Middletown Ohio


Find us on
 Google+ and Facebook


 

Home | Yearly News Archive | Advertisers | Blog | Contact Us
Friday, March 29, 2024
FORUM CITY SCHOOLS COMMUNITY
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - 2/8/2011 council meeting
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

2/8/2011 council meeting

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Mike_Presta View Drop Down
MUSA Council
MUSA Council
Avatar

Joined: Apr 20 2008
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3483
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mike_Presta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: 2/8/2011 council meeting
    Posted: Feb 10 2011 at 4:01am

I’ve just finished watching this past Tuesday’s City Council meeting, at least the televised portion, on BlipTV.

The first 45 minutes were occupied by having two outsiders attempting to pump sunshine up our butts. I might note that the actual (non-televised) discussion of public business by our elected and appointed public officials was reported to only have lasted 50 minutes.

First, the spinmeister from Al Neyer spoke. He pointed out that the East End Master Plan identified the “East end for best opportunity for economic revival”. My first thought was: If the EAST end is our “best opportunity”, why do we spend so much money downtown???

My next thought was: how many “Master Plans” does this town have??? We have the overall Master Plan; a Downtown Master Plan; this East End Master Plan; a Renaissance West Master Plan, and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. I’d say that we only “need” ONE!!! And perhaps not even one, since we continuously override every other “master” plan with things such as “The Main Street Plan” and the Community Building Plan, and the MiddletOWN IT plan, the Place Matters plan, and The Gateway Development Plan, etc.

One of the mandates of this East End Master Plan was to: “Assist the city in retention of local companies.” This “master plan” was rolled out in 2005. How many “local companies” (I mean BESIDES AK’s General Offices) have we lost since then??? Usually, city hall was among the last to know!!!

He also spoke of a SEVENTY PAGE “gateway development” PLAN!!! Why haven’t the citizens seen it yet??? WE paid (at least $100,00) for it!!! He mentioned that City Hall is searching for the dollars to implement this plan. There probably will be dollars “tucked away” in the new public safety levy, or in “one of our other accounts” after the new Public Safety Levy is passed. Perhaps that is one of the things that they discussed in the semi-secret “work session” that they were afraid to show the taxpayers Tuesday night.

He also spoke of “Selling a vision”, just like Professor Harold Hill sold the vision of a boys’ band in “The Music Man”!!!

One thing that I did find interesting was he said when he tried to sell out-of-town businesses on the Renaissance area, the out-of-towners often asked the question: “Why Middletown?” His explanation was: “Middletown has a reasonable income tax…they look at that!” I’m not certain, but I don’t think anyone from city hall was listening to THAT part of his little pep talk!!!

Next came “Council Comments”! I think I am developing a new stance on this. If council is afraid, ashamed, or otherwise unwilling to share their discussion of the real issues and items of public business with their constituents via TVMiddletown, then I don’t think that we really need to hear any of their prepared or off-the-cuff propaganda either. Let them give their “Council Comments” during the NON-televised portion, too!!!

“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply
  Share Topic   

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.121 seconds.
Copyright ©2024 MiddletownUSA.com    Privacy Statement  |   Terms of Use  |   Site by Xponex Media  |   Advertising Information