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Questions that have come my way in recent days:
Question: What’s the deal with the tearing down of the old Essex Wire building? Why is taking soooo long? Can’t something be done to speed this up? It looks terrible.
My reply: The situation is not as clear cut as it may see. Sure, the site looks absolutely horrible. Like a bombed-out village in World War II. And it has taken a lot longer than expected.
But if you talk to Mayor Patty Fisel and other “high-ranking” city officials, they are proud of this project. And while they admit it as taken a long time, the Mayor and others believe, in the long run, the wait will be worth it. Hopefully a park may be built there and who knows, some people would like it to be the site of a new fire station.
The contractor doing the demolition is selling many of the bricks and pieces of wood and other materials from the building, to other contractors and builders across the nation. This project has received state and national attention as the largest recycling project of its type in the state of Indiana.
And while all that is good for the image of the city outside of Noble County, I know many residents are sick and tired of having to look at that gosh-awful mess on the north edge of the downtown area.
The bottom line is that you better get used to it, because the people in charge of the project have given the contractor until July 1 of this year to finish it, and if he comes back and asks for another extension, I bet he gets it.
He is being paid $83,000 by the city’s Redevelopment Commission to tear it down. But he’s also making extra money by selling the bricks and stuff.
So if you don’t want to see it, try avoid driving by it. And on the other hand, I think we need to make sure the job does finally get done under the new deadline given to the contractor.
Question: Why is spanking and other forms of physical punishment called “corporal” punishment? Why not captain punishment or sergeant punishment.
Answer: Good question. I thought the answer would be easy to determine but after doing a bunch of checking on the Internet, I could not come up with a suitable explanation for the origin of that term. I will keep working on this and invite any help.
Question: I hear a major factory is going to eliminate more jobs in Ligonier and move them to Columbia City. Any truth?
Answer: This is a rumor that apparently has no basis of fact and I won’t give the name of the factory. But city officials, and one person at the factory I talked to, said there’s no truth to this rumor. Hey — we have enough bad news around here without rumors like this. But it’s good to have them checked out.
If you hear about a rumor and want someone to check it out, give me a call at 894-3102 or email me at
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Government Related Joke of the Month
The new administration in Washington, D.C. wanted to build a new guard shack at one of the entrances to the White House. They put out the word that bids were needed.
A guy from Indiana said he could build it for $700. $400 for materials and $300 for me and my guys to be paid.
A guy from Tennessee said he would build it for $800. $400 for materials and $400 for labor.
A guy from Chicago goes up to the White House official in charge of getting bids. He whispers for him to come off to the side where no one can hear him.
“I can do it for $2,700,” the guy from Chicago says.
“Why so high of a price?” he is asked.
“One thousand for me, one thousand for you, and we hire the guy from Indiana to build it for $700.”
Job is awarded to the guy from Chicago.
Clarification and Corrections
Last week I ran a little photo essay concerning a trip I made to Florida to watch the Daytona 500 stock car race over Valentine’s Day weekend. Apparently there is some confusion out there, in reader land, about what was true and not-so-true about some of that information.
I am here to clear the record.
1. Richard Petty did not pick me up at the airport. That was just one of his cars on display outside the track.
2. That was not Arch Stanton from Fremont standing there with Tom Cruise and Tony Stewart. He was some unidentifiable guy who happened to be on the podium.
3. I did not trade a bag of Fern’s Noodles for my tickets. I bought the ticket.
4. The girl in the bikini? Well, decide for yourself whether or not she and I played together on a beach ping-pong team many years ago.
I apologize, kind of, if I gave the wrong impressions in that report on my trip to Florida.
Cool Things Going On
Christina Peña, a student at West Noble High School, will soon be given a big-time award from the Prudential Insurance company for her community service work. The announcement has been made but we are waiting for the arrival of a “Silver Medal” from?Prudential for Christina, before we bring you the whole story
Showcase Ligonier is shaping up to be another great family-oriented weekend at the Ligonier Sports and Recreation Center, March 28 and 29. If you know any group or business or home-based enterprise that wants to reach hundreds of families from the West Noble area, tell them to call me at 894-3102 to reserve a booth.
As a member of the Ligonier Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, I have volunteered to line up the exhibitors for Showcase Ligonier. One spot is only $45.
A new Internet-based restaurant and coffee shop is getting ready to open in downtown Ligonier, just a couple of doors down from this newspaper’s office on Cavin St. Sounds like a good deal.
Speaking of such places, Brenda Patrick has taken over the restaurant and coffee shop up the street in the 300-block of downtown Ligonier. It used to be the Cavin Street Coffee Cafe owned by her sister-in-law, Nina Patrick. Brenda has changed the name to Brenda’s Coffee Table and has kept many of the same menu items and added some new twists.
I encourage everyone in the area to visit local restaurants as much as possible. Don’t spend your hard-earned dollars in Fort Wayne or Goshen, for gosh’s sake!
And subscribe to your local newspaper, please. If you know someone who doesn’t subscribe to the Advance-Leader, encourage them to do so, or purchase a subscription for them as a present. I know they will appreciate it. And it’s a pretty good bargain, if you ask me!
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