Those manhole covers and Courtis Fuller News 5

Wife and I were at Krogers this afternoon. Looked over at the old Dillards parking lot at Towne Mall and there was the Channel 5 news truck with Courtis Fuller doing a story on the stolen manhole covers around Middletown. After shopping for supper items, the wife and I drove over and introduced ourselves to Mr. Fuller. After he told us he was doing the story on the manhole covers, I told him they were "small potatoes" compared to the more important stories going on here in town. I told him what the city would be telling him about this town,then directed him to this site- Middletown USA.com- and asked him to read our posts to get the truth and the dirt about this city's leadership. I will keep E-Mailing him to remind him that there are so many newsworthy stories in this town, he could make a career on this subject matter. He asked, while pointing to an empty Dillard's store- " what's this all about". I told him he hasn't even begun to see all the crap that is occuring in this town as to the leaders, funny money, cronyism, business unfriendliness, poor schools, HUD, Section 8 overabundance, etc. Hopefully, Channel 5 will respond with an indepth story on the perils of Middletown and run several stories over time. Perhaps we could get Channel 9 and 12 involved also. Why not Channel 2 and 7 in Dayton while we're at it. Anything to give these 's a black eye.

Did you mention anything positive about the city?

VietVet, Good job and hopefully they will follow up on this story. It might help if we all contacted this newsman to touch base on following up with this info.

MadMom you don't think they know about the MidFirst Ohio Balloon Challenge, If they don't Ms Mort is falling down on her specialty, PR, and I don't mean that in a derogatory fashion.  Someone needs to go downtown and get some answers from the Palace and then look past the BS that they will dish out and question the policies that have and are killing Middletown.

Hermes wrote: The news report said about 40 manhole covers have been stolen and the replacement cost is $150 while the thieves only get $10 for them. I bet the city isn't smart enough to go to where ever they sold them and get them back,the city will probably buy new ones for $500 a piece and then offer that as an incentive to draw business.

In My Opinion....whatever scrap yard is accepting these mh covers, should have a responsibility to report it to the local authorities. Do these covers have some sort of ID#s?

MadisonMom
For the last few years the joke around town was how to get the visitors downtown without them seeing the rest of Middletown.
1. Call it a game and put them in the back seat of the car and blindfold them.

Two things: It is legally unconstitutional for the city to fine a citizen and neglect its own responsibilty, so there is a legal challenge when the city asks citizens to pay to paint the house, to maintain the yard, but the city is violating its own principles.

Secondly. Instead of expecting a reporter to critique Middletown, and bring about negative visibility which just worsens the city's image and your property value, why not look forward and begin the proper retaliation as follows:

1) Repeal the 1.5 % tax increase that will be expiring in a few years.
2) HUD Allegations- If I understand this correctly, are there suggestions that misappropriation has taken place? If so, that's a qui tam claim, and a serious offense. Why not act?
3) Roads- why not take this acrimony and start with a plan of action, like getting the ordinance of waste that began the nightmare in Middletown, where infrastructure funds could be given to McNeil and Perry Thatcher?
4) Schools- why not harness the anger on here and have the Board select a highly motivated assistant superintendant driven to get a career moving forward, by cleaning up Middletown's discipline problem, and motivating kids to achieve. Pretty remarkable how grades are handed out in Middletown schools, almost 50% of grads graduate with an A average (3.4). Some incentive, show up for school and guaranteed all A's. Why then, are not more open enrollment kids flocking to Middletown when you can coast so easily?
5) Accountability- Besides being tarred and feathered on the blog board, not one council member or Board member ever incurs wrath of its citizens. Why people?  

beautiful thinking, accuro

spider, you eloquently are spot on. Mr. Self, I have no idea how serious the allegations to be, but if I speculate, I can reach a reasonable conclusion to what you may be implying. If you feel wrong doing has taken place, I suggest the following. Contact Ann Lugbill, attorney who specializes in qui tam claims (confidential filing associated with federal waste and fraud). She is in Cincinnati, a top flight ESQ. who knows this area as well as anyone in the country. If this is your suggestion, you don't need to be getting the message out, Ann will get the message in a confidential filing very rapidly and there is a mechanism which such allegations are taken very seriously. If I misunderstood and its a matter of a belief of a wrong but perfectly ethical and legal transaction, differences in opinion aren't worthy of contact with Ann. 

The E-Mail address is courtisfuller@wlwt.com and his telephone number is 513-412-5040 or 513-412-6121.

Spider and Madison Mom- I had a choice here. I could have said "Gee, there's the Channel 5 news truck". "Don't see them around here very often". "Wonder what they're up to here in town" and drove home with an indifferent attitude of apathy like 90% of this town has. OR- OR- I can stop. Introduce myself and take this opportunity to tell him that he has a goldmine of stories/ soap operas going on in this town, that he could use for storylines and by his opportunities for a storyline, we, who want change, could benefit through the exposure and embarrassment of the city leaders/condition of the town. IF-IF I mention that everything is rosy in town, and there are no problems, only Balloon Challenges,Greek Fests the wonderful things we're doing for the Section 8 candidates and act like things are beautiful in town, how much of a reaction to doing a story here do you think he would have? News people thrive on sensationalism, not humdrum everyday festivals and doing business. If you bring up conflict within a community- now- that will attract some attention from the news people and get us, the dissatisfied, some free pressure directed toward our inept leaders. Sorry to those who believe my "approach" was all wrong here. I saw an opportunity that doesn't come too often and took it to mention some of the backsteet schenanigans that we all talk about here on this site. Perhaps it will be your turn next time to see the news truck. What will you do- drive home with your apathy or stop and talk about all the "wonderful" things in town, boring him to death or tell him some things that may be under the radar of the Cincy news stations? Which do you think he will be most interested in? Look- if we complain and bit-- on this forum about how bad things are here in town and then, when the opportunity appears, tell an outsider news station that everythings ok here, doesn't that make us hypocrites? Everyones's complained about something on here so don't give me that "You should have been positive crap".

Gee folks I have been stating the need to start petitioning to get some of these ordinances changed/Council People recalled etc. for some time and what does everyone say.......oh that is to much work we can't do that.....blahblahblah.  Amazing.

Hey spider, what about the oxymoron on the close/ no close of the fire house. Recall how council, one in particular, grandstanded about safety issues. all doing everything to mislead the public to get the $$$ to keep city hall fat, dumb, and happy? With the construction by the highway, its a bottleneck and adds time to get to the hospital. Those precious minutes the firemen were so worried about to keep Middletownians safe (or rather, the union pecking order in place for promotions) when its more danagerous now in delays, for the construction and concrete barriers adding time to get to the Atrium.

The best "payback" for the decline in the city services, their lack of attention to the community, should focus upon reversing the tax increase, making sure cuts come at city hall. Sorry Ms. Ford, no vote from me when you say city has in running "lean and mean", when the law department has grown, detectives are pulling down a $125 Kk annually, the development group expanded, when they have no measurable contribution to growth. Call council members and write letters to the editor about reversing the infrastructure allocation to any whim council and the city desires. Don't let McNeil and AK throw $50 Kk to Becker and Mulligan for their "payback" on ROI.