Still Waters,  Where They Stand,
  By the Numbers,  How We Stack Up,  What’s Up With That?

Commentaries posted do not necessarily represent the opinion of LDN.  Any opinions expressed are those of the writers.

[APRIL 3, 2002]  The talk of an industrial park on the outskirts of Lincoln has produced enough misinformation to write a book. Misinformation perceived as fact always seems to happen when a project isn’t fully explained to the population, and the industrial park strategy is about as open to public information as the Manhattan project during World War II. The industrial park should have been brought to the public in a highly publicized forum as well as to the city council and county board. At least that is my humble opinion. When facts are not made readily accessible, individuals will find the need to create and disseminate their own, whether valid or not.

I will not be so bold as to try to tell all of you how to think about such an endeavor, but I will make an attempt at explaining the realities that I have been able to determine as factual regarding such a park. I will then leave to you the thought process of supporting or rejecting such a plan.

Legend 1 — The price of the proposed park is too expensive

After the Courier mistakenly stated acreage at $18,000 per acre and placed the retraction on a subsequent day in the middle of the paper, many still do not realize the price is $10,700 per acre. Some of course, state that the price is too high for $3,000-per-acre farmland, but they are not basing that idea on the reality of what location does to a price. Location creates price. The more appealing a location, the higher the price. Place the same house in the most appealing location in Lincoln and then the poorest, and tell me there isn’t a remarkable difference in price.

Acreage adjacent to any city commands a higher price tag. The cost of running a sewer line, an electrical service and expanding roads a thousand feet rather than several miles makes the land more valuable. In this case purchasing land farther away from the city for $3,000 per acre actually could cost millions more than buying adjacent land at $10,700 per acre.

Legend 2 — Why don’t we just promote the west end

The west end is continuing to grow. In the event you visited Lincoln 20 years ago and just stopped by this Easter weekend, you would find the change remarkable. Hotels, eateries, retailers dot the road toward the highway. This property, depending on when it was sold, cost these businesses between $15,000 and $25,000 per acre, by the way. The acreage also has been used commercially, not industrially, for a very simple reason. Industry does not want to build in a commercial-residential area. NIMBY attitude is prevalent throughout the United States, but it is as strong as anywhere in Lincoln. Do the residents of Westville subdivision want homes or a factory across the road from them? Do Zion and West Lincoln-Broadwell support a widget factory leaving work the same time their schools are let out?

Has anyone even asked them these questions? The reality is the last nine businesses in the manufacturing sector to visit Lincoln were not interested in the west side. They want to locate in an exclusive industrial complex where the protest of "not next to me" won’t rear its ugly head as they try to build. Perhaps they have read the papers regarding CILAs and apartment complexes enough to know that Lincoln has a track record of wanting growth just so long as it is not in their neighborhood.

I would hope the west end receives all the support and assistance from the county and city to continue to expand and grow, but the facts are the west end is commercial and has no interest to the nation’s industrial base. At least not yet, that is. It always does take just one heavy hitter who’s interested to make all the rules go away.

[to top of second column in this commentary]

Legend 3 — Property taxes will explode if an industrial park is created

I have talked to more than half the city and county officials, and not one of them has even suggested this cost be borne with higher property taxes. A development could be created through bonds, loans and many other possibilities. A program to assist the west end developers could also be included so that expansion could be a twofold project. New factories could induce new retailers as well as homes. After decades of nothing, why not jump into all of this with both economic feet? 

Legend 4 — Now is the not the time to gamble on an industrial park

Spending money is never easy when the future is uncertain. How many of us when younger purchased a home? Did we say, let’s wait until we can write a check or did we have enough faith in ourselves to say: "Now is the time to buy this house. The future payments will be borne on the promise of tomorrow." Many of us years later are glad we took that gamble. We have something now that is of a daily benefit to our lives because we took the shot when things weren’t guaranteed. I also have to ask how well off we would be right now if two decades ago, when the same set of circumstances was made available to this community, we had gone ahead with such a project rather than just write it off as "not now with the way things are."

