Readers comments below

$28 million and 14 years later, BH airport work nears hoped-for completion in 2011
By Scott Aiken - H-Palladium
Sunday, September 12, 2010
BENTON HARBOR - It is a project being done in fits and starts, an undertaking at the mercy of the flow of federal funding.

Now, after 14 years and $28.2 million spent or allocated, a completion date is on the horizon for the runway safety project at Southwest Michigan Regional Airport...

angry tax payer wrote on Sep 12, 2010 1:39 PM:
" Since it is my tax money paying for all of this and it is federal mandated, then commerical flights should be coming in and out. It is a major pain the rear, to have to fly to kazoo or sbend, and then get a rent a car. It is just not right that this is only for Whirlpool!!!! "

So Like... wrote on Sep 12, 2010 1:58 PM:
" ...where are all those jobs that have been continually promised with all those airport millages? Come on, where are they? BTW: what's wrong with flying into/out of SBN...it's closer than most folk in Chicago to ORD? "

Hopeless wrote on Sep 12, 2010 4:23 PM:
" All the plans in Benton Harbor but no Fire Dept. The ISO - (Insurance Services Office Rates) will the so high that the Business will not be able to get insurance. Thanks Joe Harris "

Steve wrote on Sep 12, 2010 6:30 PM:
" JamesO: this is a challenge to you: Prove your point! We've heard this rift for years but still no jobs. Most airmail comes into So.Bend; no commercial service,; wealth transfer from taxpayers to private airport users takes investment money away, etc. BTW: Bringing folks in for golf doesn't count. I dont want words- I want facts, numbers, stats, revenue vs. costs, etc. "

mikell wrote on Sep 12, 2010 6:58 PM:
" Sorry no factory jobs putting together widgets for $20 an hour. All the widget production because nobody would back the union. Union had power America was great and now look management has power and Were dying "

Marge Inovera wrote on Sep 12, 2010 8:05 PM:
" Don't the FAA requirements have some relation to the intended uses of a runway. I notice that Andrews University has a dinky little airport, but it's used for flight training in tiny little planes. If the FAA wants more runway, then it's presumably for Whirlpool's jets. OK, if Whirlpool needs it, let Whirlpool pay for it. "

always positive wrote on Sep 12, 2010 11:15 PM:
" Ross International Airport - The airport to nowhere. "

frr wrote on Sep 13, 2010 1:20 AM:
" I GUESS THE ONES WHO HAVE BEEN PAYING FOR THIS RUNWAY WILL NEVER GET A CHANCE TO USE IT, ITS ONLY BEEN 14 YEARS. OH WELL IT TOOK THEM ALMOST 50 YEARS TO BUILD THE EXPRESS HIGHWAY TO SOUTHBEND BUT WILL NEVER FINISH IT HERE. AND BENTON HARBOR STILL DOES NOT HAVE A ON AND OFF RAMP OF ITS OWN TO GET IN AND OUT OF THE CITY TO DETROIT AND CHICAGO. WHAT A JOKE. WE THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN JUST USED UP. MAYBE WE SHOULD QUIT
GIVING THEM OUR TAX DOLLARS SO FREELY."

What a Joke wrote on Sep 13, 2010 8:46 AM:
" Marge Inovera is right. This project is for Whirlpool and the Cornerstone spin on this article/project is going to be another Harbor Shores. "

Pilot wrote on Sep 13, 2010 10:28 AM:
" Hey Mike, If you really lived out there you would know that there have NEVER been 100 flights a day at the airport.

The ESTIMATE is that there have been 100 takeoff's and landings. Clearly, NOT the same thing.

Sixty five million dollars flushed down the toilet on that airport in the last twenty years and for what? "

Really wrote on Sep 13, 2010 10:51 AM:
" It was to be a six person board, Al Todd is the representative from Lincoln Township but he is a department head for the city of St. Joseph. The city of st Joe also has a representative on the board. Does that mean the city of st Joseph really has two votes? Is this an agenda by st Joseph to control Benton Harbor's airport. Mr Todd should resign as the Lincoln Township representative, so there is a true transparent view of the airport board and its workings. "

So Like Again... wrote on Sep 14, 2010 7:24 AM:
" ....where are all the jobs this thing has promised to bring over the last 25 year? I mean, why else do we need this thing? If folks who use private aircraft lived in Chicago, it'd take 'em longer to get to their plane there than in the Twin Cities getting to South Bend. "


http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/09/12/local_news/1862855.txt

Below find one comment as posted on the Herald Palladium.

A sharper eye at courthouse
New X-ray machine sees both sides of scanned objects
By Scott Aiken - H-P
Friday, September 17, 2010
ST. JOSEPH - New security equipment bought for the Berrien County Courthouse with a $50,200 federal grant is already paying off, an official said Thursday.

