New Carlisle has been raking in big bucks from fees attached to your Waste Management bills, but where has that money gone? Something stinks around here, and for once it isn’t the garbage. Main & Lake investigates.

It’s a well-known fact that one of Main & Lake staff’s favorite pastimes is watching and discussing New Carlisle City Council videos over a bottle (or two!) of Boone’s Farm. While catching up on the August 15, 2016 council meeting, we noticed something interesting about the Waste Management trash service discussion.

Early in the meeting (scroll to approximately 5:00), City Manager Randy Bridge states that each household paying for trash service is paying a $3/month franchise fee and the city is receiving $71,100 per year in franchise fees.

The discussion about the franchise fees starts at around the 7:00 mark. Below is a very rough transcript* of the conversation.

Council Member Bill McIntire:

Mr. Bridge, I have a question about the franchise fee. I know you weren’t around when the initial contract went through; I believe that was sometime in 2012 when we decided on this. One of the things that came up and why I pushed hard for the franchise fee – and I was one of the people who was most vocal about the franchise fee – is that that money would be allocated for street repairs, um, just hearing now that it was not. Can you provide more explanation on that, because… at least verbally it was conveyed to all of us that this money would be allocated for street repairs and nothing else.

City Manager Randy Bridge:

I can’t speak for the previous administration about the finances; I can just say what I have noticed. What I see is we have a line item in the general fund for this, um, none of that has been distributed for street repair. It’s always been due to supplements from the general fund.

McIntire: 

And this has been the case, as far as you know from looking at the budget documents?

Bridge:

Yes.

If we are understanding Mr. Bridge correctly, this means that the $71,100 per year in franchise fees that was earmarked for roadwork has not been allocated for repairs (as the city has to use general funds to pay for them). This comes to $284,400 in missing money since 2012.

Take a short drive around out great town and you’ll find dozens of places where $284,400 could be put to good use, if only someone knew where the money was. So where did the missing funds go? We have a few ideas:

New Carlisle Mount Rushmore

We once took a poll to see who YOU’D want on a local monument of New Carlisle’s greatest. Is it possible that the funds are being used to develop a real life New Carlisle Mount Rushmore?

 

Ratcat Spay/Neuter Program

As we’ve mentioned before, feral ratcats are a real problem adorable creatures native to New Carlisle. It’s feasible that the missing funds were used to quietly fund a humane trap/neuter/release program in order to get the booming ratcat population under control.

Help Brad Martin Make New Carlisle Great Again

Superintendent Brad Martin was found guilty of embezzling funds from Tecumseh Schools (and grieving families of deceased students) to gamble at a local casino. We here at Main & Lake believe that Mr. Martin was simply attempting to increase the school’s revenue with big wins at the casino, and only had the school’s best interests at heart.

Perhaps city officials truly believed in him too, and staked him with the roadwork funds generated by the Waste Management franchise fees. “You gotta spend money to make money,” the saying goes. As the other saying goes, “Don’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that don’t belong to you in slot machines, idiot. At least play craps like a man.” The first saying is better, though.

Old Carl Hubbard’s Accidental Paychecks

If you’ve lived in New Carlisle for any length of time, you know Ol’ Carl. He’s a local mainstay who always has a smile and a friendly “howdy” for everyone about town. What you may not know is that Ol’ Carl retired years ago from his position as Lead City Landscape Artist, but through a clerical error, Carl’s been drawing a steady paycheck with full benefits ever since! Is it possible that the missing roadwork funds have been inadvertently funding Ol’ Carl’s frequent Boca Raton getaways and natural male enhancement regimen?

Embezzling

This option is far too unlikely to entertain, but if we were going to suggest that someone had deliberately mismanaged the roadwork funds in order to skim some for themselves, this is where we’d do it. It just seems too far-fetched that someone in city leadership in our fair city would have the lack of moral integrity to do such a thing.

Maybe It’s Just in an Old Duffel Bag somewhere in Town

We all lose things from time to time. It would be hypocritical for us to blame our city leadership for doing the same. Perhaps the $284,400 is just in some old duffel bag, hidden behind a box of Hal Gilliam Ford keychains. Until we organize a search party and cover every square inch of town we can’t blame anyone for losing this money.

So where do you think the missing $284,400 went? Vote in the poll below to let your opinion be heard!

*Due to the poor audio of the council meeting video, this transcript has been trimmed for clarity and accuracy. 

**Reporting on this story was done by the entire Main & Lake staff: Joe Bolo, Bev Clemons, Chuck Calico, and Tom Terkie.