Endorsements

 

Donations Over The Top in Aldermen Races

The $$$ donations reported to the Shelby County Election Commission by alderman candidates are staggering, especially for a job that pays only $12,000 per year. These are the totals reported as of September 30:  

Jon McCreery took the prize, with only a little less money than former Alderman Barzizza had when he ran for Mayor in 2018. The three candidates most flush with cash are all supported by Mayor Palazzolo, Alderman Forrest Owens, and Alderman Rocky Janda. Their signs are in front of the former Germantown News Building, now owned by ex-alderman and current SCEC Commissioner Frank Uhlhorn, and they are all using Watkins-Uiberall accounting firm, the long-time City auditor, for their filings.  

  
As you can see, in each position, the administration-supported candidates have considerably more than twice the donations of their challengers. Educated voters will keep that in mind when they see television ads or read slick mailers.  

Where does all this money come from?

Although the SCEC has most of the filings on its website, for easy access I put them all in a folder. For convenience I combined reports when a candidates reported more than one quarter.

SCEC FILINGS  

I wondered if Collierville candidates for Mayor needed this much cash, so I checked some SCEC filings for them. I found only two candidates with significant donations, one with $11,000, and another with $10,250. 

As of this writing, some third quarter reports have not yet been updated on the SCEC website.

Three Roundabouts in Northwest Germantown on Project List

 

Carmel, Indiana, the model for our City, is a sort of "roundabout central" for the USA. It seems as if our City may still trying to emulate that financially troubled City. 

I mentioned in the discussion of the post Will Old Germantown be Sacrificed to Asphalt? that there were some other unusual road plans on the MPO project list. Unlike the Old Germantown plans, these three Neshoba Road roundabouts have an actual target date-- 2026-2030. Remember that these plans are not set in stone and can often change dates, or be dropped.  

Since the intersection of Exeter and Neshoba has recently been improved, one would hope that this intersection will not be included in the final plans. Perhaps the Thornwood developers were not in favor of a roundabout there, and were able to convince the administration to have a more traditional intersection at that location. That is pure conjecture.

I have questions about roundabouts on Neshoba, for several of reasons. There are homes at these intersections, and it will likely take at least parts of yards, if not the homes themselves, depending on the size of the roundabouts. I also wonder how fire trucks will be able to pass. The administration is always telling us that the City cannot have speed bumps (or something similar)  because of the adverse effect on response times. But roundabouts surely would slow fire trucks more than speed bumps, which can be specifically designed to accommodate fire trucks.  

This one minute video describes all I know about the roundabouts on the project list:

Germantown News Muzzled

 

 
News Flash! Germantown News has been sold to a Camden, TN, firm-- Magic Valley Publishing Company, and moved to Bartlett, TN. All employees, including Mark Randall, the editor, have been let go. 

I promised I would follow the story, after ex-alderman Frank Uhlhorn purchased the building. I am not sure exactly what happened, but a lessor has a lot of control over a lessee.

See Ex-Alderman Uhlhorn Purchase Building Housing Germantown News for the back story. Weren't we all waiting for the other shoe to drop. #GermantownNewsGate  

Mark Randall's post from the Facebook Group  Germantown Discussion Group- Anything Goes (Almost)

Germantown News was sold Monday to Magic Valley Publishing who own the weekly newspapers in Bartlett, Millington, and Collierville. Unfortunately, none of us who were at Germantown News will be making the transition. I want to say thank you to the people of Germantown for your wonderful hospitality and for making the job enjoyable!