Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I see in the Canal Winchester Times (SNP) that the recent meeting (March 27th, 2007) to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding was sponsored by Canal Winchester, Bloom Township, City of Lancaster and Violet Township. It is interesting that Pickering was conveniently left out of the meeting. In reading the article it is interesting to also note that in 2000 the Township Lawyer for hire Al Schrader (from Akron) was saying that there were a lot of problems with the JEDD law that he help write. I guess that didn?’t fit the argument at the time. At the time, he was pushing a CEDA between Canal Winchester and Violet Township using the Pickerington utilities (water) to make the CEDA area possible. Just as clear in 2007, as it was in 2001, Pickerington was not invited and they will be blindsided soon with the help of Trustee Fix.

With Trustee Fix?’s long indoctrination period from Bob Harding and Gary Weltlich, Fix has grown to think that the City of Pickerington is not capable of running its own business. Their actions in the recent Master Development Agreement only furthers the argument that Trustee Fix views the masses in Pickerington as ?“retired delivery drivers, coffee salesmen, and computer geeks.?” None of use are capable of making the correct decisions in zoning and residential growth control as those in the township because none or at least very few of us have run huge corporations.

I suspect that Pickerington was not invited to the meeting, first to embarrass the city and second none of the other parties to this agreement feel that Pickerington measures up to their level. This is more about the Moore family farm development and the Dunlap family Farm.

Let me make every one aware that in the near future you will see a huge annexation application filed with Fairfield county. It will include an annexation from the current Snider/Thornton properties across US 33 and down into Bloom Township. What lands are left along US 33 will be useless commercial development potential because of the massive infrastructure needs and the swamp land associated with moving the US 33 interchange over to Allen Road. This MOU is a diversion to keep the press writing about this cooperation thing with a flowery story line while the Village of Canal Winchester is raiding the available vacant lands left in Violet Township. They have caught the Pickerington City Council with some rookies thinking how wonderful this would be for us all to just get along. It won?’t happen folks and by then it will be too late and you in the township will find that you have been sold out by your own trustees.

Clearly annexations give property owners an option to select who they would like to have provide services for their property. If the Citizens of Pickerington had not run the referendum on the Master Development Agreement then the Violet Township Trustee would have removed any competition from Canal Winchester in their annexation ideas. In the meantime the Ohio Supreme just gave Canal the green light to annex at will.

I am beginning to see the wisdom of the citizens of Pickerington to amend their Charter. This is the only sure fire method in preventing them from being sold down the river and sucker once more in providing infrastructure and providing ?“FREE MONEY.?” to the township taxpayers.

By Bright Eyes

Lay it at the hands of the mayor

Remember the posting about leadership?
Why did that oh-so-smart lawyer mayor of ours not have a seat at this meeting?
You have to believe the city's direction is o.k. to be landlocked and stiffled.
The leadership with it's willing participants are like dogs with chew toys. THEY throw a MOU toy over here and council runs to chew on it. Then THEY throw a chew toy of a ridiculous 3 acre JEDD another direction and off they go.
Who are THEY?
The ones at the meeting where we weren't apparently.
Roll up the newspaper and give the mayor and the one council majority candidte Riggs a swat this November. The harm they've done to this community is overwhelming.


By Told you so

Land in PLSD

How much of the area you are citing is in the PLSD? I ask because obviously the infrastructure and geological requirements are different for residential development than commercial. Could we be faced with Canal putting up houses everywhere they can't build commercial? Are the school even paying attention to what is going on down there? I know that Weltlich owns Reade, Oakes and possibly Brink so are the school mute due to this?

I would more believe that the reason Pickerington is never invited to these meetings is twofold. First, generally Gilleland doesn't attend when invited anyway. She's too busy dining with the elected officials. Second, why should the township invite the city. The township owns 4 votes on council. Lock, stock and barrel and all paid for. Why add white noise to a meeting in the form of Brian, Ted and Mike?

If this big annexaiton is really coming, what do we do? Wring our hands and worry like Gilleland? Pull up the drawbridges and look inward?

I don't know.

Reactive

Don't you see the trend here? For the better part of the last year we have been inundated with press and postings here about an economic agreement. What was going on while we were so focused on that subject?

Some say nothing was going on. With the exception of the bickering, no other signifigant progress was being made by the city.

Some may think the trustees are a bunch of old farm hands who dress up better in flannel than silk. Some say they're stupid. Some say things much worse.

I say that they are masters of sleight of hand. Make you look over here and you always miss what's going on over there.

Their able-bodied stage assistants only help to make the illusions all the more real. Thanks to the council majotiy and mayor, we are always looking in the wrong direction and missing the important stuff.