Something stinks in Husker Nation, and it ain't just the sewers.
A proposed 2% sales tax on prepared food for the new ballpark comes out to about 10 cents for a $5 lunch, 50 cents per business week or roughly $25 per year. Since a general admission ticket to the CWS is $10, it's the equivalent to buying two CWS tickets for a game that most likely someone else will watch. O! but I forgot: we have our ego to protect as the home of the famous NCAA College World Series.
But the ballpark is chump change to the $1.5 billion needed for Omaha's sewer repairs. At roughly 15 times the expense of building a new stadium, perhaps the mayor will propose a 30% restaurant sales tax to cover it? O! but this isn't sexy news like (drum roll please).....a New Ballpark!!!
Speaking of sewers, how about Steve Pedersen's career? What a sham. Chancellor Harvey Perlman should be the one flushed for not listening to his neurotic booster club when he gave the former AD a bonus and a five year contract extension earlier this year. Instead, Pedersen is first rewarded and then sent out like a goat to take away all of the sins of Husker nation. Then this guy Perlman looks like a genius for bringing in former head coach, U.S. Congressman and future saint, Mr. Tom Osborne.
Heraclitus allegedly once said that you can never enter the same river twice. Well, Husker Nation is drowning in a it's own Rubicon of tears, elimination and other exudate that's now congealing in Memorial Stadium. Tom Osborne, as you wade into this foul cesspool, "I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you." (Leslie Nielson, Airplane!)
Indeed, something reeks around here. My money (through inevitable rising property taxes) is betting on the only near term success: fixing our sewers. So good bye NCAA CWS and enjoy your new home! Good bye Mr. Pedersen and enjoy your $2M! While I'm at it: good bye Mr Callahan and enjoy your millions, too. And thanks, Mr. Perlman, for wasting the University's money, which is funded by our taxes as you may recall, on an unwanted AD and his coach.
O! I look forward with great anticipation towards the installation of those sexy, $1.5B sump systems. Anyway, there will be one less thing stinking to high hell in the Big O! good life of Husker Nation.
Goldilocks and the 3 Bears
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Let's pick up the story in roughly the middle of the action.
... Goldilocks first sampled Papa Bear's porridge, "Holy shit, that's hot,"
she cried, toss...
2 years ago
O!, settle down. I believe -- but I'm not positive -- that Stevie P and Billy C are paid from athletic department funds, not taxpayer funds. Athletics at the good 'ol U of Nebraska-Lincoln are self-supporting. I think. The program does not, however, pay for sewers or new ballparks.
ReplyDeleteNow, will they let the CWS leave? O!, hell no. If Fahey blows it, he'll go down as the nimrod who lost the Series. And, honestly, without the CWS, Omaha is Des Moines, minus the cool hippie vibe near Drake. Damn dirty hippies ...
I have no idea about sewers. I just pee, flush and go on with the day.
All you gotta know about Omaha sewers is that if you live up in some parts of North O!, you'll get a basement and/or street full of sewer overflow when the large rains hit. The sewer and storm drain pipes are not big enough and, I think, are run concurrently in some places.
ReplyDeleteYou'll notice anywhere they put in a new building or redesign the streets in the mid-town area, the construction takes a long time because they always have to remedy the sewer problem first. For that particular area. Only. Aksarben next to the Keystone trail is a prime example. There's a couple of huge holes in the ground where the pipes used to get clogged up. So Omaha's got 2 things to look foward to for a long time(aside from the Huskers sucking); it's a superfund sight since there's too much lead in the soil, and the sewers stink.
Mike, those two reasons are why I'm PSYCHED to stay here for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteApparently, he was a University employee and was paid with a combo of public and private funds.
ReplyDeleteI say pay him all $2.2 million.
Let's get creative: garnish Perlman's wages, create a prepared foods 2% tax, or take up a special collection during Saturday's Church of Nebraska services at Memorial Stadium.
Anyway, he earned 100% of it. Thanks for the follies, Messrs Perlman and Pedersen.