A few weeks ago 2011 Mayoral Candidate Rick Davis came out in support of saving Roberts Stadium. Here is the link...
http://video.wnin.org/video/1681067634/
Since I am the cameraman for Newsmakers, I had a sneak peek about this, and I have been excited ever since.
My favorite quote from this interview was when Rick said...
"If you have a house that's paid for but which has a leaky basement, you don't tear down the house."
It was so refreshing to hear this. When I told Mayor Weinzapfel this he said that he believed that Roberts Stadium is, " worth nothing." When I talked with Commissioner Lloyd Winnecke about Roberts Stadium he said, " I don't believe the city can, or should, "save" Roberts Stadium."
Truthfully, I am at a loss for words at why city leaders are hellbent on tearing down a venue that HNTB is on record as saying the exterior is good, the steel structure is good, and there are no immediate repairs needed. Furthermore, the city spent $282,563 to FIX the water pump problem. HNTB has no estimated time table for the water pumps to go out because they are only 5 years removed from being completely repaired and they have shown no signs of breakdown. There isn't even a water problem with Roberts Stadium!
With Rick Davis, I am confident we will finally get a city leader who understands that you don't sit on your hands and wait for someone to come to you with a fully funded plan, you go do it yourself.
That's what our current leaders don't understand. They think that they should just sit there in their office and evaluate only the proposals that are put together by someone else and brought to them. In fact, many council members and wesselman park officials have also said that, " the ball field proposal was the only proposal on the table."
We are never ever going to get anywhere with Roberts Stadium, or any project here for that matter, if we don't work aggressively to find a solution for every one of our problems. Also, if we are not proactive in finding solutions, we will find ourself a dying town ( we just lost another 5,000 or so residents in the latest census).
In my opinion, Rick Davis demonstrated that he understands this concept when he said he would be active in putting together a plan to turn Roberts Stadium into a natatorium. Under the current crop of city leaders, a plan like that would never stand a chance because it will never put itself together and present itself on their desk. Furthermore, no resident can give them an exact figure for a project like this because they do not have access to important financial data like city hall does.
With Rick Davis, I am confident we will save Roberts Stadium because we will have a city leader who is willing to work with us not against us. If we go to him with ideas, he will explore them and find out what we can and can't do, which is the whole point of this blog.
Rick Davis wants to SAVE ROBERTS STADIUM, and for this reason we must put Rick in the mayor's office!
Way to go Rick! Evansville doesn't ever seem to want to save anything, just tear it down. When we were kids they tore down the old train station, which most cities use as a tourist attraction.
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