BND readers sound off on beer, judges, college costs

Trustee’s epiphany

When did Edith Moore become so enlightened about East St. Louis Township finances? She’s been on the township board for about 14 years and didn’t know about Oliver Hamilton or his sister misusing the funds. Did Hamilton cut her out of the ill-gotten funds? Is she trying to prevent herself from going to prison? Can Brendan Kelly save her? Stay tuned. Edith Moore is watching everyone including herself.

Too lenient

In the Nov. 22 paper, there was “Belleville man to serve prison term for sex crimes against child.” This was a 9-year-old girl who was hurt and he only went to jail for eight years. Why did the prosecutors drop 11 of the 13 charges? This guy should have been in prison for 50 years. The story says Judge Kelley presided over the case. I’ll remember not to vote for him again. The poor little girl has to live with this the rest of her life.

Wrong career

After reading the BND’s published salaries for local college officials, you would think the taxpayers would be upset with the waste of their tax dollars. SIUE and SWIC have declining enrollments and budget shortfalls. A person, with common sense, would expect cuts in staff and salaries. I wish I could have found a job where continually doing less and producing an inferior product gave me a six-figure salary and big raise every year. Who knew being a school administrator or politician would fit those prerequisites?

Poor planning

SWIC Board had an emergency meeting to discuss options for SWIC’s declining income. The board decides not to reduce salaries, lay off personnel or eliminate useless programs. The BND reports SWIC’s President Georgia Costello makes over $176,000 a year plus perks. Georgia says SWIC’s enrollment has been declining for the past several years and the indebted state of Illinois hasn’t been giving them as much money. Intelligent real world business managers plan for business situations like this. Unfortunately, college and school district administrators live off the taxpayers.

Fixing colleges

Great article by BND explaining Springfield only has their typical solution to fix the Illinois college student exodus to out-of-state colleges. Democrats want to spend more money to entice top students to go to college in Illinois. Top students can go anywhere they want. Why would they want to go to failing Illinois colleges or work in a high tax state? Illinois colleges and universities are over-staffed and mismanaged, like all Democrat-run state agencies. I believe SIUC offers 84 different degrees. I’m sure most of the degrees are worthless when it comes to finding a job. Illinois colleges and universities need to clean house. The systemic problems in Illinois can easily be fixed without spending money.

Consolidate schools

Wolf Branch is squeezed into one building once again. A village of 12,000 or so that has two school districts is crazy. Consolidate the school districts into one in the village of Swansea. One building becomes the elementary for all and the other for the middle school. Have people ever wondered why you have two districts for such a small area? Also, think of the excess administration we pay for. Wake up, folks, in other states they do not have so many school districts. Where I lived in the past with a 100,000 population, there was a district for a city, county was another, then for the smaller towns around like Swansea, there was a district for the towns. Get rid of the waste and consolidate.

Flying boondoggle

At the end of each year, my family and I sit down and review our annual budget then prepare a new one for the upcoming year. We look for places to cut so we can provide our children with a quality education, take a family vacation and other things. We reduce spending where necessary so we can live within our means. It’s not rocket science, just a good practice. It would be nice if our St. Clair County Board chairman and his board would do the same. They can start with that albatross, MidAmerica Airport. We are paying for the Kern folly at the expense of public safety and other much-needed services. Our fearless leaders spend $8 to $10 million each year to fund this political boondoggle.

Frothing over beer

Eckert’s Hofbräuhaus is named the St. Louis Hofbräuhaus. Evidently, the Kellers didn’t think the Belleville Hofbräuhaus was classy enough. The naming part must have slipped Eckert’s mind for the past three years. I wonder how many St. Louis people will make the quest through East St. Louis for a cold beer and a wiener schnitzel? St. Louis already has a number of fine national award-winning craft breweries and pubs. Wonder how the owners of 4204 Brewing feel about the competition taking their customers? Forgot, 4204 Brewing already got their TIF funding from Eckert, so who cares. With nothing else under construction, like a gas station or hotel, I wonder how long “short on cash” Kellers can operate at a loss?

Judicial comparison

The Sound-off comparing Judge Duebbert to Judge Kolker made me spit my morning coffee on my newspaper. A real comparison would be that Duebbert lives with murderous convicted felons while Kolker lives with his wife and kids. Duebbert has been disciplined by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission while Kolker has not. Duebbert received extremely low ratings in a bipartisan survey from his peers while Kolker received some of the highest ratings. Duebbert has been charged with multiple felonies while Kolker never has. There is no comparison.

Flag on play

I watched a documentary on East St. Louis football called 89 Blocks. I found it ironic that East St. Louis has fired two basketball coaches in the past few years for language and verbal abuse of players when the head football coach in the documentary was doing the exact same thing. There were tons of bleeps to hide the true language of the coach. These coaches are supposed to be educators. Is this language that is being used in the classroom? The East St. Louis administrators should be ashamed of themselves.

Derrick damage

Watching the latest Collinsville township trustee meeting made me wonder if they should change the name to “The Derrick Cox Circus.” Trustee Cox was ready to rebate taxpayers’ money that he claimed they were over-taxed. He made a complete mockery of the proceedings by spouting off things he didn’t know. When this was explained to him, he just laughed in their faces. He’s a one-man distraction at trustee meetings. Plus, he had his CARD board members there to back up his push to dismantle CARD. I think this guy doesn’t realize the damage he’s causing.

Disrespectful

Sitting at a recent Collinsville City Council meeting, I found myself shocked by the remarks made by Bob DesPain about former Mayor Stan Schaeffer. I’m not sure why DesPain had to disrespect the good name of the late Stan Schaeffer to try and make more accusations about current Mayor John Miller. This all seemed to stem from DesPain being pulled over for breaking the law and then getting out of his automobile when the police officer said to remain in the car. Mr. DesPain, you aren’t above the law and you are very disrespectful. It seems to be a pattern with people who break the law then come and speak four minutes of disrespectful dialogue.

Not a soldier

Contrary to popular belief, on the old TV show “Dragnet” Detective Joe Friday never actually said, “Just the facts ma’am.” A recent anonymous Sound-off contributor was also in error when they claimed that U.S. Sen. Al Franken had “molested a female soldier.” Franken’s victim was wearing a flak jacket and a military helmet for safety reasons, while traveling on a military aircraft, but was not a soldier. She was frequent USO entertainer Leeann Tweeden, a radio and TV personality from Los Angeles.

Sexual politics

I’m doing this anonymously so some woman won’t accuse me of sexually harassing her in an incident that I might have done from 40 years ago that I don’t even remember. I think it’s outrageous that women are doing this to great public men. They are not going to get any satisfaction out of this and they’re going to alienate men for a longer period of time. Those men are 70 now and the rules between men and women were different at that time, end of discussion.

Trashy bin

I live by one of the donation bins that are maintained by the for-profit company MPS, which is stated on the bin sign. It always seems to be overflowing with donations. I wonder why the city allows them to be on properties? They are eyesores, a haven for homeless people to be inside them and are located near schools, churches, homes. I needed a permit to place a small shed on my land. How come this company doesn’t need one? If I had stuff like that littering my yard, I’d get a ticket. Where are their tickets?

This story was originally published December 3, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "BND readers sound off on beer, judges, college costs."