Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Hugs or shrugs?

Mr. Nugent,

While your defense of the Mayor is admirable and I agree that personal attacks are detrimental to any cause, I do tend to slip from time to time and sarcasm often gets the better of me when I?’m on a roll. So having said that, let me address the issues you bring up.

Growth in this community is unabated. Growth in this community is unhealthy. You talk about portables and I wonder if you have children in them. Mine have been and I?’ll tell you that I don?’t feel like I?’m getting the best bang for my buck when my child has to endure below zero wind chill factors to go to the bathroom or eat lunch or go to gym or?….you get the idea. I hope you don?’t have to endure that where you spend your days. In my investigations into the use of portables back when they were shoving the last levy down our throats, I found that the climates around the portables were much more adverse because of wind funneling and constant shading. You?’ll have to give me some specific evidence that the Mayor is doing everything humanly possible to control our growth. You state it but you don?’t support it. Show me 5 things he has done to control growth.

You really got me with ?“This is the American way?”. (And be careful with the ?“Wake up people?” talk. People will think you?’re Lou Postage) You are hopefully not taking advantage of the post-9/11 patriotism throwing this in there are you? You are right, though. This is capitalism and greed at its finest. Show me the advantage of allowing this amount of growth and the tax revenues it generates. Somewhere in this website, and I can?’t find it right now to offer you a hyperlink, are the facts of how much a new house costs the City versus want is gains. Also there is a cost to the schools rather than any net gain. Please describe 10 benefits of this growth. Show me what the money you allege the City is making gives back to me. Rather than seek a levy, shouldn?’t the Fire Department just be able to ask the City for a bigger piece of the pie? Doesn?’t the Fire Department serve more houses in the City than they do in the Township? Why should they have to come to us for more tax revenue when you say the money already exists?

No, I can?’t see the benefits. Where is the Community Rec Center? Where is the Community Pool? Where are any of the Community perks that should be very evident by the tremendous amount of revenue that must be being generated by the number of houses being built? I don?’t want to hear a peep about the parks. Quite honestly, I am not too impressed with the parks. Sycamore has too many boggy areas and therefore too many mosquitoes. They don?’t mow it enough and the tennis courts needed resurfaced years ago. Parking is a joke.

I?’ll save my hate the parks speech for another time.

What kind of dramatic road improvements have you seen that should be a result of the tremendous amount of money coming in from the development as you allege? 256, Part of 204, some work on Refugee? Old news! Where are the constant upgrades and infrastructure improvements that should be obvious?

I don?’t hate the Mayor. I agree that he probably thinks what he is doing is best for the City. Considering who he surrounds himself with at City Hall, I can only assume that doesn?’t get real good information to base his thoughts on.


By Maverick

Negative Thoughts


Mr. Nugent,

I want to address your comment ''You only cause others to hate just like yourselves.''

I do not believe that PATA displays hatred toward anyone in our community, whether elected to office, resigned from office, appointed to office, or otherwise.

Lately, it seems that if citizens ask questions or demand answers, they are labeled as ''hate mongers'' by a few.

I appreciate your willingness to post your thoughts.

Do you live in Pickerington?

Thanks,

Tim Bryant

Picktown still the best


Mr. Maverick,

Why is there unabated growth here in Pickerington? My answer is that it is such a wonderful place to live. I think most of the credit should go to The Mayor and our city government in their annexation policies.

I do have grandchildren in the school system now and they have no problems with walking from the portable classrooms to the rest rooms and gym class. Maybe they are just a little more hardy. The Mayor has nothing what so ever to do with these portables. The school district is the one putting them up instead of building more permanent type classroom space. The portable classrooms go for around $70,000 you can?’t build anything permanent with that amount of floor space. I think they are doing a great job over at the school administration.

You asked about all this growth and its benefits. Years ago before you moved into our community we only had the Dairy Queen and that little dive down on East Columbus Street. The one where all the farmers would hang out. Their coffee is terrible! Look what we now have Tim Hortens and other coffee shops. Before if you needed a prescription you had to run to Reynoldsburg. Now we have Pharmacies everywhere.


You say you don?’t see the benefits? What do you expect? You are only paying a 1% income tax to the city if you are a city resident. They give you a generous .5% credit if you are employed outside the corporation. Many that use these existing parks and Community ?“perks?” don?’t live in the city and they don?’t pay anything. I would suggest that if these kinds of facilities are important to you then lobby the City council to increase the income tax to 2% instead of the current 1%.

Mr. Maverick we have just completed an improvement to Hill Road North and the city government has worked tirelessly beautifying that stretch of road. They have done away with the ?“four way stop?” and we now have a modern highway leaving right out of our wonderful city. Please stop and read the sign near the rail road tracks on who is responsible for these improvements. Their names are clearly listed. There is no one complaining about our roads except a few of those people that live out in the Township that don?’t pay any of our taxes.






By Jim Nugent

Reply

Whoa Mr. Nugent! You really hit some buttons here. Let me borrow from my old friend Soap Box Hero and respond to your posting paragraph by paragraph.

Pickerington is a wonderful place to live. But the answer I get 99% of the time when I ask someone why is the schools. I have yet to hear someone say ?“Gee, I want to move out to Pickerington because I hear they have the best annexation policies going!?” Have you really heard that? Annexation policies are hurting the schools, not helping them. Cite me some examples of how supersonic emergency annexations have helped the schools.

Perhaps your grandchildren are more hardy than most. I am glad you have them in the district so you had some fact to base you opinions of portables on. Don?’t you think that there is any correlation between the annexation and high density rezoning policies that the Mayor supports and the portables? More houses = more kids, etc. The schools can?’t come back to the voters election after election and ask for more money to build more schools to keep up with the pace of annexations. If they did, they would all be laughed out of their jobs. They have to have the right timing to place an issue on the ballot. That is a hard lesson they had to learn back in the 80s and 90s when we said ?“enough?” then. There is no choice but to add classrooms somehow.

Pharmacies and coffee shops? Is this your idea of solid commercial growth? Please tell me the amount of revenue generated by these type entities. They employ few and in many cases have benefited from TIFs. I don?’t think you?’ll seriously get much support from anyone saying Tim Horton?’s and Drugs-R-Us on every corner greatly improved their quality of life.

Income tax ?– I don?’t think it would be a good idea to ask voters to increase taxes, do you? If you are willing to give up one more percent of your income than write them a check. I encourage all who support increased taxes to write a check to the City. However, until I am more comfortable in how it is being spent, I?’ll keep my money in the bank. If I were you, I would be afraid that your additional one percent would be given to Homewood Developers. As far as a .5% credit, give me a place to work and earn income in Pickerington and I?’ll happily work there and proudly pay the full 1%. Tell me who can make a living and support their family and pay the mortgage on the average $160,000 home in Pickerington working at Tim Horton?’s or a drug store. I am not independently wealthy. Both me and my spouse have to work to live here and send our kids to school here.

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By Maverick