The City Finally Woke Up

Didn't take the city leaders long to realize the streets needed repair and find funding. Clueless and no activity for three decades. Yes, it has been that long since the city raided the street funds set aside to provide routine maintenance for our streets and direct it to some other fund without returning it. (no doubt that fund that all money goes to for filtering and laundering- the General Fund) Mercy.

Today's Journal story....

Funds for street repairs to quadruple

MIDDLETOWN — The city has pooled $2 million from several city funds to pave more of its pothole-riddled and deteriorating roadways in 2013, which is four to five times more than has been invested in the past few years
“It’s an attempt to get some money out there on the street,” said Preston Combs, interim Public Works and Utilities director. “It’s not what we’d like or what we need, but it’s a lot better than what we’ve been doing.”
The city must invest at least $5 million a year for 20 years in order to just maintain the 600 lane miles of roads in the city, according to a recent study. Middletown residents have been complaining for years about the city’s crumbling streets, the poor image of the city they portray and the toll potholes have taken on their vehicles.

JUST NOW, AFTER 30 YEARS....THEY REALIZE THEY HAVE A PROBLEM? NICE JOB.

LAUBACH HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD HERE.....

Councilman Josh Laubach called the effort to invest more money into street repairs “a start.” And while he appreciates the work done by city staff, Laubach said “it’s nowhere near the level of funding that we need to have.”
But the fix to budget more money for road repair consistently without a tax initiative — something he will not support — is to fix what Laubach calls an “imbalance” with the city’s budget. He said most of the funding goes to pay personnel, pension and other “high-ticket” expenses.
“A fraction of the expenditures, as far as local funding goes, roads have been less than 5 percent, and that’s been that way for quite some time,” he said. “In the long term, the structural imbalance is going to be a problem. We’re sort of skidding by right now, but it’s going to be worse.”

REPEAT.....

"MOST FUNDING GOES TO PAY FOR PERSONNEL, PENSION AND "HIGH-TICKET" EXPENSES..... WE ALL KNOW WHAT THOSE ARE, DON'T WE.

LISTEN TO OLD MULLIGAN SPINNING ROUND AND ROUND WITH SOME MORE BULL....

“I think we recognize that the roads, many roads, are in poor condition and we like to do as much as we can,” Mayor Larry Mulligan said. “We try to make it a priority and pull from areas of the budget that we can.”

NO YOU DON'T MULLIGAN. YOU HAVEN'T MADE THE STREETS A PRIORITY IN THREE DECADES......DAM!!!! WHO'S FOOLING WHO HERE LAWRENCE?

JUDITH SPEAKS AGAIN.....

City Manager Judy Gilleland said the $2 million is in addition to the regular crack-sealing, stripping and pothole repairs normally done by the city. However, there’s no guarantee that the city will be able to find $2 million in the budget every year to invest in street repairs.

NO GUARANTEE THAT THEY WILL BE ABLE TO FIND 2 MIL IN THE BUDGET EVERY YEAR????? WHY NOT? THE PREVIOUS CITY LEADERS BUDGETED IT EVERY YEAR. GILLELAND AND CREW FIND MONEY FOR THE WORTHLESS PET PROJECTS DON'T THEY? ALWAYS FIND MONEY HIDDEN IN SOME FUND THAT THEY SUDDENLY LOCATE. HAS HAPPENED TOO MANY TIMES FOR US NOT TO BELIEVE THERE ISN'T MONEY AVAILABLE. CUT THE CRAP AND FIX THE DAM STREETS.

IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE PRIMING OF THE PUMP FOR A STREET LEVY IN TELLING US THAT THEY SUDDENLY CARE ABOUT THE CONDITION OF THE STREETS? SIT BACK AND WATCH THE BULLCRAP BUILD TOWARD A LEVY ENDORSEMENT. COULD IT BE ANOTHER TAX GAME THEY'RE RUNNING ON US FOLKS?

