Thursday, July 30, 2009

Authority Alert! Water and Sewer! Iron City Beer! 9:30 AM TOMORROW! **

This, care of anonymous blowhard Infinonymous:

In one corner, carrying water for the company that abandoned the city after taking millions in handouts from taxpayers, is the Ravenstahl administration. The boy mayor is said to be pressing hard to clear the liens and let the defaulting, departing, out-of-towners at Iron City off the hook. Why? (Infinonymous)


The Comet will require some more explanation on "said to be" "carrying water" in the present tense, Mr. Onymous.

In the other corner, pushing for at least $1 million in repayments of water and sewer bills ... is council member Patrick Dowd. (ibid)


We definitely need to inject some politics into Authority doings. That's why the framers of the Home Rule Charter arranged that at least one member of Council shall serve on each of the Mayor's city authorities, and a different Council member for each one (§ 220). So this is all very wholesome, especially in a recession. Plus, apparently, there's boxing, some kind of grudge match.

*-UPDATE: The Post-Gazette is on it:

Mr. Dowd has offered a resolution which could get a vote from the authority's board today. His proposal reasserts the system's $1 million claim to Iron City's debt due to failure of the brewer to fulfill its renovation pledge. It also directs authority officials to set up a payment schedule with the company and submit it to the board within 60 days.

That is action worth supporting, on behalf of not only the public authority but also the many Pittsburgh customers who pay their water bills on time. (P-G, Edit Board)


Equal time: Tribune-Review, Edit Board.

**-UPDATE: Null Space sees all this as a shiny diversion. He's right, of course, but we need to establish the idea of accountability at our authorities before we can expect it.

9 comments:

  1. Dowd is right on this issue.

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  2. I think it's interesting, Water & Sewer Authority Alert, aligned with Iron City Beer, kinda like we pissed our money away. We paid for the water and our money and the by products of Iron City Beer ended up in the sewer.

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  3. Iron City Beer should end up in the sewer. That's where it belongs.

    Penn Brewery or East End Brewing puts out a much better product.

    Good Riddance Iron Shitty. Your bill is in the mail.

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  4. Anon,

    The by-products of IC usually wind-up in the neighbor's yard when I drink it.

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  5. Didn't Iron City once put out a lime-flavoured light beer? They marketed it with like, a salamander, or two salamanders and some lasers? That was an amusing weekend.

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  6. Don't know. I do remember the aluminum bottle they tried briefly in 2003 or so.

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  7. will Steelerstahl come to my house and forgive me of any taxes I owe or a water bill I have yet to pay??

    of course not, I didn't give him any $$$ for his re-selection campaign nor did I vote for him

    what bullshit
    Mayor Yarone Zober has too many friends over at Iron City and he doesn't want them burdened w/ an unpaid bill

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  8. I'm with thetruth, if the administration wanted to play favorites, why not throw a little cash to penn brewing? bring their high volume bottling into pittsburgh, instead of new york or reading or somesuch. that way I can watch Dave and Dave do their best Lavern and Shirley imitation as they wave to an errand glove on the bottling line.

    good times.

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  9. Bribes to businesses with government money (our money) is always a bad idea. It is bad for the economy, the taxpayers and marketplace.

    This is why our city has two sets of OVERLORDS.

    And, it is why the city is not an inch closer to getting rid of them.

    Now the over-reaching politicians are putting burdens onto the next owners of The Hilton Hotel. They need to stick to the basics.

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