How Could this Happen (Origin)

How Could This Happen History

How It Began

From an earlier posting entitled “How Could This Happen”

Quaker Apartments on Prairie Ave. in Wilmington, has for many years, received government subsidies in order to cover rental costs for low income senior citizens and handicapped persons.

Over the years a client waiting list for admittance has guaranteed a full capacity situation.

For unexplained reasons the facility has become a financial disaster as indicated by the amount of delinquent property taxes of $83,000 as of 6/1/15. See:

http://clintonoh.ddti.net/Data.aspx?ParcelID=290160910000000

This facility is thought to be indebted to the city for more than $200,000

First I must correct the name of the facility, It was not the Quaker Apartments. a somewhat generic term for the three senior apartment facilities on Prairie Ave. The loan recipient was Friendly Center. If my memory is correct Friendly Center is a full pay full service facility and charges very high rent. Cape May has put considerable pressure on full pay full care senior facilities.

On January 27, 1982 Wilmington City Council passed a ordinance authorizing Mayor Robert Moyer to enter into an agreement with, “Friends Congregate Housing” the original and still owner of Friendly Center, for a a construction loan from the city controlled, revolving loan fund, then called, the “urban development action grant” (UDAG). The amount of the loan was $469,600

For local history buffs the ordinance was signed by Mayor Robert Moyer, Council President David Hockday and Council Clerk Linda Eichelberger.

The loan agreement included:

a. The loan will run for twenty-eight years 28 years starting January 31,1983

b. The interest rate will be three percent

c. Annual payments will be $25,000 ending in 2011 [Current balance in 2014, $200,000]

d. The loan is made as a real estate mortgage subordinated only to the first mortgage [$1,148,700] holder Leader Mortgage Company.

The agreement was signed by Mayor Robert Moyer and Friends Congregate Housing President, Howard Hiatt and Secretary, Virginia Smith.

It appears that payments to the city of some $269,000 plus interest was made to the city's loan fund.

It also appears that sometime during the 28 years an inflexible business model, or poor management by SKW*, manager of this and the two other collocated Quaker affiliated senior housing, started to fail financially. The indications of the failure are reflected in property tax delinquencies.

The county auditor's web site indicates a property tax delinquency of $116,649 and 0 payment of first half 2015 tax including a $1,226 penalty. Tax payment records as far back as 2007 show payments of only half of annual billing.

According to the enterprise's 2014 Form 990 the company had revenue of $222,782 and expenses of $306,505; Assets $622,765 Liabilities $1,892,584.

It looks like the Board of Directors including Mike Miller, HarrietTerrell, Solomon Cooper,and Duane Early have their hands full and the city may be out of luck. You can't get blood out of a turnip.

* http://skwmanage.webs.com/to-qualify

Paul Hunter budhunter@frontier.com

Post And Repost

After the dust settles this fact remains For the record: 

Tim Said “she [Warren] claimed to be an American Indian and thus reaped a job at Harvard Law set aside for a minority. There, she actually took a job that was someone else’s sic by right!” 

Paul said. “ The [Boston] Herald has twice quoted Charles Fried, the head of the Harvard appointing committee that recommended Warren for her position in 1995, saying that the Democratic candidate's heritage didn't come up during the course of her hiring. "It simply played no role in the appointments process," he said. "It was not mentioned and I didn't mention it to the faculty." The Herald later quoted Fried, a former U.S. Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan, saying, "I can state categorically that the subject of her Native American ancestry never once was mentioned.

Published 6/30

The illogical liberal logic

By now, everyone has heard of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who claimed for years to be a black woman to take advantage of special set-asides for minorities. She was quite successful at this and rose to be the head of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington. This is only the latest in a pattern of people identifying as something or someone they are not, just like “Caitlyn” Jenner.

But while “Ms.” Jenner has been celebrated for “her” courage in assuming femininity, liberals are denouncing Ms. Dolezal for identifying as a black woman, and thus she has been shamed and forced to step down as head of the NAACP in Spokane. This leaves me terribly puzzled by the liberal logic. Was it because Ms. Dolezal was being deceptive?

Why, then, do they adore Elizabeth Warren? Senator Warren, like Ms. Dolezal, made false claims about her blood heritage — she claimed to be an American Indian and thus reaped a job at Harvard Law set aside for a minority. There, she actually took a job that was someone else’s by right! Her entire career, rising to U.S. Senator and potential presidential candidate, has been built on the fruit of that lie.

Can some liberal/progressive please help me out with their logic on this? It seems to me that if Rachel Dolezal is to be denounced for lying about who she is and Elizabeth Warren has done essentially the same thing, then logically they should be hounding Elizabeth Warren to step down from her U.S. Senate seat — not encouraging her to run for president.

Tim Inwood

Published 7/3

Letter on Warren needed fact checking

Editor Wilmington News Journal:
On occasion Mr. Inwood tends to shoot from the hip. That firing position in
less than optimal and usually results in missing the target entirely.
His recent letter concerning Elisabeth Warren's use of her ethnicity to
obtain a position at Harvard is a case in point. A simple check of fact
finding web sites would have disabused him of the authenticity of his
assertion.
The [Boston] Herald has twice quoted Charles Fried, the head of the Harvard
appointing committee that recommended Warren for her position in 1995,
saying that the Democratic candidate's heritage didn't come up during the
course of her hiring. "It simply played no role in the appointments
process," he said. "It was not mentioned and I didn't mention it to the
faculty."
The Herald later quoted Fried, a former U.S. Solicitor General under
President Ronald Reagan, saying, "I can state categorically that the subject
of her Native American ancestry never once was mentioned."
Perhaps in future, Mr. Inwood would rely less on political memes and more on
reliable sources.
Paul Hunter Wilmington

THANKS HENRY

Thanks for the memories Henry Ford. You led the work-to-consume revolution that has lasted a century, but, alas, that model is in its death throes.

