Muncie Oligarchy Looking for Land Grab in Muncie
Very disappointed that our newly elected Mayor Dan Ridenour would work behind the scenes with Jud Fisher at Ball Foundation and Next Muncie along with the president of YMCA, Chad Zaucha, to lease a portion of Tuhey Park in downtown Muncie, Indiana.
Last month I learned that Next Muncie was using its philanthropic-backed muscle (financial manipulation) to go behind citizens and taxpayers in Muncie to use Ball State University to build a biking trail along University Avenue, turning south on Meeks Avenue toward their new development on Washington Street just beyond the Washington Street bridge. I was also told that the Riverside/Normal Neighborhood association was presented with these facts.
Where was the public meeting on this? Who decided behind closed doors to use our public roads to connect to a private enterprise’s investment downtown?
I was told by a city council member who represents the district that it was an idea conceived by Next Muncie. Next Muncie is an oligarch-controlled entity financially backed by Jud Fisher, who controls the billions of Ball family money. It’s the ATM in Muncie. He uses much of his family money to get what they want in the City of Muncie since its inception. If you want to know who institutionalized racism in our community, look no further to the original Ball family.
The same oligarchs who worked behind the scenes with Republican legislators in Indianapolis to take away our public school system from taxpayers and our local school board while placing it in the hands of Ball State University, licensor of charter schools and controlled by Republican lawmakers. Classic manipulation. Once that agreement was signed, Jud started orchestrating donations to Muncie Community Schools. Again, classic Muncie manipulation since all the nonprofit organizations in Muncie receives money from Jud. That buys you a lot of power when you control the purse strings, including the YMCA in Muncie.
Would the locally corrupt Democratic Party make a fuss?
Nope. There’s no backbone over there either. Thus, the theft of funds from Muncie tax and ratepayers. Muncie has had an incestual relationship with its power structure for generations. It’s like addicts and their enablers. Unless both make changes, neither will set free.
Not a word. In fact, the corrupt mayor used taxpayer funds to purchase the property for Next Muncie’s urban center development. As Larry Riley pointed out, the corrupt Muncie Sanitary Board was able to “gift property they bought” to Next Muncie for development along White River. What did they get in exchange?
Classic Muncie political bullshit. I could say the same for Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. If you want to connect the dots, send me an email.
Anyway, now we have a “survey” asking for input about what residents would like to do with Tuhey Park & Pool. Kind of late when the survey says:
The City of Muncie is drafting plans to lease Tuhey Park to the YMCA to build a new facility and parking lot on the park’s grounds. The 64,000 sq ft., 2 story building with 302 parking spaces would effectively remove approximately 50% of the park land from public use, leaving a small section of greenspace for playgrounds. This new facility would replace their current downtown and northwest facilities.
The Riverside-Normal City Neighborhood Association would like to gather your feedback about this plan.
https://hlwilliams27.wufoo.com/forms/qxd0jgq1nbqaal/?fbclid=IwAR0f6-O0zln-nSZO3tWAIl5YKwGKsutO4-CBSb3XVaeRJ0TfuhLETM9Nmho
Suppose you have some time, head over to the survey from the link above, and let folks know what you’d like to see for Tuhey Park. I can’t promise it will make any difference since the whole thing seemed underhanded to begin with, but give it a shot.
