The Associated Press is reporting that Indiana is planning on building its first state park inn since 1939 at Potato Creek State Park up near South Bend. The building plans are apparently 15 years old, dating from a prior initiative where the inn failed to get funding. This year the General Assembly approved $24 million in funding for the project. In the interim, the State apparently tried and failed to enlist a private partner for the job.
But, fear not, private use of public resources will be used to fund the construction:
Gov. Mike Pence has said the lodge will be paid for solely by the leasing of . . . more than 300 cell towers on DNR land.
And we can expect new education funding after the statewide bake sale
I guess regardless of the outcome Mike Pence’s last year (or, heaven forbid, last 5 years) as the governor of Indiana, we can be glad he got a State Park Inn built in a revenue-neutral way. That’s certainly the accomplishment for a guy who came into the governorship with an 0-63 record getting bills through Congress.
I mean, he got something done! Even if it’s a variant of the Toll Road deal on a laughably smaller scale.
And people think I just bag on Mike Pence as a woefully under-qualified Governor for no reason. I don’t know where they get that idea.
Of course, the leasing of towers on DNR land was supposed to go to fix the statewide emergency management communications system.
You mean they can’t just call each other on the cell phones? Huh.
But wait, there’s more money where that inn came from!
I suspect the torch relay will be headed up by an INDOT truck that will fixthe potholes and make the roads safe for the torch carriers coming behind them. Because the most Indiana thing that could happen on a “Bicentennial torch relay” would be some poor person falling and breaking a bone due to the deteriorating condition of Indiana’s infrastructure.
I was trying to find out some info concerning the Bicentennial events. Most of the links on the website don’t work, and you get that “You’re Lost” page. Other give a 1 sentence answer. Talk about wandering Indiana. Banner at top does say “State that works!” so I had expected more.
I wonder if some of that private money could buy Mike Pence a one way trip to an isolated Caribbean island. I would be happy to contribute.