Monday, July 30, 2007

Copper Theft Ruins Food For The Needy

There's yet another example of the widespread, growing crime problem in Indianapolis. Thieves stole copper tubing on refrigeration units for Gleaner's Food Bank over the weekend, causing the loss of $474,000 worth of food. This has been happening to air-conditioning units all over town. A number of churches have also reported copper gutters stolen. A friend of mine is having copper gutters installed on his home on the near-northside. He'll be lucky if they last for more than a month. Click here to help out Gleaner's in its hour of need.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

...and the Democrat Machine doesn't have enough police, since Bart Peterson didn't hire any for TWO YEARS!

The Democrat Machine loves crime! It creates fear...fear of lawlessness and being victimized, burglarized, raped! They love to instill fear in others....

...and then: "Tax and Spend..." on a croney or adding patronage employees, but LIE and say it is for "Public Safety".

Bart lies!

Anonymous said...

Several years back they put a copper roof on the Hancock County Court House.
There's a king's ransom in copper on top of that building!
I can get a helicopter but I need some ex Navy Seals with crow bars to pull the stuff off.
Is Slotkin Salvage still in business?

Anonymous said...

If Indianapolis had enough police officers, would this have happened?

--I don't remember something like this EVER happening before the merger, and when there were sufficient police to patrol the area!!!

It's Bart's fault!

Anonymous said...

A very sad story indeed. And whether it has to do with enough police officers, is surely open for intellegent discussion.

But this constant drone is sounding a lot like IndyU.

Which is not pleasant or, frankly, intellegent discourse.

Wilson46201 said...

This morning's NYTimes has an article about copper theft focusing on wire from California irrigation systems but it also covers this national problem. Scrap copper has shot up in price, rising from $0.60 a few years ago to almost $4.00 per pound nowadays.

Nevertheless, its particularly sad when an eleemosynary entity like Gleaners gets hit...

Anonymous said...

Gary, when I prearrainged my funeral earlier this year and purchased a cemetery lot with headstone, I was warned not to purchase anything with metal as it will be stolen.

Get use to this problem, it will only get worse until scrap metal dealers are taxed.

Anonymous said...

Get use to this problem, it will only get worse until scrap metal thieves are shot.

There. Fixed.

Anonymous said...

If the Center Township Trustee's job is that of "poor relief" then why the need for Gleaners?

Some people can't eat in this city and the Center Township Trustee is sitting on millions of dollars that should be used.

Obviously the need for a Gleaners arose when those in charge of "poor relief" used the money for other things.

I pay taxes for the Center Township Trustee to do the work Gleaners is doing. Gleaners won't see a dime of my money.

Anonymous said...

don't punish Gleaner's for the crimes of the Ghetto mafia.

Wilson46201 said...

Center Township Trustee helps with grocery vouchers until the client can get on Federal food stamps. Gleaners serves all of Central Indiana, a much bigger territory than Center Township. Dont let your myopic political hatred get in the way of your duty to assist the poor and needy!

Anonymous said...

My step-dad volunteers at St. Vincent De Paul (serving a function similar to Gleaners.) He said just about everybody that comes in is from Center Township. I don't really have a problem with that, though. Private charities have always performed significantly better than publicly-funded ones. Even if the Center Township trustee had the operating budget to feed and clothe all the poor in Center Township, places like Gleaners would still have business. Obviously the people in charge of poor relief in Center could be doing much more, but anytime you expect much more than the minimum from the government you know you're going to be let down.

Wilson46201 said...

Having worked at Center Township for years, it's sad that it was always the most generous of all Townships with a policy of assistance to 55% of Federal poverty level. That's bare minimum subsistence (grinding poverty) but better than nothing -- and sadly better than most other townships.

Anonymous said...

These are the same people who are going to Gleanors because they are in need of food for the family.
Also the same ones who will vote for Bart.

Anonymous said...

So, now we measure governmental effectiveness in a township's ability to dole out more poor relief than another township?

Sad.

Unmentioned in the above post, was that regardless of how much Center hands out, it takes over a buck fifty to deliver every dollar of relief. In charity and NFPs, an overhead that inefficient is considered borderline criminal.

Sadly, inefficiencies like that rob the very persons intended to be helped. If the overhead were, say, $1.20 instead of $1.50 for every dollar of poor relief, that's a lot of extra money to go to--TA DAAA!--the poor, instead of political hacks' salaries, cars and benefits.

Carl could sell those buildings, and generate tax relief AND poor relief. But then, the testosterone level wouldn't be as high, 'cause he'd not be a powerful landlord with free storage space for his cars.

See how looney this all sounds? The poor need help and we're arguing over who doles out the most.

Wilson46201 said...

That's an urban myth about all those cars being stored - I had total run of the facilities and I never saw any. It's a "Jocelyn story".

The alleged high cost of poor relief overhead is an accounting anomaly. For odd reasons, Center allocates cost differently than other townships (and perfectly acceptable to the State Board of Accounts). Once I did a trial reallocation for discussion purposes to use the same system the other townships use: Center's overhead percentage was the same as the others.

The elected Township Board determines the tax levy and approves the budget. The Trustee can spend no money not approved by that elected Board.

Anonymous said...

Wilson 9:57

Thank you for clarifying the fact that The Democrat Machine runs this city, showing how its all cronyism!!!

Anonymous said...

7:50 must have had ESP, since he just announced two more crony "Neighborhood Liasons"

WOW!