Improve Your Health in Just Days!

There is talk of the excessive fees for pretty much everything. Want a paper statement? That will be a $2.00 fee. ATM balance inquiry? $0.75. There is also the $4.94 monthly maintenance fee and the $4.64 fee for each reload that is a non-check cashing transaction at a Wal-Mart money card.Comments on the articles have likened Wal-Mart as another evil, fee-happy bank. What they missed is there are no overdraft fees. Overdraft fees account for almost 40% of the fee income for banks and credit unions. From what Ive seen, its the overdraft fees and bounced checks that get customers into trouble in the first place. Wal-Marts MoneyCard helps alleviate that problem.

information from: www.walmartmoneycard.com

Welcome to Geezerville

The sign at the edge of town says Ashland, but it more appropriately should read Welcome to Geezerville or You Are Now Entering Varicose VillageChildren Not Welcome.

Originaly from Source

Maybe it’s past time to re-visit the issue of drive thru windows in Ashland. The artificial shortage we have created is starting to have unintended consequences. With the windows being bought up by banks (McDonalds and now DQ), we are losing both meal tax revenue and, I believe, it is becoming a quality of life issue. Especially, with the loss of DQ, our kids are losing a great place to hang-out after games, little league, etc. In addition, it has traditionally provided a good entry level work place for our teenagers. Ashland already has an unfriendly image for families and children, and the lack of drive thru windows seems to be exacerbating this trend. We need to re-think this issue?
Originaly from Source

Just finished reading letter after letter in the Tidings telling everyone what a great guy Bianca is.

You’ll get no argument from me on that account.

But, unfortunately, that is not the issue.

He’s a great guy but a lousy leader. Over one-half of the PD has gone on record to that effect.

The morale is at all-time lows. Overtime is off the charts. Officers with very questionable qualifications are being hired and promoted. The department is coming apart.

And what does Mike do?

He takes off.

Instead of being a leader and being above the fray, he shows up at a street demonstration in his favor…rubbing salt in the open wounds of those critical of his lack of leadership.

The city can waste another $30k on a consultant and mediator but the result will inevitably be the same.

He will be gone. Taking his nice PERS pension and riding off into the sunset.
Originaly from Source

The continuing barrage of letters to the Tidings extolling the virtues of Chief of Police, Mike Bianca, has reached absurdity.

Ad nauseum we hear what a great guy Mike is. Mike saved my hamster. Mike bought me an ice cream cone when I was four. Mike remembered my name in Lithia Park.

The issue is not what a nice guy Mike is. Mike is a nice guy.

Unfortunately, Mike is lousy administrator. He has alienated over half of the police force who have gone on record with their concerns.

At the rate this force is being depleted, I’d like to know whom all the letter writers are going to call when they need a policeman?

I guess they’ll call Mike. Because that’s about the only one that’s going to be left at the department, the way things are going.

The really sad part is that we are seeing absolutely no leadership from anyone in the city government. They’ve all washed their hands and turned it over to City Administrator Grimaldi.

Since when did we elect him for anything?

The Mayor and Council’s inaction borders on negligence. They need to lead. Because, if they are not careful, they will have stood by while their entire police department is dismantled under Mikes lack of leadership.




Originaly from Source

Even before the newly constituted AFN study committee meets, the city, in it’s inexorable push to save this “white elephant”, has opened the recruiting for a new AFN Director.

The Tidings reports that 71 people have applied for the job that is akin to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Guess the lure of $90+k/year and some of that good PERS retirement is more than enough to overcome their common sense.

So before the, supposedly, unbiased committee even makes it’s recommendations, the city is committed to hiring a new director.

Does it seem like, just maybe, the “fix” is in?

For more on the AFN fiasco, read on:

As an admitted long-time skeptic concerning the viability of AFN, it is with great dismay that I have witnessed the continuing inept debate by our so called leaders over what is to be done with this white elephant that is bleeding the resources of our community.

While it is too painful to recount all the self-serving hype and miscalculations made by our political and high-tech business leaders, most of whom are long-gone from the scene or who have financially benefited from the publics subsidy, suffice it to say that they have left us a toxic legacy that is now incumbent on someone to clean-up.

Unfortunately, this current group of leaders is no more willing or able to make the hard decisions that need to be made than were their predecessors. All we get are the same limp excuses for this financial debacle.

In the real world, where a product or service must stand or fall on its own merits, where leaders are held accountable for their decisions, the course of action would be obvious.