An X-ray scanner installed inside the entrance about a month ago has revealed knives and marijuana, courthouse security Director Joseph Zangaro told county commissioners...

Joe wrote on Sep 17, 2010 4:27 PM:
"The courthouse can be very busy, Zangaro reported, but a cell phone ban put into effect several years ago has cut down on the number of people who show up to watch trials or other proceedings."

I find it very interesting (and slightly disturbing) that the people running the courthouse note this approvingly. I don't think we should be happy that they've managed to find a marginally "justifiable" restriction so inconvenient to modern life that it actually dissuades people from seeing our justice system in action.

Cell phones are allowed at the US Supreme Court building in Washington, but are too much of a threat for the court building in Berrien County, Michigan? Come on!

Below find interesting comments as posted in the Herald Palladium

Whirlpool picks developer

Whirlpool has selected a developer for the new office complex...Pizzuti Companies of Columbus, Ohio, is committed to using local contractors whenever possible [catch the irony?]

Those are headlines of a 9/10 Herald Palladium article; here are some comments which
follow:


THANK GAWD OUR DAILY DOSE OF whirlpool wrote on Sep 10, 2010 2:01 PM:
" Thank You Gawd and hp for our Daily Dose of all things whirlpool !!!! we were jonesing !!!!

it had been, what, 24 or maybe 48 hours since our last blast of all things whirlpool !?!?!?!

Goebbels would be so darn proud. so darn proud. "

Wont Quit wrote on Sep 10, 2010 2:23 PM:
" Let me get this straight....Whirlpool beleive so much in investing in this area that they decided to spend their construction dollars with an out of state firm?. Guess the area construction companies and those employed by those companies don't match up to Whirlpool's standards! So much for more local jobs! Read my lips....Whirlpool is going to do what is good for Whirlpool and could give a rip about anyone else here! WE LOVE WHIRLPOOL (lol) "

brett wrote on Sep 10, 2010 3:16 PM:
" Whoa, ugly buildings! Better go back to the drawing board. They cleaned up the bums nicely though "

Deb wrote on Sep 10, 2010 5:10 PM:
" Just another slap in the face from good old Whirlpool. "

Where ... wrote on Sep 10, 2010 6:03 PM:
" ...are the signature 'Whirlpool red' bricks? "

BH RESIDENT wrote on Sep 10, 2010 7:43 PM:
" Where will the people that hangout along the river go. people still fish there and hang around....Will the whirlpool folks make it so they cant come around.. "

Big Surprise Non Local wrote on Sep 10, 2010 9:32 PM:
" a place that i worked at tried for years to get just a small piece of the pie from the washtub company. never good enough though we did business with corporations larger than the wersher company. go figure.

that outright hostility to local really chafes the ol' chaps.

funny ( not in a ha ha ha way however ) how it took some comments about the lack of locals on the golf course construction before a local construction firm showed up and prominently parked its trailer / tool crib out by the highway. until then there weren't any locals working on it.

but we are urged to support local buy local think local.

not too many 2 way streets around, it seems. "

Resident wrote on Sep 11, 2010 8:23 AM:
" All those jobs for local people - just another of MANY lies from Whirlpool. I just can not believe how naive the locals are in this area who think Whirlpool is doing this out of the goodness of their heart. Where else in this country can they get waterfront property for basically nothing and get tax breaks for it with their own airport and golf course. They now have control of all the waterfront property in BH. They now own the town. It isn't for the community they are doing this - it is for Whirlpool. They should spend their money on making better products made to last like they used to, not the crap they sell now. "


http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/09/10/local_news/1898476.txt

Former Benton Harbor police officer Andrew Collins is back in the community as a civilian. Are you sitting down? This criminal cop served a mere 7 months of a 37 month conviction for incessant drug planting on Benton Harbor African-American residents.


http://bhbanco.blogspot.com/2009/01/andrew-collins-was-not-lone-actor.html


http://bhbanco.blogspot.com/2009/01/collins-article-commentary-in-caps.html

http://bhbanco.blogspot.com/2009/01/story-gets-bigger-in-berrien.html

NAACP will host well-known speakers, the attorneys Sam Adam & Sam Adam, Jr. from Chicago who defended the former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich, and Judge Deborah Thomas from Detroit

NAACP-Benton Harbor branch will hold the
Annual Freedom Fund Banquet - Sat. Oct. 9, 2010, 7pm
Donation $50
Lake Michigan College, Upton Room
2755 E. Napier Ave.

Everyone welcome. Doors open at 6:30pm. The theme is New Day, New Way!

We are cordially inviting you to attend a brainstorming prior to our annual banquet at 6pm. Please help us continue the fight for freedom and justice by sending a donation.
Whirlpool is doing everything within their power to make sure we fail.

Please mail tax-deductible donations to:
NAACP
1940 Union St.
Benton Harbor, MI 49022