City, county should use fund to help cleanup
Many residents may be wondering where they are going to put all this storm debris. While the dumping costs to the biosolids dump on Lake Avenue have recently been reduced to $1, not everyone in Allen County may have the ability to clean up and transport to the site.
I urge the mayor and City Council members to recall how we handled the ice storm cleanup. The last time Fort Wayne was hit by nature’s worst, the ice storm, the city was able to cover some of the cleanup costs thanks to the Allen County Solid Waste District Fund. This district is funded by tipping fees, essentially taxes that we all pay for our garbage to be dumped into ServAll’s landfill.
This fund has been established to help reduce the amount that goes into this landfill and to promote recycling countywide. I urge the city and county members of this board to again use their multimillion-dollar fund to help the residents of Allen County with storm cleanup.
If these dollars are used to assist neighborhoods throughout the county and to avoid more waste going into our landfill at the same time, then we are getting back the dollars we all pay into the fund while helping stay green at the same time.
Liz Brown
Navistar's industrial designers left legacy
It is not likely that I’ll ever experience another week like (I did in June). No fewer than four long-term friends passed away and were honored by funerals or memorial services within a seven-day period. None of the deaths were related, but three of these marvelous people were related in life — through their profession and place of employment.
Industrial designers Ron Rhoades, Ramon Vasquez and Ron Brunger left this earth all as retirees of the Industrial Design Department of Navistar, formerly International Harvester.
It is a rare Fort Wayne resident who knows that Navistar operated a fully functioning vehicle styling center in collaboration with the engineering arts practiced at the Design Center on Meyer Road. The department opened in 1951 and grew in size and capability through the decades, sometimes reaching nearly 50 designers, industrial sculptors and other specialists.
The phenomenal number and range of projects, which this creative group addressed, would astonish any observer but would pale in comparison with the talent and innovation, which its employees extended to both their company and the larger Fort Wayne community. During their working lives, and especially in their retirement years, these three and many of their co-workers contributed broadly to the local art scene through every medium and venue imaginable.
The presence of a world-class vehicle styling center in your own city may be news to you. Unfortunately, the loss of these three prolific artists is symbolic for the ultimate fate of the whole department.
A few years ago, Navistar decided to transition its truck design operations from Fort Wayne to Lisle, Ill. As you read this, the entire Industrial Design Department has moved to its new quarters in our neighboring state and has thus removed from our community a wellspring of energetic creators and innovators.
As we honor those, however, who have departed this life, Fort Wayne is still benefiting from the presence of other retirees and former employees of this unique department. We grow smaller in number but cannot resist the urge felt by every designer to contribute, to solve problems, to look for another way.
We are thankful for the time we have spent in Fort Wayne, even if you didn’t know we were here.
Richard B. Hatch
Thanks for the lawsuit against Moss, Fries
Thank you, Phil Pease, for filing suit against Councilman Paul Moss and Sheriff Ken Fries.
The public knows it is against the law to text and drive. Also while texting and swerving on the road could have caused an accident. Agree? Councilman was asked to take breathalyzer but refused. He should have been hauled off to jail period. No excuses, as anyone else would have been tested for alcohol level. I sure am going to vote for other people in the next election, that is for sure.
I do not like it when the news media or judicial system or law enforcement cover up their mistakes as the general public does not get to do that.
P.S. I do hope the ethics committee does not try to cover up.
Joan Busche
