A Letter To The Editor

Joe,

I see you put Ireton's plea for support from the citizens for his safe street legislation package. His unofficial PIO, Chuck Cook is working overtime on this. The sad thing about this plea is he wants to pack the house to support his legislation yet no where in that plea is it mentioned that the Old Firehouse and Linens of the Week is also on the agenda.

Ireton doesn't want anyone to speak out against his giveaway of the Old Firehouse, to Palmer Gillis. People should be up in arms over this tragedy, Instead he is crying over a poorly written, in some parts, piece of legislation that the council won't even look at, let alone consider it enough to take it to work session. Ireton fully agrees with giving the Firehouse away for $100,000 to his new buddy, Palmer Gillis. This building is costing the city nothing just sitting there until a fair bid comes along. There is nothing that says the city has to accept that bid or any bid they don't want to. They have never stuck to the low bidder rule in the past on various contracts so why stick to this bid? It doesn't make sense. Ireton is not much different than his predecessor, Barrie Parsons Tilghman. In fact, he is becoming more and more like her everyday. Ireton promised to revitalize down town. Is this his plan for reviatalization? Give away a $700,000 building to someone that intends to bring a state subsidized entity in to compete with locally owned businesses? If he thinks downtown is dead now, he'll have a ghost town down there without Market St Inn, Flavors of Italy, Escape, Brew River or any of the other TAX PAYING businesses in the area. Now that I've mentioned Brew River, I'm surprised Frank Hanna is keeping quiet, he certainly had enough to say when Bob Culver considered buying a piece of property on the North Prong.

The Linens of the Week deal is going to break the bank. Once the city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to demolish the building then gives it away to uncommitted non profit groups, another piece of commercial property will be removed from the tax rolls and we will have paid for the demolition and remediation of contamination. Where does the wanton spending end? Who will make up for the loss of these tax dollars? WE, the taxpayers, that's who. The church and Habitat for Humanity have not committed to rebuilding this piece of property. Does the church or Habitat have the funds to rebuild? Do they even have a plan for how to best utilize the property? No, I don't think they do. What we will have is another promise to rebuild and create Nirvana. What we'll get is another vacant lot. Does the Old Mall ring any bells? That too, was supposed to be Nirvana, or close to it.

Instead of spending $100,000's to raze a building why don't they use the money to fight crime? Hire a few police officers, purchase a few police cars or something tangible. Didn't Ireton promise to reduce crime, fund police? That promise is not fulfilled in his legislation that is keeping his drawers in a knot.