  Maybe if the crooks in the city building would be honest with the citizens, they could use the money that can only be used LEGALLY for street repair. The Auto & Gas Fund, money returned from the state from gas taxes and license plate fees, can only LEGALLY be used for streets. Last year this fund was 3.28 million dollars. Also, there is 1 mil of our property taxes that can only be used LEGALLY for street repair! Last year this fund was nearly $700.000.00. These two funds were nearly 4 million dollars that legally should have been spent on street repair. That is not counting 50% of our income tax that was to be used for our streets, that was redirected in 1987. Until the citizens of Middletown require honesty and integrity in our public officials, our city administration will waste OUR tax dollars on any thing other than helping Middletown.   Also just a note on the Safety Levy. Did you know that, even though the Safety Levy passed, that we now have the fewest officers patroling our streets than we've had in forty or fifty years? For years I complained that we only had seven officers patrolling our streets per shift. Last year the city administration admitted that crooks were coming from all around to do their crime in Middletown. Now they cut four patrol officers leaving only six patrol officers per shift (unless someone calls off leaving only five officers per shift). This is how the Safety Levy made you safer. Thanks council and city administration!

Nick Kidd - Maybe if the crooks in the city building would be honest with the citizens, they could use the money that can only be used LEGALLY for street repair. The Auto & Gas Fund, money returned from the state from gas taxes and license plate fees, can only LEGALLY be used for streets. Last year this fund was 3.28 million dollars. Also, there is 1 mil of our property taxes that can only be used LEGALLY for street repair! Last year this fund was nearly $700.000.00. These two funds were nearly 4 million dollars that legally should have been spent on street repair. That is not counting 50% of our income tax that was to be used for our streets, that was redirected in 1987. Until the citizens of Middletown require honesty and integrity in our public officials, our city administration will waste OUR tax dollars on any thing other than helping Middletown.

Nick
    The citizens need to ask several question about City Hall’s sudden interest in repairing our streets.
    Where did this money come from? While working on the cemetery I was told that all the HUD money was dedicated therefore it could only be used to help the poor with housing issues. However with one vote of City Council they transferred this money for other uses. So now we just purchased a $400,000 Fire Truck with HUD funds. If we had millions of dollars of HUD funding available why haven’t these funds been made available before for paving in the areas of greatest need?
    At the last council meeting Preston Combs gave us the answer. City Hall has come to some sort of an agreement with the EPA about our combined sewer problem to the tune of 150 million dollars over the next 10 years. Where will City Hall come up with all this money?
Which area of the city will get these improvements first? Many years ago they increased our water & sewer bills to cover these improvements. Where are all the funds that they have collected over the years?

Probably using HUD funds to renovate the Towne Mall into "Trader's World 2".

digger-2 wrote: Has anyone asked Mr. Atkins if he'd like to take Middletown's 1000 S8 vouchers to his suburban safe haven home of Mason?  Since he doesn't care for most landlords, I'm sure that his actions would quickly catch the attention of the citizens there.  Maybe he could take Judy G. with him too?

digger, The Mason officials would be hung in the town square if they tried to bring as many Section 8 people to town as Midddletown has done. Mason people are too upscale, too professional and not the type of people to tolerate the lowering of standards there. Doug Adkins and those that iive outside Middletown have no problem gumming up this town.....just don't bring the blight to where they live.

Perhaps a better scenario would be to see the reaction to bringing in Section 8 to the neighborhoods of the people in the city building who are responsible for the saturation of this program and see how they like what they lay on other neighborhoods. I'd like to see a Section 8 family move right next door to the Mulligans, Gilleland there on Antrim Ct. and Kohler on Main. Let's see how they like the repercussions of their ideas with a taste of their own medicine. That apartment complex over on old Roosevelt down from Woodridge Apartments, with the crap laying around, the blinds hanging out the windows in the summer and towels used as curtains.......put one of those complexes next to Mulligan and see how fast he complains. The old "It's good as long as it ain't in my neighborhood" program is alive and well in Middletown's city building.

Stanky wrote: While it's nice that the city is ramping up the road repair spending, my guess is there is an ulterior motive. Watch how the pet projects get addressed. Wouldn't surprise me if the road in front of the Manchester Inn gets repaved.

Stanky,