Topic: Economy

City Judge salary restored

July 2, 2008 |

The City Council decision to restore the City Judge salary to $25,000 per annum was the right thing to do.

Ward 10 Councilman Bill Summers, sponsored the amendment to restore the salary from $12,000 back to $25,000 pending further study. In his City Council online newsletter, Summers said of the Tuesday night decision to reinstate the salary for that position:

Another major change or amendment to the initial budget vote was the restoring of the pay schedule for the City Judge position. I sponsored this amendment. The reason for the change was due to examining the time study data presented at the initial budget meeting vote this past Saturday. My career expertise is work analysis and the workload that drives it. I do not think the data presented was incorrect, but it was incomplete. One of the items you must review in such a study is the time period of the work audit. Is it representative of a normal work period or schedule? Usually such studies look at a year of data and we had 2.5 months.

Editor’s Note: The initial version of this story incorrectly attributed the initial reduction in salary to an amendment sponsored by Councilman Bill Summers when in fact it was Councilman Wayne Harrison’s amendment. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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Sections: Issues, News, Opinion, Politics | 2 Comments

Institute For Justice calls for dismissal of developers’ frivolous lawsuit

By Turner McCullough Jr. | June 30, 2008 |

“What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” ~~Abraham Lincoln

On the steps of our historic County Courthouse, a group of grassroots advocate citizens gave voice to an exercise that the founding fathers would have cherished. Members of the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition (CPRC), stood on the courthouse steps to declare their intent to protect their First Amendment Right of Free Speech in their criticism of government.

Bert Gall, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, stood with the group to announce that The Institute for Justice has risen to coalition’s defense in a defamation lawsuit following publication of an ad by the group that stated that the plaintiffs, Richard Swift and Wayne Wilkinson, are developers and that as developers, they are using the power of government to benefit developers. Gall said that the lawsuit is frivolous on its face and it represents a callous attempt by government officials to silence and intimidate critics among the general public and the affected community in particular.

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Sections: Business, Issues, News, Politics | 1 Comment »

So you are in a funk …

By Rev. Charles Moreland | June 29, 2008 |

A headline boldly declared “We middle class Americans are in a Funk.” This funk is precipitated by events in our community and our nation.

We are in a funk because of economic conditions. This economic “recession,” “depression,” or “regression” is taking its toll on our optimismand depleting our enthusiasm, reducing our hopes and smashing our dreams for personal achievements.

Life for the middle class is tough (it’s that much magnified for the poor) and the outlook is more setbacks in our plans for the future. A house in our neighborhood in foreclosure, the house with the knee high weeds in the yard. Somewhere a couple has now moved on and away from this personal tragedy.

Will life for the middle class improve soon? The majority of Montgomery County residents are middle class familiesand they are being adversely affected by tooday’s sky high oil prices, falling home values, declining employment and rising prices for food and utilities. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: News | No Comments

Fighting back: Institute for Justice joins CPRC to challenge defamation suit

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 27, 2008 |

Clarksville activists sued for protesting eminent domain abuse join with national law firm to fight back.

The Institute for Justice will stand with the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition on Monday, June 30, at 11 a.m. on the steps of the Montgomery County Courthouse at Millenium Plaza [corner of 2nd and Commerce Streets], to announce their legal plan to fight back against what they see as a “frivolous” defamation lawsuit filed by Clarksville City Councilmember Richard Swift and Wayne Wilkinson, a member of Clarksville’s Downtown Development Partnership. ”

Making the announcement will be Bert Gall, Senior Attorney for the Institute for Justice, and CPRC members Debbie Hunt, a homeowner, Joyce Vanderbilt, owner of Kelly’s Big Burger, and Dr. Rebecca Slayden-McMahan.

IJ is a non-profit, public interest law firm that has a long and successful history of defending property rights and First Amendment freedoms nationwide.

The CPRC, a grassroots group, was formed in November, 2007, to fight the abuse of eminent domain after a controversial redevelopment and urban renewal plan was passed by the Clarksville City Council. The plan designated two square miles of downtown property as “blighted.” «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Issues, News, Politics | 1 Comment »

Rubber-stamped travel: Corporate cloning of America’s landscape

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 26, 2008 |

On the Road in America is an occasional and serendipitous column about people, places and observations, with publishing predicated on the random availability of internet access or lack thereof.

Being On the Road in America can sometimes be a bore.

