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Rollin’ on the rivers (again)

By PA

Fort Wayne Reader

2010-06-22

While FWR’s cover story this issue talks about efforts to revitalize and repurpose a potential community asset on land, Allen County Commissioners early last month agreed to help fund an initiative to look at developing another potential community asset — the rivers.

The Commissioners unanimously agreed to grant Invent Tomorrow — a civic organization that’s been around since 2000 — $75,000 over the next three years. The Commissioners need to approve the $25,000/year, which goes to a pilot program called Friends of the River.

Friends of the River has established a work list which outlines objectives for each of the three years. The first year includes prep work for river-related events; removing navigation hazards like sunken logs; and opening viewing vistas. The group will also begin research on creating an overlook at Sacred Rock on the Maumee River, and begin work on creating a canoe/kayak launch and take-out site just downstream of Bull Rapids on the Maumee River. Invent Tomorrow will submit an annual report to the Commissioners detailing how the funds were used.

Republican Idol

After a last minute location change (the original venue flooded), the Republican caucus on June 12 to choose a GOP candidate for the Congressional seat formerly held by Mark Souder was over a little more quickly than most precinct committee folks had thought. It took just five hours and two ballots to make state senator Marlin Stutzman the official nominee — guess those hotdogs at Parkview Field did their magic

Actually, for many of the 687 candidates (actually 15), the caucus was over a lot more quickly than that. Rules for the caucus stated that candidates who did not receive 5% of the vote on the first ballot were out, which eliminated 10 candidates immediately. In fact, after the first ballot, Stutzman was only 24 votes away from the magic 50% needed to nab the nomination.

But Our Man in Columbia City said the caucus was notable for a number of other things, namely some of the brief speeches the candidates gave. Like a rock band playing a “greatest hits” set, Fort Wayne City Council member Liz Brown, who was one of the Final Five, gave the GOP assembled a string of familiar anti-Obama/Pelosi/liberal sound bytes, etc. road-tested to bring the house down — “When elected, I will look Obama, Pelosi and their like in the eye and say, Obama change? No thanks. Keep the change, Mr. President!"; “’Change you can believe in’ sounds like a line from Peter Pan, and Obama is out of fairy dust!”

In fact, many of the speeches contained references to the Democratic party leadership, especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and they got a reaction every time. But really, when you’re in front of the faithful, you gotta play “Freebird.”