Hendrickson Road and "the plan"!

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I am watching tonight's city council meeting as I type this. 
They just finished the discussion of the possibility of paving two very short pieces of Hendrickson Road that are within the City of Middletown but are "sandwiched" inside a contract that the County has let to pave a greater portion of the same road. 
Just a short time earlier, council had the discussion on whether or not to put a tax increase on the November ballot for street rehabilitation. 
On the Hendrickson Road issue, Mr. Marconi is CORRECT! This should have been a “no brainer”! First, it is the least expensive way to get two small pieces of roadway into first-class condition. Next, it is absolutely stupid to leave two small pieces of crappy “Middletown-style” pavement in a long stretch of first-class roadway. Lastly, it will ensure a longer life for both the new county portion AND the city portion, compared to if the city rehabilitated their portion later. That is, it just makes good engineering sense!
But there is a larger issue!
It proves that there is NO REAL PLAN for street rehabilitation!
The “Street Subcommittee”, whose FIRST duty should have been to develop a PLAN for street rehabilitation, did NOT do so! If they had, it would have been easy to point out where Hendrickson Road fell into the “plan”. 
Likewise, during the street tax ballot issue discussion, when Ms. Scott-Jones suggested taking a million dollars from the two million EXTRA in the “rainy day” fund, someone SHOULD have been able to say EXACTLY how and where that million dollars would be spent! But the FACT of the matter is: THERE IS NO COMPREHENSIVE PLAN!!! That is what the “Street” subcommittee should have made! The “Finance” Subcommittee was charged with recommending the methods of PAYING to implement “the plan”! The “Street Subcommittee” failed to fulfill their primary purpose. They did NOT develop a “PLAN” to rehabilitate the streets of Middletown! From Day One, all they did was talk about how best to TAX the people!
As an aside, I just heard Ms. Gilleland (sp?) state: “I don’t really understand the city’s budget.” Now, those of you that have been reading the Journal blogs know that several of us have been saying that the city’s budget is far too complicated for years! In fact, some of us believe it is intentionally kept that way in order to “hide” the way money is “transferred”. Now we have an experienced, educated City manager state, ON the record, that after six months on the job, she doesn’t “really understand the city’s budget.” Now the question is: “Will anything be done to SIMPLIFY our city budget?”

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Mike_Presta Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483	Post Options Post Reply Quote Mike_Presta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Hendrickson Road and "the plan"! Posted: Jul 01 2008 at 9:08pm
	I am watching tonight's city council meeting as I type this. They just finished the discussion of the possibility of paving two very short pieces of Hendrickson Road that are within the City of Middletown but are "sandwiched" inside a contract that the County has let to pave a greater portion of the same road. Just a short time earlier, council had the discussion on whether or not to put a tax increase on the November ballot for street rehabilitation. On the Hendrickson Road issue, Mr. Marconi is CORRECT! This should have been a “no brainer”! First, it is the least expensive way to get two small pieces of roadway into first-class condition. Next, it is absolutely stupid to leave two small pieces of crappy “Middletown-style” pavement in a long stretch of first-class roadway. Lastly, it will ensure a longer life for both the new county portion AND the city portion, compared to if the city rehabilitated their portion later. That is, it just makes good engineering sense! But there is a larger issue! It proves that there is NO REAL PLAN for street rehabilitation! The “Street Subcommittee”, whose FIRST duty should have been to develop a PLAN for street rehabilitation, did NOT do so! If they had, it would have been easy to point out where Hendrickson Road fell into the “plan”. Likewise, during the street tax ballot issue discussion, when Ms. Scott-Jones suggested taking a million dollars from the two million EXTRA in the “rainy day” fund, someone SHOULD have been able to say EXACTLY how and where that million dollars would be spent! But the FACT of the matter is: THERE IS NO COMPREHENSIVE PLAN!!! That is what the “Street” subcommittee should have made! The “Finance” Subcommittee was charged with recommending the methods of PAYING to implement “the plan”! The “Street Subcommittee” failed to fulfill their primary purpose. They did NOT develop a “PLAN” to rehabilitate the streets of Middletown! From Day One, all they did was talk about how best to TAX the people! As an aside, I just heard Ms. Gilleland (sp?) state: “I don’t really understand the city’s budget.” Now, those of you that have been reading the Journal blogs know that several of us have been saying that the city’s budget is far too complicated for years! In fact, some of us believe it is intentionally kept that way in order to “hide” the way money is “transferred”. Now we have an experienced, educated City manager state, ON the record, that after six months on the job, she doesn’t “really understand the city’s budget.” Now the question is: “Will anything be done to SIMPLIFY our city budget?”

Pacman Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jun 02 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2612	Post Options Post Reply Quote Pacman Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul 01 2008 at 9:38pm
	It seems that neither the "Finance Subcommittee" nor the "Street Subcommittee" has been effective nor done their job as originally envisioned. I am personally not a big fan of all of these Subcommittees that Middletown seems to generate out of thin air and they just as quickly disappear into thin air usually with dismal results. First question is why do you need a "Street Subcommitee" to come up with a street rehabilitation plan. We pay good money for employees at City Hall who supposedly have all of the information that they need to devise a viable street rehab plan. Yet we must have a subcommittee to try and get a plan and they come up with a payroll tax to basically pay for it and not much else. We have a "Finance Subcommittee" which basically does little or nothing meeting quarterly or whenever they feel like it and the only people who can make motions are the Council Members themselves, so why do we have a "Finance Subcommittee". Once again we have City employees to formulate Financial plans and an "ELECTED" City Council to vote on and enact a budget and financial plan. I did not vote in any of the these "Subcommittees" yet Council tends to prefer to hide behind them. With terms such as, The Street Subcommittee recommended such and such. The City employees who are paid to perform these services should be doing their jobs and once a Street Rehab plan has been put together it can be presented to the public to view and comment on. The same goes for The Financing of such a plan. If Council wants to put forth a Payroll tax or property tax or a combination of both, let Council stand up and do it, that is what we elected them for. Instead of this, "the Subcommittee recommended a payroll tax." Just as Schiavone stated tonight basically blaming the citizens for voting to put the road maintenance funds into the general fund years ago. I am sure the citizens didn't just wake up one morning and decide that, that is what they wanted to do. Mr. Marconi sure had one thing right tonight, Government works at Status Quo and that is about it. We will see status quo on the section 8 issue with Marconi leading the way.

