Put yourself in the shoes of the state representatives and senators from northeast Indiana.

An organized effort is already in gear to oppose a Fort Wayne casino. One of the leading anti-casino voices is John Popp, a major contributor to some Republican candidates. A number of pastors have joined the effort.

On the other side – well, who is on the other side? If there is an organized effort, it is underground.

Mayor Tom Henry hints that he thinks the advantages of a casino outweigh the potential problems. But, well aware of the ongoing criticism stemming from Harrison Square, he wants a referendum. That doesn’t seem to be enough for the legislators, though, who are waiting for a strong voice to emerge from the city clearly backing a casino.

Without that voice, the casino is dead in the water, at least for this session.

Bad judgment

The drunken-driving arrest of Kosciusko County’s top law enforcement official doesn’t come at a good time for Indiana’s county coroners.

John Sadler was arrested on a DWI charge when he went to pick up the vehicle of his son, who himself had just been arrested and charged with drunken driving. Sadler was also charged with illegally possessing a switchblade knife.

Coroners are trying to beef up their public image amid efforts to professionalize the ranks and transfer their duties to appointed experts. Coroners are considered the top law enforcement officials in each county and are the only people empowered to arrest sheriffs on charges involving state laws.

Sadler, a funeral home owner, is a past president of the coroners’ association and past vice chairman of the association’s training board.

Fairmount Place

On March 15, I reported how the city sold land it acquired as part of a $350,000 project to buy and raze homes along Fairmount Place. The city received just $8,800 for the properties. Five years after the sale, the buyer turned around and sold the land for $525,000 to the operators of Charis House.

City officials had trouble locating a record of the 2002 sale by the city to buyer Dyle Hughes but has since dug up – from long-term storage – appraisals of the property at the time. One appraiser valued the land at $5,490; the second at $12,000, for an average of $8,745, hence the sales price of $8,800.

When appraised, the land was most likely shown to still be in a flood plain, though a city levee project removed it from the 100-year flood plain. That removal later raised the value of the property.

Tuck Hopkins, chairman of the Rescue Mission board that oversees Charis House, revealed in a column published Monday that the property was appraised at $430,000 when the board purchased it.