I hope all of you think about the industrial park proposal. I hope you will ask yourselves if it is not in our best interests to include a program for the west end as well, plus undertake a sincere effort at expanding tourism into the mix. The economics of Logan County are not very good. A principal reason is because we have never had enough faith in ourselves to gamble on growing. Instead we have retracted to the point that we are the same size as we were in the 1890 census. In the event that is what you want — a small town stumbling to remain status quo — you have that. In the event you believe we need to shift the tax burden from a few to many, we need to act.

Yeah, I know. I wasn’t very objective in my opinions. My facts, however, are the truth. We either need to have enough faith in ourselves to give this thing a fair shot or we need to just let things spiral into an economic quagmire. I can live with the latter if that’s what you want. I don’t have that many years left, and my child will seek opportunities in other cities. Since most of you can say the same thing, what does that tell all of us?

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

[MARCH 16, 2002]  All of us deserve answers regarding this latest Lincoln Developmental Center situation. Three residents have died from complications brought on by the flu, and no one at the Department of Health and Human Services has said a word. No one from Gov. Ryan’s "we only want what’s best for the residents" crusade jumps on the media and says: "See, more people are dying at LDC."

Oh, they had a press conference on Thursday at the Illinois State House in Springfield, but only after they were called out by the union to explain themselves.

These groups, of course, are the same ones who made a huge stink about a resident eating something inappropriate and refused to pull back the claim after X-rays showed nothing but good food in the individual’s digestive tract. Remember Gov. Ryan claiming he saw a resident chewing on a pen? He refused, of course, to take back his words or even recognize that he had mistaken an employee for a resident.

Where are all the groups who say community living is best for all LDC residents, including the residents who will never have more of a community in their minds than the bed they live in and the familiar faces of those who turn them over?  Why then would not everyone enthralled with the demise of Lincoln Developmental Center not be all over this latest story as proof that the institution needs to be closed? People are dying, and the same individuals who called a press conference when they saw a janitor’s door left open don’t have a word to say!

Maybe it’s because this time the proof, as it were, would not serve the DHHS or governor’s strategy.

In the event there is blame to be met in these deaths, it has no place on the shoulders of the employees of the institution. You see, these deaths, according to AFSCME, may well be linked to decisions regarding the moving of these severely infirm residents out of the hospital environment offered by the Coty building and into the dormitory-style setting of the Bowen Cottage. These decisions, of course, are not the domain of the employees but rather of the administration, and that, of course, would never do as an issue for a press conference.

Under the present circumstances it is best that everyone so dedicated to helping residents live better, fuller lives by closing the center just go hide in the closet for a while. Perhaps they too will forget to close that door behind them, and if they do, I hope we follow them in and demand answers.

[to top of second column in this commentary]

I believe we are owed an explanation why these most fragile residents were moved into the common population, unattended by the trained personnel replete with proper equipment. The question has to be asked if the move precipitated their tragic demise.

I have received a dozen stories of patient movement throughout the center. The unfamiliarity of the caregivers with their patients then made great write-ups for the inspectors to post on their clipboards. Were the irrational moves from Coty to Bowen in hopes of still more and better negative reports against LDC employees? After all, union steward Don Todd’s own memo expressed concerns regarding equipment, training and space to care for these residents at Bowen.

Someone from the state needs to explain in detail why the move of these residents, within the same institution, was made at all.

I also need someone to explain why, after the transfer, this floor of the building was rewired for office and computer use. If the state was pondering closure and still requests the center be cut back to minimal size, why do we spend money on remodeling? Don’t tell me this huge campus didn’t already have enough office space for a meager 200 employees.

Something isn’t right about all of this, and the union has been instilled by the tragic events of the past few days to take the offensive posture of demanding why residents’ health has been placed into jeopardy by the Department of Health and Human Services.

I believe the questions deserve a full answer. The silence right now from DHHS and Ryan tells me more than a thousand bogus negative reports ever did.

