Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
A while back there were a couple fatal accidents on U.S. 30.
There seemed to be a concern among a number of local residents that traffic on U.S. 30 travels a little too fast.
And that many times the signals are disobeyed.
The general feeling about U.S. 30 was that it was mainly truck traffic and travelers passing through our area that were causing the problem.
But that doesn't appear to be the case.
Steve Foster, a captain with the Warsaw Police Department, says the department has been running a lot of radar and writing a lot of tickets out on U.S. 30.
He's finding that most of the errant drivers have the prefix 43 on their license plates.
In other words, it's not outsiders that are speeding and running lights out on U.S. 30. It's us.
This is not to say that there are no truckers or passers-through causing problems.
But Foster says most of the problems are with local drivers.
So this is my holiday plea.
Please, slow down on U.S. 30. Drive carefully. Drive defensively. Wear your seatbelt.
Remember the old saying, "The life you save may be your own."? That's true. But in this case, the life you save may be your neighbor's.
Or let's put it another way. Slow down before you slam into your neighbor and ruin his Christmas.
*****
I must say I was a bit surprised when I read Dan Spalding's story "County Seeks Control Over Visitors Bureau."
Frankly, I have never seen our county officials act so aggressively or proactively. In a way, I found it refreshing.
For nearly 10 years I've watched our county leaders in action.
It's good to see them get fired up about something for a change. I'm just not sure it merits all the attention.
Seems Linda Arnold, the director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, announced that her organization would relocate out on U.S. 30.
The new facility will be 2,500 square feet. A portion of the building would be a visitors center where tourists - or anybody else, for that matter - could pick up promotional materials and other information 24 hours a day.
The center also would have a telephone available with a direct line to local hotels so travelers could check the availability of accommodations.
The CVB believes the new facility needs to be where the travelers and hotels are, not downtown.
Also, the current location is not accessible to bus tours, which the CVB hopes to develop as a significant portion of its clientele.
And CVB officials are quick to point out that they are a county organization and there really is no need for them to be located in downtown Warsaw.
The money for the new facility is coming from the innkeepers tax. Last year, the tax generated about $230,000. Most of the money goes to run the CVB and all the promotional programs it administers. The CVB's budget last year was around $180,000.
The rest goes into a cumulative fund. There is around $185,000 in that cumulative fund. That's the money Arnold told the county council she would use to get the building program rolling.
The council was not happy about having to cough up $185,000 of the CVB's money.
At a county council meeting last week, after a presentation by the CVB, councilman Lewis Bertsch tells Arnold, "You need to be aware that there is a good chance that there is going to be an attempt to influence legislation to change the law in regard to Kosciusko County. And if that happens, it probably would change the funding you would see."
Wow. Influencing legislation. When was the last time our county council attempted to influence legislation?
Another councilman, Tom Anglin, accused the CVB of attempting to "build a dynasty."
That would be a 2,500-square-foot dynasty.
Seems odd the council didn't mind the fact that the CVB had a cumulative fund building up as long as it didn't try to use it.
It seems the problem revolves around the relocation. Somebody had to put a bug in the council's ear regarding that.
There is a group of people in town that doesn't think the CVB should leave the downtown.
My guess is they're the ones who got the council fired up about the issue.
Right now the CVB shares a building with the chamber and the WCDC. Looks like there might be just too many personalities under one roof over there.
I think U.S. 30 is a fine place for a visitors center. It seems difficult to argue with the CVB's logic.
In my travels, I've generally noticed that visitors centers are out on a main highway where travelers can see and use them, not tucked away downtown somewhere.
There are those who would argue that the CVB should spend more on local projects, like the CCAC, before building itself a building, even though CVB already antes up $15,000 a year for that project.
Others argue that U.S. 30 real estate is high dollar and 2,500 square feet are too many.
Those arguments have a little more validity than the "dynasty" nonsense.
But why argue at all?
Why are we wasting time and effort attempting to influence legislation on tourism when there are some pretty pressing economic development issues on our plates?
If the county council is concerned the CVB is making too much money, why don't they just lower the innkeepers tax rate that funds CVB?
*****
Always willing to give credit where credit is due, I want to commend the Wawasee School Board in the way it handled the Phyllis Roberts case.
I think they did the right thing. They took a strong stand against racial stereotyping without ending a productive career.
My hat's off to them.
And while we're on the topic of racial stereotyping, I think the Minority Issues Task Force up at Wawasee needs to take a look at that Warrior nickname and mascot.
I understand that Wawasee was an Indian chief.
But isn't that student with the headdress, war paint and spear running around at sporting events a racial stereotype? Are there no pacifist native Americans?
It's so tough to be politically correct. If you're like me, after awhile, you just give up.
