Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Last weeks this Week in Pickerington had a Headline ?“PLSD to take a stance on development issues?” well we got a first hand lesson in what the Mayor and Council majority meant when they said ?“they were going to slow down growth?” early in the year.
''I don't think we can be silent when everybody else in the community is talking about how growth impacts us,'' Rigelman said. ''We need to talk about that, I think, ourselves.''
Board member Larry Sigman agreed.
''We're going to have to take a position,'' he said. ''We need to discuss these issues among the board and with community input.''

How insulting ?– nearly 600 permits rubber stamping there way through.

So PLSD Board you have been complete chickens! Your lack of speaking out as a whole group is infamous, except when you want more money.



By P.O.?’d

Wrong Members

First PO ed you are making accusations that are not quite true. Clearly Bruce Rigelman and Gail Oakes have spoke in favor of controlling growth in the city of Pickerington. They have attended nearly every city council meeting since last fall. In fact Bruce Rigelman made a great talk on March 18th about ?“How do we want our community to look in 25 years.?” Gail Oakes also has addressed Pickerington City Council as far back as December of 1999 on growth issues. She was there when they started the sale of the Diley Farm and they had their three readings and passed the proposed annexation in three readings and by emergency.


I have seen Wes Monhollen at the council meetings but he can?’t seem to bring himself to oppose any future building by Lou Postage. He did stand up and speak in favor of the community authority but that only brings in more homes. The assessed money coming from a CA can only be used for capital expenditures. Our problem is operating expenses and being buried with new homes only make the problem worse.

I also saw Lori Sanders there one evening and I am not sure where she stands. Clearly she and Debbie Carlier took full credit for the two TIF?’s (Windmiller Ponds and the 204/256 TIFs) Wes and Lori sander have been very low keyed when it comes to the subject of growth. Wes has stated they won?’t pay attention to him even if he did speak to the council. Clearly the Granville school board member Ron Shelton banded together with other concerned school types and got Newark to lower the density of their proposed residential development. Lori Sanders only was very proud of herself in diverting school tax dollars to the city to build roads for Daryl.

Oh I believe I may have left one board member out. That is Larry Sigman. Let?’s see have I ever seen Mr. Sigman at a city council meeting NO! Clearly Larry and the city council work together regularly to develop commercial property outside of the school district and freely admits this to the community in a letter to the editor two years ago. Does anyone besides, Mr. Sigman, see any problems with developing commercial property in another school district using Pickerington resources?

Clearly Larry was doing his letter writing campaign at the urging of MU and his Committee for a Strong Violet Township?”. By the way where are they now? I believe that was co-chaired by Daryl Barry and Mark Uher. So let?’s ask the same question that I ask above. Does anyone besides, Mark Uher and Daryl Barry , see any problems with developing commercial property in another school district using Pickerington resources?

I think POed needs to work on the real problems instead of the shot gun approach.







By Dr. Pepper

Agreed but that's 40%

My apology to Rigelman and Oakes they have spoken out and taken action, but for a full Board of Education that leaves 60% that are do nothings.

Is 40% action takers a passing grade in the PLSD?



By P.O.?’d

no right - Larry's wrong

In early September, 2002, Larry Sigman and I both attended a meet the teacher
picnic at Victory Park in Pickerington. We have some personal history with
each other as my dad and his wife worked together at Ameritech, and I went to
school with his daughter. So I was not suprised when he came over to speak
with me. I was amazed with his topic. He told me that he has been seeing me at
a lot of meetings, and hearing and seeing my comments in the papers, and that
he believes that I am very misinformed. He was refering to my slow-growth
position. He told me that as a school board member, he has no right to question
the actions of either the Twp or the City. I told him that as a citizen of
the community, he has the right to ask for documentation on upcoming
developments from both the City and Twp (the annexation of 362 acres in Northern VT and
316 in Southern VT had just been in the papers). He said that I was wrong, as
a nonpolitical group, the school board has no say, or right to question these
actions. I told him that I could not disagree with him more. I feel that as
a school board member, he was elected by the people to speak as an expert on
behalf of the district. While I acknowledge that the school board would have
no ''standing'' at a zoning hearing, I believe that if the members of the school
board spoke about the impact on the schools, and shared facts and figures,
the zoning board might ideally be swayed, but for sure the public would see that
there was a negative cause and effect, and would be spurred to come out
strongly opposed to the developments. So often, because we don't have the
''credentials'' as experts, slow growth proponents are seen as negative, whiney,
complainers, instead of people who are shining the light on facts. I told him that I
not only think as a school board member he had the right to voice these
facts, but that he has an obligation to do so. He sort of slipped away from me and
we have not spoken to each other since.

I have been very suprised by the change of heart that Larry seems to have
had. In the ensueing 9 months, he appears to have come to the determination that
the school board does need to stand up against rapid and uncontrolled growth.
I am skeptical about his change of heart, and believe it is only a ploy to
get re-elected.



By Stephanie Brobst