Tonight Wicomico citizens have an opportunity to stand up and let their elected officials know that purchasing land for another park on the west side of Wicomico County is yet one more example of throwing tax dollars down the drain. I realize that there are people who sincerely want a new park. If I actually thought that this was the aim I probably wouldn't oppose it. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that purchasing this land will accomplish anything more than lining the pockets of a few citizens while reducing the assessable tax base of this county.
Let's look at the facts. Wicomico County already owns a sizable tract of land on the west side of the Wicomico River (the Pirate's Wharf property) that was designated for a park. Nothing has been accomplished on building a park on that property to date. There are serious questions as to whether the taxpayers would be paying too much for the Crooked Oak Lane property currently under discussion. If the county goes through with the purchase, then the county's tax base will be reduced. If the property is actually worth over $2 million, then that should lower county revenues by $1 million - $2 million per year. It's my understanding that the property is not assessed at anything near the $2+ million that the county wants to pay. If not, why not?
To add insult to injury, the Daily Times describes the property as "another WinterPlace-like park for residents". Have any of you visited WinterPlace Park recently? County parks chief Gary Mackes can't seem to find the money in his budget to provide for upkeep of WinterPlace. Where do you think that he will find the funds to build and then maintain another park.
I've been told by county officials that WinterPlace is going to be fixed up. Fine. When Mackes has shown that he can take care of the properties already under his stewardship, then (and only then) should the County Council begin discussion of feeding Mr. Mackes' growing bureaucracy.
Wicomico County Councilman Joe Holloway is right. There have been serious questions raised about the objectivity of the appraisals on this property. There appears to be a strong case that the county wishes to purchase the land at an inflated price.
In addition, most of the people pushing for this purchase love to point out that this isn't costing the county taxpayer a nickel. According to these people, wasting state tax dollars is somehow OK. I disagree. We all ultimately pay the bill for such folly. Wicomico County is not in the "land banking" business. If they are going to acquire land for parks, then there should already be a plan in place develop and maintain that park. In a county with a revenue cap we can hardly afford to take property off of the tax rolls to lie fallow until the county government figures out how to fund the construction and maintenance of a new park.
In a county that has a reported road repair backlog of over $10 million, our elected officials need to figure out how to address pressing infrastructure needs before they begin banking land and talking about building parks that the county government clearly can't afford.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
Technorati Tags: Maryland, Wicomico, politics, Wicomico politics, fiscal policy, parks, Gary Mackes, Joe Holloway
Let's look at the facts. Wicomico County already owns a sizable tract of land on the west side of the Wicomico River (the Pirate's Wharf property) that was designated for a park. Nothing has been accomplished on building a park on that property to date. There are serious questions as to whether the taxpayers would be paying too much for the Crooked Oak Lane property currently under discussion. If the county goes through with the purchase, then the county's tax base will be reduced. If the property is actually worth over $2 million, then that should lower county revenues by $1 million - $2 million per year. It's my understanding that the property is not assessed at anything near the $2+ million that the county wants to pay. If not, why not?
To add insult to injury, the Daily Times describes the property as "another WinterPlace-like park for residents". Have any of you visited WinterPlace Park recently? County parks chief Gary Mackes can't seem to find the money in his budget to provide for upkeep of WinterPlace. Where do you think that he will find the funds to build and then maintain another park.
I've been told by county officials that WinterPlace is going to be fixed up. Fine. When Mackes has shown that he can take care of the properties already under his stewardship, then (and only then) should the County Council begin discussion of feeding Mr. Mackes' growing bureaucracy.
Wicomico County Councilman Joe Holloway is right. There have been serious questions raised about the objectivity of the appraisals on this property. There appears to be a strong case that the county wishes to purchase the land at an inflated price.
In addition, most of the people pushing for this purchase love to point out that this isn't costing the county taxpayer a nickel. According to these people, wasting state tax dollars is somehow OK. I disagree. We all ultimately pay the bill for such folly. Wicomico County is not in the "land banking" business. If they are going to acquire land for parks, then there should already be a plan in place develop and maintain that park. In a county with a revenue cap we can hardly afford to take property off of the tax rolls to lie fallow until the county government figures out how to fund the construction and maintenance of a new park.
In a county that has a reported road repair backlog of over $10 million, our elected officials need to figure out how to address pressing infrastructure needs before they begin banking land and talking about building parks that the county government clearly can't afford.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
Technorati Tags: Maryland, Wicomico, politics, Wicomico politics, fiscal policy, parks, Gary Mackes, Joe Holloway
14 comments:
Good Rule Of Thumb, Finish one project before moving on to another. The Pirates Wharf project was slated to be completed by now, but not much if anything has happened.We need additional access to the Wicomico River.
Just be another place for drug deals and overfilled trash cans,check out some of the existing parks.Forget it while you still can...
Excellent analysis. I hope it was passed along to our leaders.
Finish the Pirates Wharf project first!!
not only can the county NOT afford this great American rip-off, only a handful of governmental burocrats even want it.
The county has 58 parks at the present time.The parks have a
little over 1,500 acres.
Why do we need another park?
DOES THIS INCLUDE THE LAND THAT PERKED????
Do any of these people actually care what the public thinks? If I believed that any voting member cared about me leaving my comfortable home after a long day working to earn taxable income and pay my property taxes to go to a meeting.....in protest of a proposed plan, it would be worthwhile. I believe those in favor are not interested and those against already know how much the public dislikes this idea.
American Idol it is.
No more frivolous spending until or if this economy turns around AND the necessities are taken care of. Agree with other posters who have said we have plenty of park acreage that is not being maintained properly, so why in the world add more?
"In a county that has a reported road repair backlog of over $10 million, our elected officials need to figure out how to address pressing infrastructure needs before they begin banking land and talking about building parks that the county government clearly can't afford."
This last sentence in G.A.'s post sums it up in a nutshell.
We can only hope that this is not already in the bag.
Nalagirl.
I am curious, where is this Pirates Wharf at. I live down that way and i have never heard anything about it
I myself played many years of sports in Wicomico county from soccer to softball and a lot of my games were played at the Henry Parker complex. But at the same time many of my games were played at fields at schools and some of the other smaller parks of the county and it always seemed like there were plenty of fields to play on. Sports in Wicomico county are going down due to the new Crown sports complex especially soccer and lacrosse games. There are not as many people involved in county recreation leagues as there was when I played about 8-10 years ago, so why build a new complex it isn't going to bring more kids. As for Winterplace park, that place just sucks the infields are hard as rocks the outfields are rocky and I personally have seen many kids falling and twisting ankles etc...It also seemed like the concession stand there was never open so you could get some food given the fact games there start early and they have no lights. The county should add lights to some of the fields they have that currently don't have them so they could run later games instead of just being able to have one game a night on some of those fields. It would be cheaper in the long run than to spend 2million on land and then all the money to build the fields and light them.
I tried to watch the meeting this evening on my computer, but the stream feed was not working. Last week it was not working either so I e-mailed the executives of Pac14 and withing a day or two the feed was re-established.
Why is it when important meetings are held in this county/city offices, the stream feed does not work?
SO WHAT HAPPENED AT THE MEETING LAST NIGHT?
WE'RE ALL SITTING ON THE EDGES OF OUR SEATS WAITING TO HEAR.
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