Tuesday Programs (Noon): Scottish Rite Cathedral • Offices: 401 E. Michigan St., • Indianapolis, IN 46204 • Phone (317) 631-3733 • Fax (317) 631-4530
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A local CEO networking group asked me to write an article based on my recent experience with viruses and malware. This is it. The resources and recommendations can help save you from having a bad day!
Kim Brand
Thanks to Rotarians John Aleshire and Marie Koenig.
The Humane Society of Indianapolis is shopping for donors to support construction of a $3 million spay/neuter clinic in the Fountain Square area.
Humane Society Executive Director John Aleshire said this morning that he's negotiating for an undisclosed site in the Fountain Square area, which he hopes to reserve until he can raise $700,000 to $800,000 to get the clinic up and running.
The hoped-for clinic is a significant departure from Aleshire's original plan to add spay/neuter services at the group's Michigan Road headquarters.
The Humane Society hired Aleshire last August to dig the organization out of a financial hole while also improving relations with the animal-welfare community. One of his first stated goals was to add low-cost spay/neuter services by early this year.
"We can't do this until the donors show up," Aleshire said.
Aleshire is billing the clinic as an "Animal Resource Center," where local groups, including Indy Feral, Indy Pit Crew and Friends of Indianapolis Dogs Outside, would have office space. The building would include a room for community use and sell pet supplies.
The Humane Society's quest for a location just southeast of downtown sets up the possibility for competition with the city's only existing low-cost spay/neuter clinic, the Foundation Against Companion-Animal Euthanasia, or FACE, which is on the east end of Massachusetts Avenue.
"I find that a little awkward," said Ellen Robinson, executive director of FACE. "If you're looking at a part of town where there's nothing, it would be west of Indianapolis."
Since FACE opened in 1999, the number of animals euthanized by Indianapolis Animal Care and Control and the Humane Society has dropped from 22,000 to 12,000 in 2008.
The Humane Society is telling donors that Fountain Square is ideal for a spay/neuter clinic. According to its statistics, 72 percent of local shelter animals originate from 10 zip codes, most of which are southeast and southwest of the city.
"There's no question Fountain Square has a big problem with stray cats and dogs," Robinson said.
The Humane Society is also taking a different philosophical approach to low-cost spay/neuter services. Because cats can bear litters at a very young age, Aleshire wants the new clinic to operate on juvenile cats and dogs - animals as young as six weeks old that weigh as little as 2 pounds.
FACE operates only on animals that are at least four months old or weigh 4 pounds. Robinson acknowledged that juvenile spay/neuter is becoming more popular with animal-welfare advocates, but said FACE takes a conservative approach. "I don't know that there have been long-term studies to see how it affects the patients," she said.
The Humane Society is likely to base its fees on a sliding scale and pet owners would have to prove that they qualify for low-income services.
Robinson said FACE has always used a low flat fee in order to avoid discouraging participation. The clinic spays or neuters cats for $20 and neuters all dogs for $30. Sterilization of medium and large female dogs costs $30, while the fee for small female dogs is $50.
FACE employs seven veterinarians, including three surgeons, and performs an average of 73 surgeries a day.
After four years on the Indianapolis Public Schools board and two terms as mayor -- during which the Indianapolis and Marion County governments were merged by Uni-Gov -- Richard Green Lugar was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976. He has served longer in the senate than anyone ever elected from Indiana and is well respected by both parties for his expertise in agriculture and foreign affairs.
Born in Indianapolis, April 4, 1932, he graduated first in his class from Shortridge High School in 1950. Lugar received a B.A. in 1954 from Denison University, where he was again first in his class. He studied economics, politics and philosophy as a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke College at Oxford University. He completed both a B.A. and M.A., with honors, while at Pembroke, finishing his studies in 1956. On Sept. 8, 1956, Lugar married Charlene Smeltzer, whom he met while at Denison. In 1957, he volunteered for active duty in the Navy, serving three years, much of that time as an intelligence officer. In 1960, Lugar returned to Indiana to help manage the family's Marion County farm and the food machinery firm, Thomas L. Green Co., founded in 1893 by his grandfather. He made his first attempt at public office in 1963, running for and winning a seat on the Indianapolis Public Schools Board of Commissioners. He served on the board from 1964-1967.
Mayor Lugar
In 1967, he ran for mayor, defeating incumbent Democrat John Barton. During Lugar's two terms as mayor (1968-1975) one of the most notable events in Indianapolis government history occurred; the adoption of Uni-Gov, a merger of the city and Marion County governments. With Uni-Gov, the population and tax base of Indianapolis more than doubled and more than two dozen agencies were consolidated into six. More importantly, the merger may have saved Indianapolis from becoming another Detroit - a crumbling urban center surrounded by prosperous suburbs.
Indiana's longest-serving U.S. senator Following an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1974, Lugar won election as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1976 for the term commencing Jan. 3, 1977. He was re-elected in 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006. In 1996, Lugar set a record as the longest serving U.S. Senator from Indiana. He was also the first Indiana senator to be elected to a fourth six-year term. While in Congress, Lugar has been a major influence on American agricultural policy, urban policy and foreign policy. He has served as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry Committee and also serves on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees.
Campaign for president In March of 1995, Lugar announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. His April 19 formal announcement at City Market was overshadowed by news of the Oklahoma City bombing. Although praised by pundits as the most qualified candidate, Lugar was unable to build a following. After poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, Lugar made a final push in Vermont and then withdrew from the race in March 1996 and threw his support to the eventual nominee, Robert Dole. The Lugars have four grown sons; Mark, Robert, John and David, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They are members of St. Luke's Methodist Church. Richard Lugar's other memberships include Rotary Club of Indianapolis, and the boards of trustees of Denison University, Pembroke Foundation and University of Indianapolis. Lugar has been a visiting professor of political science and director of public affairs at Indiana Central University, (which was later renamed the University of Indianapolis), and president of the National League of Cities. He has received over 30 honorary doctorates and was the recipient of the Fiorello LaGuardia Award in 1975. He was also named "Outstanding Legislator" by the American Political Science Association during his third Senate term. In 2000, Lugar and former Senator Sam Nunn were first nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to reduce the nuclear threat posed by the breakup of the former Soviet Union.
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