Main Street Lights

I only caught a small portion of the council meeting.  From what I saw, the rest of the town is going to buy special light posts for the residents on Main street?  Is this correct?

So the City can afford this and other nickel and dime (less the $10k) but we are going to lay off firefighters and police officers???  The City wants to impose new taxes to cover expenses, but we are buying decorative lamps?  Really?? 

Sure property owners are being assessed too, but this is just 1 project. How many other unneccessary projects are they pulling this scam on?

My Dear Supporter:

Of course you are correct. The ill-mannered detractors are thankless when these best of our city ask so little of them. The common-folk of the city should be willing to do so much more for these who lend so much grace and elegance to elevate the overall wretchedness of this otherwise miserable pisspot of a burg.

Why, even slashing more of the fire-watch and the constabulary would be reasonable, if it would fund a nice garden for the gentry to enjoy in their common areas. The street urchins don’t appreciate the parks any way. Tear out the play toys, I say, and provide a strolling area properly tended with guarded gates. More elaborate fountains where the noble few might share the evening breezes, safe from the churlish masses, would be a more proper use of the public treasure.

I say that you, SupportMiddletown, would be the proper person to oversee such an effort, with a handsome stipend from the City, of course.

Bring this matter before the Mayor and the proper authorities post haste, Sir! (But do it at one of the private meetings, please, lest the peasants revolt.)

I remain

Your servant

R. Saunders

 

P. S.: I am certain that a petition could be arranged, if absolutely necessary.  Walls and gates for each of the manors would be another splendid thought.  With conscripted labor, we shan't be forced to suspend the Widows' & Orphans' Fund for more than a few score years.

Will those that have property facing another street but their side yards are on Main Street also have to pay for these lights?? Were they also included in this petition?
If you look at the google map you will notice that some of these properties have a huge amount of frontage and therefore many more gas lights would be required. The Old South Park covers an entire block…how many lights would be required.

I have often wondered why none of the houses that are located on Yankee Road where not included in this historic district since many are even older than those on Main Street?

SupportMiddletown wrote: 10,000 is a good deal for the city to get streetlights in the historic district. Go to Hamilton or Springfield; These cities have multiple historic districts that have had period streetlighting for years, installed and maintained by the city. If the residents are willing to carry the cost to get this public improvement completed, I think residents should be applauding, not complaining over the small public portion.

MiddletownSupporter:

First:

If some of the other cities put a roof over their downtowns, should we do likewise???

If some other cities try to make a lake out of their rivers without securing all necessary regulatory clearances, should we do likewise???

If all of the other kids jump off of a cliff…??? SHEESH!!!

Next, I’ve been to Hamilton and Springfield…have YOU??? And I’ve been to downtown Middletown, which also has olde tyme lighting. Exactly WHAT has “period lighting” gotten ANY of these places, EXACTLY???

Finally, I DO applaud these folks doing period lighting, or any other thing that THEY want to do that THEY think improves THEIR property!!! I just think that THEY should do it with THEIR money and not everyone ELSE’S.

Can’t you understand that the city is going broke?? OUR municipal debt is increasing every year!!! OUR children are already heavily in MUNICIPAL debt for DECADES. We are being FORCED to cut back on ESSENTIAL municipal services!!! And we will likely be FORCED to take on HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of more municipal debt (separating combined sewers and fixing our other crumbling infrastructure) in the very near future!!!

We have THOUSANDS of skilled and semi-skilled trades people, and thousands more unskilled workers in this town who will have very grim prospects for employment, and who will not be able to afford to move away. When these people have no way to feed their families, except to steal from YOU, and we have been forced to lay off the last of the police, do you plan to call a DECORATIVE lamppost for assistance???

So, fine…buy all of the decorative lampposts that YOU want, if you think that is the wise thing to do, but PLEASE…do so with YOUR own money!!! The city can NOT afford it!!! The rest of us can NOT afford to decorate YOUR home!!!

nezitiC nwotelddiM wrote: If I am not mistaken the petitioners are willing to pay for 100% of the costs.

nezitiC nwotelddiM:

nezitiC nwotelddiM wrote: If I am not mistaken the petitioners are willing to pay for 100% of the costs.

Mike_Presta wrote: nezitiC nwotelddiM wrote: If I am not mistaken the petitioners are willing to pay for 100% of the costs.   nezitiC nwotelddiM:  No need for that.  SupportMiddletown is so convinced that this is such a "good deal" that I am certain he/she will be stepping forward with a personal check for the full public portion of the costs.   This is correct, isn't it, SupportMiddletown???  You will be putting your money where your mouth is, won't you???

Yes! 

SupportMiddletown, put your money where your mouth is!

"maybe if we didn't try to attract every derelict in Butler County through Section 8, perhaps Middletown would be a nicer town with better schools and stable home prices. But instead we bicker over pennies and favor the slum landlords and lifelong welfare cases over people that seem to genuinely care about their neighborhoods, and we wonder why people think of Middletown as a ghetto/white trash city".

                                    Voice of Reason

I LIKE THIS OBSERVATION.

