Published: October 26, 2009 12:18 am         

Readers' Forum: Oct. 26, 2009

Mayor took care of problem pronto

I am writing this letter in regard to a problem I have had with the side street I live along. The church out back of my place had a new gym and several other buildings erected. There are nice black-topped roads on the church property. I guess they did not want them torn up so they came in the back of their property from Elizabeth Avenue and proceeded to tear up a city street instead of their own nice roads that they have. They were running cement mixers and heavy dump trucks filled with dirt and sand and bricks and all kind of heavy materials.

The road bed is only 4 to 5 inches thick and was not built for that kind of use. All this activity took place back in 2006. Since then the contractor has made no attempt to repair damages that they caused on Elizabeth Avenue.

I did not know who to contact about a problem like this as the Burke machine was in power at that time and I figured I would get nowhere. Skip to the city election: I voted for Mayor Duke Bennett because he does not do politics as usual here in Sin City.

I was introduced to Mayor Bennett through a friend of mine. We were at the 12 Points Ice Cream Social on Aug. 15 of this year. I talked with him about the problem I had, about how I felt — either the church or the contractor should be liable for damage done to a city street. Mayor Bennett heard me out, got on the phone with a city engineer and came out to see the street the next day. I spoke to him on the 15th. On Friday, Aug. 21, a city truck came by and filled in the huge hole in the middle of the street and did a good job on it.

So I would like to publicly say thank you to Mayor Duke Bennett. He impresses me as a man that will keep his word and he wants to help people with their problems, big or small. I have not been to his office yet but I admire his open door policy, so an average citizen and taxpayer like me can speak with the head man and get things out in the open and resolved.

So to all the nay-sayers out there, go up to him and he will talk to you. As for my end, thanks again Mayor Bennett for getting my problem resolved.

— Thomas Silcott

Terre Haute



Know about crime in neighborhood

I am responding to a letter written on Oct. 9 from a Jenny Scamihorn in regard to the public having the right to be made aware of crime that is occurring in their neighborhoods.

I completely agree with Mrs. Scamihorn, and agree so much that in November 2008 I launched a Web site called B-aware. B-aware sends free daily e-mails to subscribers of all the crimes that are committed in their neighborhood.

All one has to do is go to www.b-aware.us and sign up for free and the daily e-mails will begin to show up immediately. We also inform the public of all sex offender updates through our e-mail program.

Once again the service is free.

— Jim Graham

Co-founder of B-aware Inc.