Whether from ineptitude, predatory competition, miscalculation or self-dealing by interested business parties, AFN is a service that has failed in the marketplace

It is clear to any observer with a modicum of business acumen that AFN cannot, and never will, succeed on its own merits without continued massive public subsidy. All the study sessions or consultants hired at public expense will not prove otherwise.

If AFN is such a wonderful asset, then those business leaders who are directly profiting from the public subsidy should step up and buy it from the City.

Otherwise, the rest of us should demand that we stop writing open-ended checks that enable a select group of subsidized subscribers to feel warm and fuzzy about supporting this ill-conceived boondoggle.

The course of action that must be taken is clear. It is long-past time to stop chasing good money after bad.

Our community leaders need to finally let the marketplace work, end the subsidy by the many for the elite few, and pull the plug on AFN.
Originaly from Source

Is there no end to the stupidy of this city?

Tidings reports tonight that, after 10 years in business, a bunch of “whiners” (including a city councilor) are complaining that the Ashland Roasting Company, a small coffee house in a residential neighborhood, is doing too much business and is causing too much traffic.

This location has had a commercial use for many, many years as it was previously a small neighborhood grocery store.

I venture a guess that every one of these whiners knew of the commercial nature of this location at the time they moved in.

But, in keeping with the finest anti-business tradition in Ashland, they are now trying to drive them out of business.

Hey, I’ve got a message for you. Ashland is rapidly changing and it ain’t for the better!

First the city condemns favorite local hang-out, the Blue Mountain Cafe, to build a new fire station.

McDonalds says adios and becomes a bank (they wanted the drive-thru window which are strictly limited in car-unfriendly Ashland). Then the kids face losing another local hang-out, as DQ sells out to another bank for theirr drive-thru window.

Two elementary schools are closed and on and on.

This town has become very unfriendly to kids and their families.

Seems the only people welcome in Ashland are blue-haired touristas with jack in their wallets.

All others need not apply.


Originaly from Source

Xlnt “Guest Forum” in yesterday’s Tidings by former planning commissioner Marilyn Briggs. She asks a very perceptive series of questions concerning the national press’ current love-affair with the myth of Ashland vs the reality.

Article after article in the media continue to name Ashland as one of the best places to live and retire. Yet, the reality is that Ashland is confronted with a myriad of problems that the articles ignore.

From lack of affordability, low wages, a poor water and sewage system and more, the writers only accentuate the positive. Nobody ever asks the tough questions.

To read this xlnt commentary, click on the following link. http://www.dailytidings.com/2005/0801/080105forum.shtml

Originaly from Source

Just in case you’re still wondering how the geniuses at the city have managed to lose $20+ million of your tax dollars on AFN, a project that was conceived to be a profit making venture, look no further than tonight’s Tidings.

The AFN rescue committee, charged by the city to try to figure out what to do now, cannot even agree on the ground rules upon which to run. A bunch of smart guys who can’t even get out of the way of the city’s bureaucrats.

Pretty clear that the “fix” is in and that the city and it’s toadies will not easily give up their power to influence the committee.

Is this any way to run a business?

And yes, it is a business (albeit a failing one), not a public utility as the die-hard supporters would like to morph it into.

No wonder your tax dollars continue going down the toilet.

Read it for yourself and weep: http://www.dailytidings.com/2005/0803/080305n4.shtml
Originaly from Source

The continuing positive spin by the Tidings and our elected officials on Chief Mike Bianca and his relationship with the APD rank and file has become very tedious.

The harsh reality is this…in spite of the pro-Bianca spin we keep getting: Mike (whom I supported for Chief) has lost the support of his own rank and file. No high priced consultants or mediation will change that.

The endgame is only being postponed to the detriment of our community. Ultimately, everyone knows, that Mike must go.

He has personally supervised the dismantling of a formerly well functioning department. Chronic short staffing and terrible morale are his legacy.

His base of support now only comes from the homeless and fringe amongst us. A fine testimony to his tenure.

Unfortunately, the Tidings has failed to publish the entire letter from the police association. It was incredibly damning.

In fact, if only a fraction of the charges are true, his lack of leadership should be cause for dismissal.

Still, our elected officials, rather than squarely facing the reality of a disfunctional leader clearly in crisis, choose to postpone the inevitable to the detriment of the department and community.

Bianca is done. Dead man walking. He knows it and his recent actions only reinforce it. Health leave and now vacation in the midst of crisis.

Hardly the stuff of real leaders.

The department can not continue under his lack of leadership.

It is past-time for him to either resign or be fired.

No amount of demonstrations in his favor by the fringe of our community can change the fact that he has failed. He has lost the support of those charged with protecting this community and he must go.


Originaly from Source