"Maybe if council took up measures that raise the bar for people, maybe if they demanded that people keep up the appearance of their homes and businesses (like Mason, West Chester, Montgomery, etc. do)",

ONE PROBLEM WITH THAT IMO......PEOPLE IN MASON, WEST CHESTER AND THE MORE AFFLUENT COMMUNITIES HAVE THE MONEY/PRIDE/CLASS TO MAINTAIN THEIR HOMES. YOU JUST MENTIONED MIDDLETOWN IS CONSIDERED A GHETTO/WHITE TRASH CITY AND, GIVEN THAT FACT, SOME ARE LOW INCOME WITH NO DISPOSABLE CASH TO MAINTAIN A PROPERTY. DON'T THINK YOU CAN RAISE THE BAR AND GET PEOPLE WITHOUT MONEY OR CLASS TO BE ABLE OR WANT TO PARTICIPATE. SOME LOWER INCOME PEOPLE HAVE PRIDE WHILE BEING POOR AND TAKE CARE OF WHAT LITTLE THEY HAVE. I WOULD IMAGINE THE MAJORITY THOUGH, HAVEN'T BEEN RAISED TO TAKE CARE OF THINGS OR UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE PRIDE. THEIR MOMMA AND DADDY DIDN'T GIVE THEM EXAMPLES OF PRIDE OR SHOWING A LITTLE CLASS TO LIVE BY GROWING UP.

VOICE, I THINK PART OF THE PROBLEM HERE IS THAT THERE MAY BE A PERCEPTION THAT MULLIGAN, KOHLER AND THE REST OF THE S. MAIN ST. CROWD ARE RECEIVING PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT (AS HAS THE HIGHLANDS HISTORIC DISTRICT) AS TO THE ACTIVITIES DIRECTED TOWARD THEIR AREA OF THE CITY, WHILE THE REST OF US ARE A DISTANT TENTH ON THE LIST OF NINE ON IMPORTANCE. THERE MAY BE A PRIORITY/SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON PLEASING THESE PEOPLE IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE REST OF THE CITY. IT APPEARS THAT WHATEVER THESE PEOPLE WANT THEY GET AND IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME. WHATEVER THE REST OF US WANT, GETS NO ATTENTION NOR EFFORT THROWN AGAINST WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE CITIZENS. IT IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF PLEASING THE SMALL LITTLE BAND OF INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE AND FRIENDS OF CITY HALL AND IGNORING THE REST, A PRACTICE THIS CITY EXCELS AT. IT IS A MATTER OF KEEPING IT "ALL IN THE FAMILY" WHEN MONEY IS SPENT IN THIS CITY.

AND YES, $20 BUCKS A MONTH TO HAVE MY STREET PAVED WOULD BE A GOOD DEAL DEPENDING ON HOW LONG I WOULD HAVE TO PAY. THERE MUST BE AN END TO THE PAY PERIOD WHICH YOU DIDN'T STIPULATE IN YOUR COMMENT.    NONE OF THIS SHOULD BE HAPPENING THOUGH. IF THE CITY HAD SET UP THE BUDGET BACK IN THE 80'S AND LEFT THE MONEY IN THE STREET REPAIR FUND INSTEAD OF STEALING IT TO PLACE IN THE BLACK HOLE CALLED THE GENERAL FUND, THE CITY WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE STREET REPAIR SCHEDULE AND BEEN WAY AHEAD OF THE GAME BY NOW. PAST AND CURRENT COUNCIL'S HAVE NEGLECTED TO RETURN TO A PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM FOR STREETS AND NOW WE ARE ALL PAYING THE PRICE FOR THEIR INEPTNESS. THEY ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO DIVERT ANY MONIES INTO FUNDS OTHER THAN THE STREETS.

Why should we taxpayers have to foot the bill for Mullethead and Kohlers lights?Anyone that says we wont have to foot the bill for them and maintance I have some swamp land for sale.What makes them so damn special? Maybe Mullethead Mulligan can ask his golfing buddy McCoy to donate them.

Oh, Voice, one more thing:

Getting excited over, don't think so. Just wondering what the the real number is when dealing with MY money. $7,000 now $9,900, Buying buildings before you have a contract, 5300 difference in enrollment at our new tech school, fall classes. $450,000 for a Art center thats open once a month, loans to another Art center that No one can tell me if they have been paid back. A Council that without a doubt is quite divided and if asked several would agree that we have a terrible morale issue at the City building. Someone who says between $3000-$9000 for OUR part of these lights. I would say many on this site along with thousands of others in this town have become" Numb" to the actions of this Admin. What does excite me is when I'm treated like a two year old and not given all the info, it's insulting.  I know a few of these folks on this site and do not mean to speak for them, the ones I know LOVE this town and have given many hours of volunteer time along with investing their futures in businesses in this town as they watch OUR money being given away in the most hap-hazard of ways. I don't need a lecture on how to be a "Cheerleader", thats all the time I have since I better shutup and go to work so we can buy more buildings and HOPE they will come.