Former shelter resident happy, unhappy with stay
I lived in Haven House. Where do I start? Well, it was a place to live, better than living on the street, especially in the winter time.
My stay began Oct. 3, 2008, and was for nearly 11 months. When I moved out, I let the staff know that I appreciated them for giving me a place to stay. They did charge rent, but for the amount it was, you would not have been able to rent a nice apartment.
At the house, it is like a family thing. The women live upstairs, the men live downstairs in the basement. Everyone knows each other by name — well, almost everyone.
OK, it can get hectic sometimes, but that can happen anywhere, even at the best of places. The time that I was there, I saw a lot of different faces and talked to quite a few people.
Even though I’m out of there now and living on my own, if hard times would come to me again, I would never go back and live at Haven House. Well, I can’t believe I am saying this, but I would live on the street.
There are just too many rules to go by at Haven House. I’m a person that just doesn’t like to be told what to do. But at the Haven House, you do what you’re told or face the consequences — either getting kicked out for 24 or 48 hours, or even longer, or having to do extra chores. Take it from me, I know what it is like getting kicked out, and doing extra chores. I talked back to the staff a few times. Mike Williams was the one who took it from me — you don’t sass him.
Well, I told you just a little bit about my stay at Haven House. It was a stay I will never forget. People come and people go. It is a place for people to go until they get back on their feet.
Haven House, you might say, is a popular place. It might even be on the Indiana map, you never know. I think that is all I have to say. Just a few words of appreciation and disappointment.
— Stephen Espy, Jeffersonville
Wife writes about the real Jim Keith
By now, many people have read The Evening News articles, online blogs and forums, related to the Clark-Floyd Counties Convention and Tourism Bureau.
For some, that is all they know about Jim Keith, executive director of the bureau for the past 29 years. For those of us who do know Jim, I want to set the record straight on several issues insinuated and misrepresented.
Jim Keith is the most honest man you will ever meet or get to know. He works tirelessly to bring visitors to Southern Indiana. He loves his community and is eager to share it with those outside our boundaries. He is known throughout the tourism industry as Mr. SunnySide, and the bureau’s success at branding could well be the subject of university marketing classes.
For Keith Fetz to imply that Jim Keith is “complacent” shows he doesn’t have a clue about the business of the bureau or how Jim conducts it. Fetz also states that Jim should “bend over backward to get that business,” referring to the Cooperstown baseball project. This further illustrates he doesn’t know the full story and didn’t bother to talk with both sides about it before making unsubstantiated comments.
In September, Jim and three bureau board members traveled to Cooperstown with a Jeffersonville city delegation at the request of Mayor Tom Galligan. The mayor canceled out of the trip, and even though Jim Urban — Jeffersonville’s planning director — excluded Jim Keith and the bureau from business meetings with Lou Presutti, the Cooperstown developer, Jim Keith returned with enthusiasm for the project the city was working to attract. Why Fetz feels Jim is not supportive is a mystery since no proposal has been made to the bureau for support.
The worst part of this debate and controversy is the fact that Jim Keith is a man of integrity and is the most unpolitical person in Clark and Floyd counties. He has worked with administrations and board members from all political parties for 29 years and supported their tourism efforts.
For Tom Galligan, Keith Fetz, Larry Wilder, Larry Thomas and Ed Zastawny to imply and/or insinuate that Jim Keith has done anything illegal or improper is unconscionable.
I have written this letter on behalf of friends, family and colleagues who know and respect Jim Keith for the gentleman and man of character he is.
In the end — “Truth is the best vindication against slander” — Abraham Lincoln.
— Linda F. Keith, wife of Jim Keith
