Saturday, June 07, 2008

This is Portsmouth

This is the Municipal Building that houses the Portsmouth city government. It was erected in 1934, which makes it about 75 years old.




This is the Ramada Inn, "Queen of the Rust Belt," owned by the furtive land developer Jeffrey Albrecht who is now being investigated by the Attorney General’s office for bid rigging in an Athens land deal. Albrecht is said to be the developer behind the hotel/convention center that will be located on the land under the Municipal Building.


This is the lapdog mayor of Portsmouth who has said the Municipal Building is irreparable and should be torn down.









This is the U.S. Post Office, on Gay St., which was erected in 1935, and is about 74 years old. The Post Office is the architectural twin of the Municipal Building. It has been maintained over the years by the federal government and no one has ever suggested it be torn down.



This is the Marting building, which was erected in 1883, making it about 125 years old. An otherwise worthless and unmarketable building, the Marting Foundation foisted it off on the city for $2,000,000 for use as a replacement for the 75 year-old Municipal Building.


This is the Portsmouth City Council, which enabled the Marting Foundation to pull off its $2,000,000 fleecing of the taxpayers. Mayor Bauer, Ann Sydnor, and Carol Caudill were recalled from office for their part in the Marting Scam.


This is Bob and Teresa Mollette, the crusading couple who successfully challenged the legality of the sale of the Marting building to the city.



This is the former city councilman Marty Mohr who, along with Mayor Kalb, sold out the citizens of Portsmouth by working out a deal with the Marting Foundation that took the Marting building off the hands of the Foundation, once again, and placed it back in the lap of the taxpayers.




After the voters rejected using the Marting Building as a home for city offices, this is the property, the so-called Adelphia building, that the City Building Committee recommended for new city buildings.


This is the $12,000 study Tanner Stone did for the renovation of the Adelphia building, which was a waste of money because the Adelphia building proved beyond repair.






This is Mike Mearan, the crooked lawyer who served as the chair of the City Building Committee at the same time that he represented the landlord of the Adelphia property, which the City Building Committee recommended as the site for a new city building.





This is the phantasmagorical, Art-Dreco Hotel/Convention Center, the building on which Portsmouth is gambling its future and for which it is selling its soul.