Things are getting too personal and mean on this big box issue.
Comments will be moderated for the time being. I will post comments that are constructive and stay in the bounds of civil dialogue. Emotion is fine, but unfounded accusations, name calling and the like are not.
Sorry
David Allen
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7 comments:
Thanks David,
Well, I hope you are sure the accusations are unfounded before you decide to delete them-do you personally do some kind of private eye footwork before you make your decision???
David just who is this group of citizens make up this group for growth and progress. Is this a diverse group of social folks or economically based or religion?. And just how do they have the right to claim they represent the majority?. I guess if you can get the information to the first question then the later will be answered. You may not post this but can you at least address this for some folks to understand the background of those who say they make up the majority or speak for the majority. I got a feeling that this group is made up of an elite group of people who have been controlling the local government for sometime now and lost control with the last election!
I don't care much for the thought of being moderated by a newspaper. too much like you can have free speech but we can't. But I do understand things are pretty hot right now and may need to cool off a bit.
That being said I step over to our representation. I saw what was in the paper in the form of letters to the editor. I've heard of, but not seen, petitions for this big box, and have heard of none against. I have heard that at the public hearing it was about 3 to 1 for the big box. I can't understand how the people that are supposed to represent us did exactly the opposite? Weren't they voted in to do as we the people say? What do we have to do to take our city back?
Why does everyone assume that the people for this are "elite". NO ONE has ever mentioned the many businesses that would have benefitted. Instead, we have heard horror stories from businesses that, while we love them, have had their share of problems for years. I would like to think they are smart enough to know how to find their niche in the business community. If not, it will be sad but not to move forward is even sadder. We just can not be held hostage by a few who are afraid of the future.
If you listen while in the grocery store, the donut shop, Graves, anywhere there is a group of people...you will see that it is a wide and diverse group that are not happy.
The idea that it is a select group unhappy is wrong. Many people would have benefitted from this and a few would have had to work harder. This is not about a developer that would have used his tax money NOT to get rich but to develop the land...this is about the common man that would have had options on shopping, on possible employment opportunities, on many tangible facets of life. It is an emotional issue with facts that have been skewed.
Did the developer talk to Winfield..yes, THREE years ago...things change. Is it about some commissioners forgetting how they have received or could receive tax breaks and abatements..yes. Is it about people that had their minds made up..yes. Is it about a lack of information and misinformation...yes. More importantly, now it is about many people who assumed the commission would say yes and did not. Those people are shocked and not happy. We are not people who lost control in the last election. Unfortunately, most probably didn't even vote. We are just people who feel betrayed by what we assumed would be a commission with a vision for a better town. We would have yelled louder if we had thought there was a chance that our leaders would ignore this. If we thought they would require us to continue to drive 30 miles or more to shop and to pay for gas and to use our time. If we thought they would turn down the revenues that were ours for the taking we would have yelled earlier. Now, a recall is the only option. We have turned our back on millions of dollars in revenue for our city. This has nothing to do with income, education, religious choice, social status or even leadership capabilities. It is just about being logical. There are as many elite leading the charge against this as there are wanting to see it go through. If the commission could consider changing its mind and listening most of this would go away but they have had their minds made up since they took office.
The worst part is that they made a final decision. There is no recourse from this point. No going back. They threw out the plan and scorned the developers. This deal is done and nothing any of us can do can save it. And the worse part is that we never even tried to see how good we could get out of it. I like many others believe that the commissioners had to cut it off now before something came out that they or their supporters did not like. There can be no other reason for cutting it off before we even heard the deal. And now somebody says we could have negotiated after that! What were these commissioners thinking? Or should we be wondering who was doing the thinking for them? There has to be some reason that they all had their minds made up before the hearing. Perhaps it did happen individually, but 3 out of 5, and against all of the odds?
Let the people speak out David, this is one of the best tools we have going right now and to cut out any part of this meaningful dialog would be as much a set back as what people think the vote was. I have wondered for years how to figure out how to let the public know just who is running this town and local government and there true motives and means. Just let them see as one speaker said they are fighting with each other on so many matters and that is stopping the growth now and back then. If we don't get to hear then we can not learn ,if we do not learn we can't understand, and if we don't understand we can not grow for the lack of knowing mistakes from the past that haunt or future
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