World labor costs are fast coming into balance and international corporations find it more difficult to find labor at a price that will provide, along with transportation a viable return to investors.

Where do the corporations go from here? In my considered opinion automated manufacturing is the logical next step in the labor cost evolution.

The digitizers in silicon valley have been predicting the “end of work” for some time now. All's well? No it is not, because we don't have a policy,or even a think tank advocating for a new economic model to replace the work to consume model.

Imagine if you will, a huge building where an operator and a materials loader are churning out thousands of auto parts every 24 hours every day of the year. When a printer part breaks another printer makes a new one.

Whom will have the ready cash to buy the parts except the few one time machine makers and the operators. Joe six pack can kiss his dream of an RV, a bass boat and steaks on the grill goodbye. That is, if he hasn't already, due to international labor price balancing.

My feeble input is to tax the machines and create demand by using the revenue to fix and create new infrastructure, expand and improve education. (reducing class size by half would double the teacher force and improve the students outcome) house the homeless and fix the addicted and on and on.

Test update

Paul Hunter

Sticky Wicket

Look who many GOP presidential candidates are cosying up to in order to get the approval of the religious conservative movement. I'm still amazed that Reed escaped prosecution in the crooked Tom Delay-Abramoff lobbying case.

The trick for the GOP primary winner is be able to extricate himself from extreme group association and move more to the center for the general election. Mitt was unable do pull it off and it appears that no lessons were learned from that debacle.

Paul Hunter

“The Faith and Freedom Coalition, the Religious Right group led by right-wing disgraced Ralph Reed, is holding its annual “Road to Majority” conference next week. Nearly every Republican presidential candidate has signed up for the event, and today, the FFC announced that Ohio Gov. John Kasich will be addressing the conservative summit.

Reed is best known for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal, where he organized a Christian Coalition anti-gambling campaign in Alabama with the help of secretive funding from Mississippi tribes that owned casinos – who just so happened to be Abramoff’s clients that didn’t want business competition from the neighboring state. Reed denied knowing the source of the funding, even though investigators uncovered emails from Abramoff asking Reed to send invoices for approval from a Mississippi tribe which controlled major gaming interests. Abramoff later said that Reed “didn't want it out that he was getting gambling money,” adding that Reed was “a tap dancer and constantly just asking for money.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/john-kasich-kicks-presidential-bid-addressing-religious-right-gathering

Darned Activist Court

It will be the ultimate irony when strict constitutionalist conservatives denounce a basic part of the hallowed document, the creation of the supreme court. Earl Warren would be proud of his fellow republican appointees Stand by for the outcry

Paul Hunter

Gitcher Gun

Several years ago the city had put a “no guns allowed”sign at the entrance to the city park. As one would expect,the local gun lobby, mainly one Tim Inwood, went ballistic over this gross violation of heat packing resident's rights.

Seeing an opportunity for a little satire I penned the following letter to the editor . Needless to say Mr. Iwood did not find the piece humorus

Editor, News Journal:

The other evening I decided to drive over to the city park and watch a ball game. I had read about the crime wave turning the park into a virtual no man’s land but being the naïve soul that I am, went anyway. Nothing bad ever happens to me. Alas!

I had just parked my truck near the north softball field when a burly, 12 year old girl from one of the teams approached me. “give me keys you old geezer or I will knock your darn head off’, she shouted.

Fearing for my life, I did as requested and was knocked to the ground for my efforts.

I had just struggled to my knees when I heard a childish cry, ”let’s get his wallet while he’s down”. I turned and was horrified to see an entire T-ball team rushing toward me with menace in their eyes.

I jumped to my feet, ran south toward the pond, where I jumped in to escape further harm.

The ducks and geese that call the pond home, took umbrage and attacked me with bills and wings.

Exhausted, I made my way to the shadows of Fide Avenue. As I limped home I mumbled to myself, “If I had only brought my gun none of this would have happened”. :-)

Paul Hunter

Beyond Recycling

The Pope's pronouncement on global climate change has regenerated a lot of commentary on the subject.

My position is that if the scientific community is correct and the deniers, such as the Ohio General Assembly, continue to prevail, the world faces a scenario of disappearing resources and and a dying planet. On the other hand, in the unlikely event that a overwhelming percent of climate scientists are wrong, the world faces an increased cost of dong business. The choice seems obvious to me. But, hey, that's just me, a guy that worries about what kind of world we leave for our grandchildren and their children. The simple fact that it took millions of years for nature to create and store carbon that humans have released in a mere century should be sufficient to any rational person to wonder about the results.

The climate issue has become a political wedge issue for some reason. Those on the right act as if the entire matter was a plot by crooked scientists to cause great damage to the world economy.

As with most contested policies a, “follow the money”, process is in order. The largest family owned fossil fuel energy business, Koch, has quietly funneled millions of dollars to climate denier front groups. A cursory check on google reveals much more on the family's activities. Our own Ohio legislature passed into law a Koch/ALEC written and sponsored legislation delaying an alternate energy requirement passed by a previous assembly.

Paul Hunter