What or who is an iconoclast?
The 2nd meaning in The American Heritage® Dictionary: “One who destroys sacred religious images.” The Taliban destroyed famous Afghan Buddhas in 2001. This is part of the continuing history of Islamic Iconoclasm. There is also a history of Protestant Iconoclasm especially common during the reformation
Public Finance 102, Tale of Two Too Many Toilets
Behold the power of Municipal Bonds! Take a look at the absolutely amazing expansion of the playing fields south of the Knox high school. Beautiful! Just a very few years ago we had a cinder track and no baseball diamond. The school board has transformed 2nd rate outdoor athletic facilities into 1st class facilities. I certainly hope the taxpayers appreciate these wondrous improvements in the athletic fields because they are paying for them. And I think that, by and large, the taxpayers think things look pretty good, so they kind of don’t mind too much. HOWEVER (as you have probably already guessed) I think that there is a problem. A big problem.
This last year we read in the newspapers and heard on the radio about the terrible budget crunch at the schools. There was talk that some teaching positions may have to be eliminated. The teachers settled for 1% pay raise and a 1-day cut in days worked (with no cutback in actual student teaching days). Harold Welter’s comment about the teacher’s rather pitiful pay rise, “More pay for less work”. Not accurate. Not charming. This is horrific labor relations by a school board member who happens to be representing us, the taxpayers. We hope our School Board would at least try to keep the peace with labor. You can pretty much bet that when the next teacher’s union contract rolls around Harold Welter’s comment will be very well remembered. Anyhow, as I way saying, the school certainly seemed to have a genuine budget crunch.
So there can be marvelous improvements in the facilities and at the same time deterioration in the operation of the schools. The reason: Debt Service (Municipal Bonds) pays for the facilities and, on the other hand, the Operating Budget is tightly constrained and that pays for the operation of the facilities.
So begins my Tale of Too Many Toilets. There are 3 separate concession stand/ toilet buildings on these playing fields. There is only a real need for one centrally located building. There is also a separate equipment, training, locker room and shower facility next to the football stadium. It is really obvious to the most casual observer that there should be 1 centrally located building incorporating all the needed facilities: lockers and showers and public restrooms and concession stand.
I estimate that the operating funds needed to maintain these redundant facilities is 5% of replacement cost per annum. Furthermore, heating, cleaning and security add up to another 5%, estimated debt service is an additional 10% (interest rate plus principle repayment). My estimated replacement cost of the 2 redundant toilets facilities is $100,000. So it costs us (the taxpayers that is) a wasted $20,000 per year because of bad planning and redundancy of the toilets!
Of course it gets worse. The grandiose (overbuilt) football stadium, the state of the art track, a dozen extra tennis courts. And MILES of poorly planned and redundant chain link fences. Guess what the life expectancy of the high-tech track surface and the tennis courts is. Guess how much intensive labor is needed to mow and trim a mile of unneeded chain link fence. Here are some waste estimates:
2 unneeded concession stands/ yearly waste $20,000
6 unneeded tennis courts replacement cost $250,000/ yearly waste $50,000.
5,000 feet of wasted chain link fence $100,000/ yearly waste $20,000.
1,000 feet asphalt paved roads $400,000/ yearly waste $40,000.
Overbuild stadium and training facility/ $300,000/ yearly waste $60,000
TOTAL YEARLY WASTE ON THE OUTDOOR ATHLETIC FIELD COMPLEX: $190,000.
Yet this is actually small potatoes! Add the overbuilt Middle-School and the luxurious furnishings (fancy electronics, grand piano, fancy stage equipment, fancy music department (all paid for with Municipal Bond Debt) you quickly come to understand the reason we have a money crunch in the school system. The fact is that there are not sufficient operating funds to maintain the buildings and the fancy equipment. The school has already been forced to reduce the janitorial and maintenance budget! Imagine the accelerated deterioration of the building and equipment. We will be lucky if half this stuff isn’t rotted away before the bond is paid off.
3 comments:
I'll bite to leave a comment only because I was all of the School Board meetings when they were discussing the Middle School imporvments (which were greatly needed) and the High School imporvments (which ended up getting way out of hand I believe after the approval).
To make my complant of choice concerning the High School is that the school board said that the track as well as the weight room would be available to the public. Guess what, it's not. I believe that the weight room needs to have to a school superviser, which is not in the budget and is at their convience. As to my biggest complaint about the track is that it is locked up and not available to the public for use. Many adults would love to walk or run the track when weather permits. We're paying for it, yes, so we should be able to use something as simple as a track.
Let's see what happens the next time they ask us for money.
Anonymous has left a new comment that I have edited where indicated.
Need I remind you that Mayor Dembowski/Senator Dembowski/Represenative Elect Dembowski/Grandmother Dembowski was part of the O'Bannon - Kernan administration that made Indiana's bonds nearly junk bonds. No one wanted to buy Indiana's bonds because we Indiana was nearly bankrupt. Thus the financial problems the school was faced with. Teachers were being "rifted" because that Democrat administration put us in the hole (Thank you Mrs. Dembowski)
………………………………[Extensive comments deleted by knoxindiana. Anonymous does not believe I am Marian Cross and speculated by naming several names of people that I am certain do not wish to be associated with this blog.]…………………
Quit picking on one person. There's serveral people on that school board...not just Harold Welter. It's clear that your purpose in life is to destroy the lives others rather than be a positive force in the community. God help your soul. I think it's great that you believe in anonymity. So, you should have no issue with posting my anonymous comments. If you're going to point fingers let's, make sure their not pointing back at you!
Whose life is it I’ve set out to destroy? Am I advocating anything besides good government? I’m writing a blog about Knox Indiana to try to get better schools, better libraries, better public leadership and even maybe a few bicycle trails. I believe these are positive community goals. Certainly, it may be true that I am not very good at what I do. But I assure you that I have no interest in destroying anyone.
I have identified Harold Welter because, in my opinion, he has abused the public trust. Tell me where I have said an untruth and I will happily correct the record and apologize. And just to make things fair and square I will say that Harold Welter is a great sports announcer and Knox is lucky to have him in that capacity.
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