day should help us realize the duty we have to protect and preserve this precious home.

"There's the beauty and wonder of it:
to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.
If you look, really look, at anything, even one pigeon,
you will fall on your knees before its beauty.
The same holds true for each person in the soup kitchen line.
As one definition of contemplation attests,
" It's a matter of taking a long, loving look at the real." "
Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB

Roger That

The Floyd County Republican party chairman used the word "oxymoron" in a Tribune column today. Helpfully, he suggested that someone named Roger may be able to define that term for those who don't know it. Perhaps he speaks of a certain publican of local repute.

I'll offer a definition of the word oxymoron:

Rush Limbaugh, who railed against drug use among the lesser elements of society, felt it his birthright to have his hired help score oxycontin on the streets of Florida to keep his voracious habit on track, making Rush Limbaugh an oxy-moron.

Eureka!

A routine sewer inspection turned up startling news yesterday which confirms the suspicions of many in New Albany. Some of the city's sewer pipes are, in fact, gold-lined.

A section of eight inch main showing signs of collapse, a crew was dispatched to repair or at least diagnose the problem. Upon entering a manhole a small section of pipe was removed by Carlton "Wildcat" Figg. "I always wear a carbide head lamp when I go down there and when I shined her on that section, by golly I just knowed it. Only one thing looks like that by carbide light."

It happens that in the early Seventies, New Albany Mayor Warren Nash was an early gold bug. The U.S. had just severed its final ties to the gold standard under Dick Nixon, and "the stuff was so durned cheap" said Nash, "I knew it couldn't last." So with an eye toward New Albany's future, Nash ordered City Controller Kaye Garry to purchase "a couple hundred thousand ounces" for use on a sewer upgrade. Nash said the metal has "excellent corrosion-resistance" and in its un-alloyed state it's "extremely malleable" making it easy for crews to heat the metal and it apply it in various ways to the pipe system as joint filler, as well as an early version of a pipe liner.

Couldn't another metal have performed the same task? "Yes", said Nash but "we had a lot of money in those days, and I knew the stuff was going to be worth a lot some day." Indeed. The roughly 180,000 ounces purchased in 1972 at $35 an ounce is currently valued at $1,115 per ounce or about $200,000,000.

Asked what he would do now if he were mayor, Nash said he would remove the gold, sell some of it to repair broken pipes etc. but always with a wistful eye toward the future he said,"have you seen the charts on Rhodium?"

Really?!

And what do we call the 45,000 Americans a year who die because they lack insurance, but now might live? Welfare queens and kings? Collateral baggage?

What about Obama truly gets under the skin of the tea baggers?

Hint...it's the skin.