Mike_Presta Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483	Post Options Post Reply Quote Mike_Presta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul 02 2008 at 1:07am
	Pacman: I pretty much agree. From what I saw at the subcommittee meetings that I attended, it was pretty much just a way for City Hall to get THEIR ideas only, presented to the full council, but claiming that they came from a subcommittee full of ordinary citizens. I mean, give me a break! We had over a DOZEN members at one meeting, but we couldn’t start, because it was NOT a “QUORUM” until the second of the three council members that were on the committee showed up! Also, as some of you may remember, I used to attend council meetings regularly, but I no longer do. Did you notice the ONE gentleman who DID try to speak tonight at a PUBLIC HEARING on the “street tax”??? He wasn’t allowed to finish, since he didn’t agree with council and he was NOT someone with “clout”. Please recall how long Frank Schiavone and others were allowed to speak at recent PUBLIC HEARINGS! I’m sorry, but street rehabilitation, and its funding, is a fairly complex issue--especially with the bogus subcommittee shenanigans that needed to be addressed. I, for one, was not of a mind to allow council to make me look a fool by shutting me down three minutes into trying to address this issue. I would not have even been able to truly explain the parts of the problem that everyone has ignored--let alone get to the solutions. And of course, AFTER they made me “go sit down” I would have been accused of being “negative” and worse. There remains NO WAY for the citizens to have a voice! A slight possibility of 350 words (edited beyond recognition, at that) once a month in The Journal is the best we can hope for.

VietVet Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 15 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7008	Post Options Post Reply Quote VietVet Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul 02 2008 at 6:59am
	Mike and Pacman- I can tell you from the street committee meetings I attended, that the picture you are painting is accurate. Mike, do you remember the street pictures and street maps that I brought to that one Sunday Library meeting? For those who weren't there, the pictures gave examples of what the city engineer determined as good to poor in rating of the streets. The street maps indicated, by a color code, the various streets and the city engineer's determination of the condition of that street. The other maps gave suggestions on prioritizing the streets as to which received attention first and so on.These maps were briefly explained by the city engineer and discussed in the meetings. The other documents handed out were about the individual department budgets and listed salary costs, equipment, etc. That's when I questioned the need for three supervisors to five workers in the Public Works Dept. Ginger Smith responded by saying that they were " working supervisors". Yea, right! Ideas were suggested when money sources other than taxes were on the table. Becker and Marconi seemed to be pushing the income tax idea from day one. Scott- Jones seemed to "hold back" on that idea, but for the most part, sat silent during the meetings that I attended. At no time, was a game plan discussed,or consensus reached, as to the street repair schedule as to priority. There was more discussion centered around HOW TO FINANCE the street repair (income tax levy) discussion than about WHAT to repair first after the financing was obtained. It seemed to me that most of the meetings were subdued, spent waiting on someone to say something and was somewhat awkward due to the manner in which Becker was conducting them. His personality isn't dynamic enough to motivate anyone on a committee from my observations.He's not a leader.No, if the intent of the committee was to FORMULATE A PLAN to prioritize which roads got repaired first, etc., it didn't happen. If the intent of the committee was to discuss HOW TO FINANCE the road repairs, it succeeded in a recommendation to council.The outcome was, for the most part, rubber stamped from the beginning on the tax levy. That's why I quit going to the last two or three. Waste of time to try to talk to these people.

Pacman Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jun 02 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2612	Post Options Post Reply Quote Pacman Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul 02 2008 at 8:41am
	I agree Vet. My point was if the roads are all graded as to condition and I am sure the City has estimates on what it takes to repair or replace a lane mile of road in condition A, B, or C or whatever system of grading they use, why is a Street Subcommittee needed to determine a plan. You maintain your main roads and roads that get State or County matching funds. Then you move into your neighborhoods and areas with the worse roads, trying to formulate a plan so that you are not jumping all over the city to save money. I don't see this as rocket science and for what we are paying the Engineering Dept. we should be able to get this plan done asap.

John Beagle Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List MUSA Official Joined: Apr 23 2007 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 1855	Post Options Post Reply Quote John Beagle Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul 03 2008 at 4:12pm
	"NO REAL PLAN for street rehabilitation!" - I think the city has a plan. First figure out how to get the money. Then fix the roads. Problem is no money. It a catch 22, how do you attract new businesses with such bad roads.
	John Beagle Middletown USA News of, for and by the people of Middletown, Ohio.

Pacman Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jun 02 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2612	Post Options Post Reply Quote Pacman Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jul 03 2008 at 5:12pm
	John one of the first things you do is when the Coke plant fiasco is redone, YOU DO NOT GIVE THEM A 10 YEAR 75%, I BELIEVE WAS THE NUMBER, TAX ABATEMENT , which they were going to request.