Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

It won't work

Again Pam, I truly appreciate your willingness to get the ball rolling and look at the best option for the ?‘community?’, however, as a city resident I feel I would only support an effort that serves the best interest of the city. I try to put myself in a township resident?’s shoes and think of what would happen if we lost the city tax dollars. Our taxes would have to go up. No, I like things the way they are. While we don?’t have real good elected representation, at least the three stooges are in lockstep and don?’t partake of the public bickering their city counterparts are infamous for. They don?’t stand outside the township office and yell and curse each other over cigarettes in front of Dispatch reporters and don?’t, as a body, go to bars and get drunk and conduct their business in a dark smoky room. They are united in their commitment to destroy the city in retribution against Randy, Lou, Joyce and the gang. Even though destroying it now serves no real purpose like it would have during their administrations, our gang has a long memory and it would still show them who has the real power.

Do you really think that if you had a committee that was near 50% township residents that they would support any plan that resulted in the city seceding? Come on, don?’t be naive.

When I am wearing my city resident hat and look at all I get from paying taxes to the township I see an empty hole. Sorry, but tell me one thing I get from them. OK, the famous fire department. I have never used their services and never hope to but they are necessary. I don?’t know what happened to Patriot?’s efforts in determining the cost to do it ourselves but I think we can get our own for essentially the same cost we pay now. I think the time is ripe to look at that as their collected millage is down as is our police department?’s. It would be a good time to look at creating a city public safety department and combining the PD and city FD under one umbrella. A cost benefit analysis might show economies of scale and relief to the city?’s general fund.

Anyway, this all has been beat to death in other discussions. I would rather rally the city residents to take the steps that council majority is unwilling to and look at protecting ourselves. If we give up our right to grow (under our own set of rules re: Growth Management Assessment and Strategy) and give up right of self-determination (re: conforming boundaries) we give up our right to prosper and remain healthy.

We can?’t give up on ourselves. We have worked too hard and come too far.

Pickerington City residents --- UNITE!

PS: We?’ll meet at Cup of Joe?’s instead of Horton?’s ;-)

Puzzled

I am genuinely puzzled by your concerns. You oppose merging the city and the township and, in fact, want the city to secede from the existing township and form its own new township. Yet you want to preserve the city's right to ''grow.''

Doesn't that seem just a bit inconsistent to you. After all, the only way such growth could occur is through the city's absorption of the township. A merger of the city and the township would simply complete this growth process.

Some people compare small cities, such as our own, and their surrounding townships to eggs. The city is the yolk, the township the white. The city grows by absorbing the ''white,'' and when the growth process is complete, there is no township left.

The core members of the old city council, who championed the city's right to ''grow'' to the extreme, favored even more strongly a merger of city and township. In those days, opponents to such a merger were found primarily in the township, not the city.

Growth by annexation, however, can be malignant, when compared to growth by merger. As you may recall, the old city government embarked on a destructive annexation policy, which swamped our schools and in many other ways outstripped our infrastructure, in order to gain access to the SR 33 corridor. In the process, builders and developers received free rides, land that could have been used for commercial development now holds burgeoning subdivisions, and our community became embroiled in wasteful conflict that continues to the present day.

A merger would bring an end to all of this, once and for all. In addition, it should lower the overall cost of government, it would allow us to plan intelligently for the future of this entire community, and it would increase the total tax revenue available for infrastructure and other community needs, by vastly enlarging the city's tax base.

It also would allocate the costs of improvements, such as road improvements, that benefit the entire community, to the entire community. For example, township residents benefit greatly from the improvements that have been made over the years to SR 256, and that are about to be made to Diley Road. Why shouldn't they help pay for them?

This is not to say that we should immediately embark on such a merger. The devil's always in the details, and before we come to any decision, we need to carefully explore all the alternatives, and carefully and objectively weigh all the costs and benefits of each. I do believe, however, that we should do that. I hope, when you give the matter some further thought, that you will agree.

By Yosemite Pam