Save Our City!

Looking around at the people who occupied the emergency room of the hospital when we took my Grandmother in, made me think about the damage that has been done to New Albany and the wounds that have been inflicted on the community and its citizens.
It’s not so easy to get these types of wounds bandaged up and all better. We can’t just walk into a place and say, “fix it”. No, these wounds run deep and there is no surgery that can replace what has been lost, or that can remove the diseased elements that are causing the illness that plagues our city. It will take time to heal, but only if given the proper treatment.
We have been lied to, taken advantage of, misled, ignored, and abandoned.
We have watched as people, so undeserving, have been given leadership positions in the political sphere due to nothing more than favoritism. And we’ve watched them fail.
We have also watched as others, so undeserving of the political ax, have had their life pulled out from under them with unforgiving dismissals.
They have told us repeatedly that there is no money for this or for that, but they always manage to find money to get what they want. This is a misleading practice, and is, in my opinion, the biggest catalyst in the cry for additional audits. The “money shuffle” game has got to stop.
How can they possibly think that the people of this City are so gullible that we would sit back and watch such antics continue unencumbered by protest?
Privatize sanitation, “can” the workers, and in the next week announce their intentions of giving raises. What a slap in the face! It stings of greed and has the stench of corruption. The RFP that was issued was misleading and decidedly unfair for the competitive bidding process we are entitled to by law.
Are the workers that are being retained by the city going to receive their same pay and benefits? Are those who go to work for ID going to receive theirs? What about the ones who wind up with no jobs what-so-ever? Is the city offering any type of job replacement help? What about Garner’s campaign promise not to privatize sanitation? I can only presume that he gives no more credibility to his spoken promises than he does to his contractual obligations.
Yeah, this is great economic development, taking away jobs and letting his own business fail should give a lot of credibility to New Albany as a viable business environment.
There are new construction projects going on all around town, but not IN the Downtown district where beautiful old buildings sit empty and boarded up. Why?
We are continuously being hit up for additional fees, such as the new storm-water drainage fee, only to see it sucked up by gasoline prices that are spiraling out of control. Yet we are still expected to pick up the gasoline tab for city bought vehicles, and Police cars being taken out to other counties for personal use. I say if we need to “trim the fat” from the budget, we ought to take a look at the “luxury” expenses first.
All this, and more, have left most citizens feeling as though we’ve been kicked in the teeth, the political power structure is difficult to stomach, and the political favoritism in hiring and appointments is enough to give one a serious migraine.
Yes, I am sick of this mess. The wounding is severe, but we can still be saved.