Oh heck, let’s be honest. Even if we get any answers, they’ll make about as much sense as the governor’s plan to trim the budget on the backs of education, the aged and the infirm.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

[MARCH 14, 2002]  Last Friday I arrived early at the "Meet the Candidates" breakfast. Since I’m always one to try and promote what’s going on at Channel 15, early chances for one-on-one conversations with our movers and shakers are too promising to ever pass up. I had a chance to share words with two state senators, two state representatives and several who would wish to assume those occupations. I talked with a man who is running for lieutenant governor and stood drinking coffee in a ring of state jurisprudence that included a circuit, appellate and supreme court judge. When the forum was over I said my goodbyes to all of them, explaining I had to go and hang drywall in a bathroom. Like I said. Only in America.

There are other things about our political process where I could say "only in America." Only in America can we say that we have the ability by our citizenship to carry the same political clout on election day as the greatest financial contributor to a specific party or candidate. Only in America can a person living on Social Security or minimum wage have as much say on an election day as the most powerful businessmen in America.

If only in America we decided to vote. If only in America we didn’t give up every time the process allows us the chance to start over again. We could bring fresh faces and ideas to the jobs of helping us run our government. We could decide on keeping the good ones and throwing the others back into the dumpster of lost promises. We could by our sheer numbers give messages that are never ignored by those who seek or hold office.

Letters, e-mails, petitions are all taken with a grain of salt by a politician. A vote always commands more respect than a few words when voter counts are long past completion and the next is far away.

It’s close to the time for deciding who our next group of employees should be, and "only in America" will more than half of us not bother to do so.

In the last several months I have heard enough grumblings and gripes about our county being sliced and diced in the legislative remap to finish filling the city landfill. The gripes are legitimate, and mine stand proudly with all of yours, but I realize — and I hope you do as well — that we have done this to ourselves.

When a state has to cut back districts, where do you think they will look? How about a small district of only 10,000 registered voters that have on occasion graced the polls with an incredibly unimpressive 16 percent voter turnout. Where would you expect to place the remap carving knife? Certainly not in the breast of larger counties, which although they have just as poor a voter turnout percentage, by their numbers bring more voters to the curtains. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cut off one of those skimpy wings of voter apathy like Logan County?

[to top of second column in this commentary]

An unpopular decision becomes more palatable when there are fewer to complain. Logan County voters have shown repeatedly that if you’re looking for a district that doesn’t carry many votes, we fit the bill as a good place to send into representative confusion and oblivion.

There is a chance for us to come out of this morass upwind of the stink of this new remap. We have been graced recently with four state representatives visiting us and in fact championing our cause on the LDC issue. We have been visited frequently by two state senators, and they too have taken an early interest in our voter capacity.

Whether any or all of these legislators will continue to show interest in our county will be decided on March 19. A great voter turnout could give us more power and thus interest from our state candidates than more populated areas that don’t show up to vote. A poor percentage base of an already small voter pool, and the campaign caravans won’t continue heading to Logan County.

Politics is really a simple business. You attempt to receive more votes than others who would have that same job. The math tells any sane person that concentrating on the issues and concerns of principal blocks of potential voters helps one keep his or her job.

March 19 we will have the opportunity to show state officials that keeping in touch and abreast of Logan County issues will bring them the votes they need to continue or obtain their employment.

Although only a primary, this election is the most important in the history of this county. It in effect is our last, best chance. Only in America.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

By the Numbers

Alexis Asher

Alexis Asher

Lincoln High School history

1859

Lincoln School District

5

School buildings in 1859

1

"Grammar school" in 1859

1

High school teacher, Mr. January, in 1859

1870-71

Central School opened

1898

High school building started

1900

High school dedicated, Jan. 5

$20,000

Cost of new high school

1920

Election authorized community high school District #404

1958

Dedication of new Lincoln Community High School, 1000 Primm Road, in auditorium, on Nov. 9

Alexis Asher

How We Stack Up

Racial makeup of selected Illinois counties

What’s Up With That?

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