No middle class lifestyle for India, say Mean Greenies

Add comment January 10th, 2008

The nerve of some tree huggers is exasperating. India’s Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata auto company, has rolled out a small car that the growing Indian middle class can actually afford. Environmentalists, though, fear it will add to worldwide pollution if millions of Indians become auto owners like Californians or Brits or Germans and drive around at will.

Give me a break. Read the story in today’s Guardian 

Keith Creek clean up worked? My, my my.

Add comment January 10th, 2008

Remember after the twin floods of 2006-2007 that Rockford City Hall said cleaning out the Keith Creek channel wouldn’t stop flooding?

Then, after the ‘07 flood, Winnebago County decided to “git ‘er done” and clean out the channel. Rockford helped out, too, but the county took the lead.

Seems that at least people think the cleanup is working. They’ve been watching the water flow faster than it used to. I realize that City Hall can’t admit that the cleanup works, because then they’d have to answer questions about why nothing was done after the 2006 flood.

Cutting school programs? Not good, School Board.

Add comment January 10th, 2008

Only in public education do we propose cutting services to the customers to pay the employees more money and benefits.

But that, incredibly, is what might happen in good old Rockford School District 205, because there might be, there could be, we’re not quite sure, a $4 million deficit.

I agree with School Board Member Mike Williams, who suggests that we trim the fat from the very ample administrative salaries on South Madison Street. I’d start with the guy that makes the budget projections, Tom Hoffman, who seems to be the defacto supernintendent these days.

Tornado sirens

Add comment January 10th, 2008

I don’t know why Winnebago County and Rockford leaders are so hesitant to adopt tornado/storm sirens here.

Belvidere has been expanding a system of sirens it began to put in place after the disastrous tornado of 1967. Most progressive communities have sirens, indeed, even regressive communities have them.

I agree that they’re not a panacea, but combined with reverse-911, emergency radios and conventional media alerts, they are a necessary part of an effective emergency warning system. Currently, there’s no comprehensive warning system of any kind in Winnebago County.

Matter of fact, we haven’t had a warning “system” since Fred Speer retired from WROK. Now, that’s only partially a joke.

Fred was our default warning system and you could count on him to go “live from the news truck”  whenever danger of any kind lurked, at any hour of the day or night.  Sadly, that’s no longer true.

I expect people won’t be demanding sirens or anything else until a tornado wends its way through Rockford and nearby subdivisions and wreaks havoc. Then people will demand to know why we have no warning system.

I’m hopeful County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen and Sheriff Meyers can put together some kind of warning system for the entire county. At least they seem interested in doing something.