Updating Eastlake
I never got around to mentioning how the elections in Eastlake, my fair burb, went. By the end of the elections I was ill and just tired of talking about elections (and much else besides
my college football team). So, to make it short, the guy I supported for Mayor didn't win.
The new mayor would have been my second pick. The Council-at-large position was re-elected. Whick kind of surprised me, since he was there when most of the budget mess went down. Well since the election not much has been written about Eastlake that caught my attention. Until
this.
This cash-strapped city is willing to unload thousands of dollars' worth of elaborate Christmas decorations that have lit up the municipal complex in recent years.
There had been discussion about putting the items on the auction Web site eBay, an idea that new Mayor Ted Andrzejewski has nixed. But he said he's still willing to sell for the right price.
"If we can help another city and get a reasonable cost for it, why not?" Andrzejewski said.
Eastlake will be stringing lights on trees in front of City Hall for the holiday season but will leave the bulk of the decorations in storage.
"In the foreseeable future, we're not going to have the kind of money to put on that kind of display," Andrzejewski said. "I like the Christmas season, but we have to do it within our means."
The state auditor's office declared a fiscal emergency for Eastlake in May because of the city's $3.2 million budget deficit. Like the deficit, the Christmas decorations are the legacy of former Mayor Dan DiLiberto, who quit earlier this year for health reasons.
Eastlake has spent $130,000 on holiday lights, displays and banners in the last 10 years. Nearly $50,000 of the cost was offset by donations.
$80,000 from the Eastlake budget over the last 10 years for Christmas decorations? In Eastlake? This city is not that big.
It gets better (or worse).
One of the vendors from whom the city bought Christmas decorations, Holiday Lighting Displays Inc., has ties to John Chiappetta, a Richmond Heights businessman. Chiappetta is the subject of investigations by Eastlake police and federal authorities concerning state loans for an industrial park he built in Eastlake and his handling of health- care and retirement money at one of his bankrupt companies.
Eastlake paid Holiday Lighting Displays $45,000 between 1999 and 2001. An invoice sent to the city for payment was signed by Holiday Lighting Displays employee Stephanie Antunez, who is Chiappetta's daughter. The company's incorporation records include a letter carbon-copied to Chiappetta.
Neither Chiappetta nor Antunez could be reached for comment. The city initially paid Holiday Lighting Displays $20,000 in November 1999 to rent lighting displays. A memo requesting payment from then-recreation Director Michael Hutchinson does not list what those items were.
Eastlake then paid $5,000 in 2000 to rent unspecified decorations.
The city paid Holiday Lighting Displays $20,000 more the following year to buy decorations. An invoice lists the "major items" but does not specify how much each cost.
The city does have invoices that list how much items from other Christmas suppliers cost. Eastlake paid $2,248 for a lighted peacock, $1,646 for the animated giraffe and nearly $4,000 for a jack-in-the-box.
So, over one-third of the costs of decorations came over a 3 year period to one company with vague invoices. A subsidiary company to a business owner who is facing criminal investigations for fraud, bankruptcy and who knows what else.
As my daughter is now fond of saying whenever she sees the Guiness Beer logo on TV, "Bwill-yant!!"
Again?
Once more, I ended up taking the week off. I had a few things I wanted to post, but just didn't get to them. Most of my blogging time has been spent obsessively over at
Pitt Sports Blather. I haven't even mentioned that
Pitt beat the Hoopies in the 97th Backyard Brawl. Now Pitt finds itself going to the BCS -- it would appear to be the Fiesta Bowl -- and plenty of people who don't even like the BCS and know
its a joke are
acting all outraged. Hard for me to get upset. The BCS was not created to simulate a playoff or get the gest 8 teams in bowl games. It was made with hopes of getting #1 and #2 to play each other (and has failed to achieve that consistently), and provide a big payoff to the conferences that were included.
I spent Thanksgiving at the in-laws. Made the annual Staples shopping run on Friday morning. This has actually become something of a warped family tradition the last 3 years. It started with my sister's husband, uncle and I back in 2001. We hit the Staples store when it opens for the big tech deals and that's usually it. It isn't to get gifts for anyone. It is purely selfish and to get some tech goodies.
Last year, we threw in a trip to a Best Buy, but will never do that again. Since I was with the in-laws I had to solo it. For the first time ever, I failed to get the stuff I wanted. They had an internal, dual-format, dual layer 16X rewritable DVD drive for $40 dollars after rebates (about $70 - $30 rebate). I need this. I have a load of digital video I have shot of Angie in the last couple of years, but have not been able to do much with it.
I got to the Staples about 5 minutes before it opened at 6am (I was really dragging from staying up late trying to come down from the Pitt win), and the line was longer than usual. I had hoped it was for the LCD monitors and the printers. But, by the time I got in the door (they handed out little vouchers for key items) the DVD drives were sold out.
Still got a great new USB drive and a web cam. I now have a decision, and if there are any readers left and have any tech know-how I would appreciate their input.
They are now closing out an internal dual format 8X rewritable drive for about $60. It is from the same company that made the 16X, I/O, and it got solid reviews in PC World last year. It isn't dual layer, but I'm not sure how essential that is since I am not expecting to need to put 8 GB of data on a DVD. I know that the 8X will be slower to write, but that isn't a major issue to me.
Should I get the closeout model? Or should I hold out and hope the price on the 16X dual layers fall after the holiday to near that price. Right now they retail from $150-$100 with rebates.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
