Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

None given away

The total number of sewer and water taps ''given away'' by the city as you say was less than 20. Actually none were truly given away and they didn't impact the township in anyway. They were exchanged for an annexation agreement.

Thank you

A previous poster, after the webmaster stepped in to stop the bashing and trashing of individuals, talked about the PATA newsletters. That poster talked about the falsehood of debt comparisons to Columbus, etc. in those loosely named newsletters.

Those newsletters, in my opinion, were scare tactics to get the Violet moms and dads involved for change. Were they accurate? I don't believe so. Did they work? Yes. It was the results, not the tactics.

So where do we go from here. You need come connectivity to the past with the vision for the future OUR area. Not just Violet. Not just the City. The connectivity are some of the seniors who have lived here and been involved for years. The vision for the future are those who have the knowledge, time and drive to get us there. I think Brian Wisniewski may be one of those people. Mr. Hansley may be another.

The lawsuits from the moratrium and the annexation fights have costs the city now approaching the millions of dollars mark. The adding of staff at city hall are having their effect. I hope that January 2nd brings about some effective leadership.

Lastly, the stronger Violet should stop kicking sand in the face of the weaker City. One day they City might just start lifting some weights and become stronger.

By Told you so

Call in the experts PLEASE

Where do we go from here?

First let?’s end the perception that the city has not been doing adequate planning over the last few years. They have laid the plans and those plans will take a few more election cycles to complete. What we have had the last two years is a Mayor that lost his direction and a couple of council members trying the play the part of the ?“expert?’ in the city government field.

I am encouraged that Brian Wisniewski did run on a fact based decision making platform. Folks the facts are there all the council must do if follow the advice of the experts the city hired a couple of years ago.

All of the ground work for providing the infrastructure is in place. We are widening Diley Road starting in 2008 and also expanding the sewer plant and that process is moving ahead. These two pieces of the infrastructure puzzle must be in place PRIOR to thinking about commercial development. Our fiends in the township had done nothing but impede the progress of the city in providing that infrastructure and they shouldn?’t cash in on the returns to the tax payers of the City which seemed to be the theme late last year. The township has nothing without someone else or other taxpayers providing the infrastructure so they can continue to not pay higher taxes.

On the City?’s web site is a plan adopted by the city council in 2005 and it is called the ?“GROWTH MANAGMENT ASSESSMENT AND STRATEGY?”. Currently if you have been paying attention to the goings on you will find that the city staff has been slowly executing this plan as directed by the 2005 council. This report and plan was authored by experts in the field of city planning not a couple of councilmen fresh off the street and without a clue.

This plan created the cost of land development study and eventually the impact fees. Those impact fees got us over the short term dip in revenues and increase costs for infrastructure but the council became polarized with the ?“dump truck load of dollars coming in from the township lands?” and the promises of Mr. Fix and the Mayor about where these future revenues might come from. Even the people saying these things now admit after the election that it will take 15 to 20 years before the city sees any return from these cooperative efforts with the township. So for those politicians that have been elected on lies and who have tried to persuade the voters with exaggeration of future revenues your gig is up.

So let?’s stop the rhetoric and move forward with the plans for the city that are already in plan.

We have a new Mayor and he was part of the process of creating the plan above. Clearly Mr. Wisniewski also was part of that process as well. The job facing our new council now is to create a policy of growth and also to address the budget shortfalls due to the drop off of new homes (impact fees) in the area. I think if our council opens their minds and follows expert advice they will be able to work in the issue of adequate revenues and slow growth. Clearly it was done with the utilities and it now must be down with the general funds.

By Sticking to the plan