What a Move!!!

Seems the Mayor has managed to get all his ducks to fall into line, and he's staring straight down the pipe of dreams. He got the City Council to go ahead and push through the approval for Scribner Place, despite not knowing if the County Council will move to dedicate any funds for the mutually beneficial project. Score: Garner= 1, Common Sense= 0. Nice move.
Still, wasn't there a stipulation in the first passing...that it was contingent on the County allocating dollars to the costs? Why and how did the approval go through without waiting to see what the County was, or was not, going to do?
Does anybody still think there were no ulterior motives on this one? Why was it pushed through without adhering to the stipulation? Is this allowable?
Because, Garner knew that once this cut was made public, nobody would approve of spending the EDIT dollars on a bunch of swimming pools. That money should be supporting the Sanitation Department. Did anybody see this coming?
Still think there's "no way" any of our tax dollars will ever be needed for the bonds? Every Mayor has a pet Project, and you can bet there is a sacrificail lamb during every administration.
Overton's was getting rid of the sewage office downtown by privatizing the sewage billing.
Wasn't it just a few months ago, while scurrying around to save the budget, that we were ultimately assured no city services were left in jeopardy? Thanks "progressive thinkers" of the Council for approving 17 more years of this.
Pulling the rug out from under many city employees, and turning it into a campaign saying that it "just makes sense" to stop the bleeding of money from a revenue-losing city service, is downright bullshit! It has been payable out of one of the Sewage funds for some time now.
On paper it will look like a cash cow, in reality it just didn't have its own fund. So it shows as a loss on paper if you want it to. Sometimes you really can't believe your eyes.
Does anybody ever watch Penn & Tellers "Bullshit!" show on HBO? Boy, I'd love to hear what they would have to say about this sequence of events. Think I'll write.
After all, how stupid does Garner think we are?
This is outright railroading. How comfortable does everybody feel now? Still think they're looking out for our best interests? Where's our Code Enforcement person? Or are we back to "we have no money for __________ " (insert need), like it was before?.
Moving hundreds of thousands of dollars around to different funds, and making the books so confusing that even the State cannot make sense of them, is an obvious sign of mis-use.
I think we need to call for an audit, payable from the General fund, and pass an ordinance that states any Mayor is only allowed to earn 1 City Salary while in office.
Possibly we should ask that restrictions be placed on use, or dedication, of funds beyond a "reasonable" amount of time after one is out of City office (17 Year's?!!!)
I also think they should make the costs of ALL City paid expenditures, such as vehicles, cell phones, and other "miscellaneous" City costs, available as Public Record. Let the people ask some questions. Bring some answers. We need a Town Hall meeting.
It should be a meeting that is Governed by a mutually agreeable entity. Perhaps IUS? Perhaps a favorable professional mediator. It's time to put all cards on the table.
I was already about to jump up and down about the new "wastewater fee" we'll be getting soon. What a mess.
It is maddening and sad at the same time. A mixture of emotions if you, like me, thought home would always be in New Albany. No wonder so many For Sale signs are up.
And, we're seeing new construction going up around town, but no one investing in a downtown building. And I'm supposed to be happy about that?
Sorry, I'm not happy about the new building going up on the corner of Jay and Spring Street. I would guess the people living in the blue rental house right there aren't really too happy about it either. Looks like they went as close to that property line as they were allowed to. Isn't there an Ordinance about Buffers being placed between Residential and Commercial Properties that infringe on quality of life issues, such as noise, hours of operation, and lights, and traffic congestion as well? There's no room for buffers to be placed.
Oh well, I guess we're just expected to sit back and watch it happen. And it keeps happening.
A $3 million dollar Fire Station that was evidently awarded to an inept private developer.
As Donnie Blevins spoke at one Council meeting not so long ago..."we voted him in and he deserves our trust and support", like we should let the man do his job and run this town the way he wants to.
Sorry Donnie, I can't roll over and play dead, and I'll be damned if I'll sit back and play Stupid!
This administration will get my support and respect as soon as they earn it. So far, it's all been about one bad decision after another.
What do you folks want?
What do you think should happen now?