Oh, there’s a great deal of beauty to be seen, from the Green Mountains of Vermont to the rolling farmlands across Ohio, from the rugged Rockies and the dramatic coastline of California’s 17-mile drive. That’s not the issue.

As implied in Josh Neuman’s Lemmings (right) ,what is troubling is the growing lack of identity, of uniqueness, of individuality, as one moves from state to state. North, south, east or west makes not a whit of difference. Commerce in America is cloning itself at breakneck pace, mass-producing blueprints for hotels, motels, box stores, shopping malls and restaurants that increasingly lack a sense of their own identity and certainly have no ties to community heritage or culture.

I’m on the road again, as Willie Nelson would sing, and I am heading for one of the few bastions of non-traditional development — via the central midwest to the rural northeast, home of green mountains, clothing optional backwoods beaches, interstate bike paths, and those perpetual golden arches relegated to the outermost borders of some cities. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Business, Issues, Opinion | No Comments

Travel: Was the full moon making mischief?

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 24, 2008 |

On the Road in America is an occasional and serendipitous column about people, places and observations, with publishing predicated on the random availability of internet access or lack thereof.

As I prepare to board the bus for my semi-annual sojourn north, ready to be “On the Road in America,” I am thinking of all the roadblocks thrust before me as I was pulling the jigsaw pieces of my itinerary puzzle together. Starting with the travel plans…

To begin with, there is no easy way to get where I am going from Tennessee. Take Amtrak and you have to navigate to Indianapolis first. Flying means not only getting to Nashville but landing in Hartford, navigating to a bus terminal and — taking the bus for hours and hours more. Or tripling the airfare to land in Burlington and — get to the bus station or train station and take a train. I’ve since resolved to take the scenic routes by Greyhound, which has, until this trip, been both flawless and economical. And scenic.

To begin with, I’ve been enjoying the 14-day advance purchase for my tickets for years. Apparently that particular and very appealing price option was discontinued on June 3. Okay. I was not happy about that, since I subscribe to Greyhound Rewards and never got a notice about this change. Neither did it show up on June 17 when I cruised their website double-checking prices and schedules. So I opted to buy a discounted 7-day advance purchase ticket. Yeah, right. Since buying online tickets involves surcharges that add up, I went to the Clarksville Greyhound Terminal, as I always do, to buy my ticket. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Business, Opinion | No Comments

It’s time to extend unemployment benefits

By Chris Lugo | June 24, 2008 |

America is in the midst of a recession largely attributable to the economic policies of the Bush administration and the Republican party. As a result of this recession, millions of hard working Americans have been put out of work. Almost every family in this country has been touched by the current recession. On top of this, consumers are being forced to pay record high gas prices and hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes due to foreclosure. Now is not the time to cut tax paying American citizens off of their unemployment benefits.

Since the beginning of this year nearly 325,000 people have lost their jobs and the unemployment rate is rising. As of May the unemployment rate stands at 5.5%, up nine percent just since April. With the cost of gas, food and medicine many families are suffering.

As a candidate for federal office I support House Resolution 5749, the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, which will provide an additional thirteen weeks of extended unemployment benefits in most states. This means that 3.8 million citizens will continue to receive benefits through March of 2009. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Events, Issues, Opinion, Politics, Spirituality, Technology | 1 Comment »

‘Pedal power’ ignored in city development

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 4, 2008 |

Walking through the downtown area Saturday, on my way to the Roxy Theater to review Tuesdays with Morrie, I took a first hand view of Legion Street in progress, its roads and sidewalk tumbled bits of dirt and broken asphalt. Such things always look worse before they look better.

I couldn’t help trying to imagine a refurbished Legion Street, with a fountain, perhaps some trees and shrubs, a cascade of flowers somewhere. Not bad. Then I wondered, who’s going to use it? Festivals a few times a year?

A block away, Franklin Street holds some if the most interesting shops and building facades in Clarksville. Their back doors and loading zones open to Legion Street. Somehow, it is hard to picture a Budweiser truck unloading beer or a panel truck dropping of carton of clothes or a load of antiques on a street ahead of its time, though I hope its time will come — soon.

I think a lot about downtowns. And downtown development. And community development as a whole. Studied it. Lobbied for user-friendly communities. Found user-friendly communities all over the country, communities that mixed heritage with progress to the benefit of its citizenry. «Read the rest of this article»

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