Wants, needs, and the budget

During the budget discussions last evening, there were questions about bike paths. Everyone seems to have forgotten that this money could have been used for items such as energy efficient windows or energy efficient HV&AC units for any of our municipal buildings, or a new energy efficient roof for a fire station, for example.  (These are items that actually were needed during the time period that the expenditure for the bike path was being discussed.) These types of items would have produced continued savings for Middletown taxpayers. As usual, though, instead of addressing the citizen’s “needs”, city staff slanted every recommendation and report to support the case of special interest “wants”. As long as city staff continues to put special interest “wants” ahead of the citizen’s “needs” Middletown will continue to face worse and worse “budget crunches” and will continue its downward spiral.

Yes, I was being sarcastic, but only up to a point!!!

I certainly was not advocating that the City of Middletown take over the buildings.

I was trying to point out both the idiocy of the new Historic ordinance 1210 and the hypocrisy of the local “historic crowd”.

The new ordinance actually DOES require the permission of the Historic Commission, via a “certificate of appropriateness”, before a “historic structure” can be demolished, and that simple economics is NOT a justification under the ordinance. (Of course, this is unconstitutional.)

The Ordinance also mandates the following:

“The Historic Commission shall conduct a continuous survey of all areas, places, structures, works of art, or similar objects in the City which the Commission has reason to believe are or will be eligible for designation as historic sites, landmarks or districts.”