Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Well it now begins.

Last night on February 3rd our Pickerington School District Board proposed to cut programs from the school OPERATING budget. Things like foreign language classes, gifted programs and half day kindergarten. No mention of sports programs right now. Also no mention of why these cuts are needed. Class size is surely going to rise well beyond the current 25 per class. The 40 or so new teachers for next year will not be hired. Yet those teachers that remain will enjoy a very large pay raise. The benefit of the board?’s last levy campaign to build the new high school they embedded a three mil operating levy into that effort, telling us at the time that this money was for operating funds for the new High School. Yet they spent it for teacher pay raises before this new school was open. Now there is a problem with opening that new school because they don?’t have the operating funds to do so.


Clearly the problem is the 400 or so new students that have arrived on our door step this past year without a tax base to support their education. There are at least 400 to 500 more coming next year and the year after that. Our school board is sitting passively by while the city overloads their classrooms with new students. Wes Monhollen refuses to point the finger at the city council and their lack of leadership in controlling group in the district. I understand that he is great friends with Lou Postage. So if we don?’t start slamming Lou and his city government how do we ever resolve this growing problem?

Lou told us that ?“He was going to slow down growth this year anyway.?” He lied! These developers are out there in this cold, building just as fast as they can heavenly build. It was near zero a week or so ago and I saw men framing a house out in Sycamore Creeks where Brian Fox?’s sister in law lives. They have built at 17 new houses in the Fox Glen subdivision which has been the subject of a referendum and that issue is before the Supreme Court at Present. In fact, Dominion Homes have allied up with the City Government to fight these citizens of their right to vote of this issue. Last week they joined the suit on the City?’s side to keep this issue off the ballot. Clearly Lou and his council boys are not going to slow growth down anytime soon.

To slow the residential growth rate down it will require a long moratorium on water and sewer taps for the next few years. Obviously the current council minus David Shaver are the ones that placed us all in the financial mess. How in the world can we possible expect them to lead us out of the mess? First we need a citizen lead moratorium initiative and then recall those responsible for getting us into this mess. Other wise our kids will have 50 per class room and no buses. Our children deserve better than this.

By Dr. Pepper

Moratorium

The moratorium will be discussed at the next Service Committee Meeting on February 20th at 7:30 pm. It is critical to have a large public pressence at this meeting to demand actions now match the words.

Dr. Pepper is correct in that Dominion now wants to throw their hat into the ring. Planned Unit Developments are subject to referenda at any point during the zoning process. There is Supreme Court Law to back this up - so we believe our case is solid.

This needs to be a community driven effort to protect the quality of life we all moved here for. If you are able to donate to help with legal expenses - please email me for details.

Checks can be made out to C.A.R.E. (Citizens Against Rapid Expansion) - C.A.R.E. is NOT a PAC so all donations will be kept confidential. If at a future time we need to become a PAC - donations from that point on need reported not prior. Thanks for any support you can give !!!

Impact fees

Lou Baby tells us all this evening that HE is working with the builders and they have agreed to sign up for impact fees. Once they have the documents prepared they all agree to sign off. Hey if you just built a house in Sycamore Creek where Brian Fox's sister-in-law lives and you didn't have to pay the impact for her house how is it fair to charge new people moving in after her these impact fees?

Clearly I think they (Lou and Council) will milk this until they can't no longer get away with it and then they will come clean by saying will folks we can't legally do it but we really tried. Which is another lie. Clearly this is going to be illegal and they know it now. The only question is HOW LONG WILL THEY PLAY THIS GAME. WHO WILL GIVE ME ODDS THAT THEY MILK IT UNTIL AFTER MAY 6TH WHEN THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER?

OUR ONLY HOPE IS A MORITORIUM ON HOUSING STARTS NOW.

Thanks for the mess

I understand that our beloved Brian Fox and his lovely wife Lilane are planning on moving down to the Lancaster area in an attempt to foster county wide support for a county or even a state level political office. The place that seems to be drawing the Foxes is Pleasant Township where the Pickerington Mafia has already infiltrated.

One can only speculate that they will receive a wonderful deal just like Maxey and Gray did with their new homes. I am sure much of these extras will never be recorded at the court house. I am told that the Foxes are having their home repaired and prepared for this move and to sale it. Considering that Brian is tighter than a rubber band wrapped around a roll of fifties who is paying for these repairs to his house?

Can we all sight a little relief with Brian leaving town? Probably not. Can we be really sure Brian won?’t have his hand in on the local politics? Maybe those that know Brian better than I, should encourage him to move even further out like into West Virginia.




By The Mole