Council Mtg-March 17th

Good post, Vet!!  You are right on the money!! 

Pacman- you list very good reasons why any company, large or small, would be reluctant to locate here. I agree that the list is overwhelming as to the negative. The purpose of my post was to address Becker's stance on his comments as to job opportunites here ie- being content with lower wage jobs and considering that as a real accomplishment. Incredible as it may seem, the people running this town apparently don't think that job creation is a top priority to promote spending which will create money flow which will trigger town improvements and stimulate and attract new businesses. There is no reason why the leaders couldn't work on the list of negatives from your post while working simultaneously on luring new jobs. If the city works on that list of negatives to eliminate them first, in order to attract new jobs, he--, we'll never see another company locate here for twenty years at the earliest. We are between a rock and a hard place here. The leaders have taken this town from a prosperous one that should be able to attract decent jobs/more people to a town that is unappealing to families and new companies, financially desperate, and woefully lacking in common sense thinking as to having a workable game plan for success. We have no good leaders nor thinkers in key positions. The good leaders and good thinkers have been driven away by the hopelessness of the situation that these incompetent people have created. What we, the citizens, have to select from are people who are like the ones that ruined the town in the first place. How do we find a group of people who will completely change the direction that this city has been heading for the last 30 years???? We are not going to make any progress with the current bunch. They are worthless. Good Lord this is frustrating!!!!!!

I agree Vet those in charge have become complacent with the current status quo and carry on the only way they know and understand, which is bad news for the City of Middletown and its residents.

Pacman- Where would I put companies with 750-1000 50K jobs? How about the land in the Wal-Mart area? How about some of the land just east of I-75 in the Union Road area? Is there land south of the Union Road/122 intersection that could be used? There's vacant land across from Robin Springs. All of this land is close to I-75, centrally located from Cincy and Dayton for commuters and has eating ammentities near for the employees. If the city is talking about buying the Towne Mall, tear it down (or reconfigure it) to lure high tech businesses or communication companies- maybe a corporate tech center. The structure is already there with ample parking and, again, easy access to I-75 and ammenities, AND, would make a real nice professional entrance to the city to see a tech center coming into town. Doesn't have to relate to the steel industry anymore in this town. Time to let the steel theme go and change to a more diversified choice in companies. JMO.

Didn't Mr. Barge state that he might run again if his health permits?

Vivian- I believe (could be wrong) that Mr. Barge lives out of town( Lebanon perhaps) and is probably not eligible to run. ????? Anyone know for sure? All we need is 4 out of 7 on our side to start the change in direction this town needs. It is a shame that Pacman, Mike, Spider and others can't run for various reasons. That's the problem. The club opposition can't find the time and/or resources to change the balance of power within the Council.

Like Mr.P mentioned, IF we could get a couple of quality,qualified newbies to challenge, we could probably ramp up the necessary support towards being elected. If these bodies emerge, I will give them full and active support.

Once the ball would start rolling, an avalanche of support could well develop. Very few from any viewpoint are happy with what is going on with Council and admin. None of the hopeful returnees have a high level of support, and I don't see any of them exciting the MMF group(either MMF group).

No I do not live in Lebanon. I live in the first ward and have for many years. I ran in "07 for the at-large seat and got a lot of votes. My health issues would not prohibit me from running for council. I spent close to $10,000 of my own money so if someone would want to sponser me this year I would be more than happy to run for the first ward. But I can't compete with the "old money" here in town spending $25,000 + on their candidates. I will I will announce whether or not I am running when the time comes.  Thanks for everyones interest.

Gary- Hope you do decide to run for the 1st Ward seat. If you do, just show the people a typical Council meeting- any meeting- and focus on Armbruster and his participation (or lack of participation) and the content of what he says when he does wake up and decide to speak. His talk has absolutely no substance. Assembling a list of his accomplishments during his tenure should be short and lacking any real "meat and potatoes". He's a surface fluff guy who talks about parks and trees. Shouldn't be too hard to unseat this guy on content alone. Difficulty will be gathering enough votes to overcome the power broker club influence at the polls.

HI vietVet