It was in the Journal where they endorsed Armbruster & Marconi. BUT they never interviewed the other candidates for those wards. So it would be highly impossible for them to endorse a non-incumbent candidate since they weren't interviewed. However I did obtain a copy of the Q&A from another candidate, replied to Mr Harvey with my answers, and as you can see that I got a response hours after they did the interviews. I had left numerous phone calls and an email and got no response until after the interviews were conducted. So being fair and open on endorsements from the 336 & the Journal and the Chamber just go back in history and they have always endorsed the incumbents. With one exception-in 07 due to the fact it was the first election of the mayor - they endorsed Merrell Wood and we know the outcome of that. Until the old way of thinking and the old money that runs this town and the special groups are phased out we will more than likely see more of the same. If you look at the endorsements for the incumbents you will see a laundry list of the same old players. You could take a picture of one candidates endorsements and paste it on the other and they would mirror each other. This is only my opinion. Until the citizens get out and vote for change we are not going to see much of it here. Last night's forum at the Inn at Renaiisance Village should have been aired on TVMiddletown and reported in the Journal. It was a very informative forum and the incumbents were called to the carpet by the audience and the other candidates. They continuously deny what is wrong with our city and keep  saying what they have done for the city and how business friendly we are. I am going to touch a couple of my questions and answers from last night. The old parking garage and Swallens building came up. They said they would rather spend a Million dollars and tear in down as to pay $90,000 a year in utilities and use the utilities payment on a bond for the next 10 years +. An audience member (and I agreed) asked why can't we lease this building out as a flea market/antique mall etc? This would be a hot place to go since we have none of these amenities on this end of town. I then explained to the lady that asked the question that I had brought a potential developer, a multimillion dollar developer, in contact with the city about the Swallens building. Between the building, zoning and planning boards they were unable to come to an agreement because the city would not allow for certain types of frontages. Even though they were going to pay to tear the building down and redevelope it as a parts company. Then it was said by one of the incumbents that we are going to put what we want down there and if they can't comply with the building ordinances -so be it.  By the way, when Mr Marconi took credit for rezoning the downtown for buisness he failed to mention the real story. I participated in the Dart-Heritage Revitilization seminar held at the Manchester Inn as well as other meetings and what was failed to be mentioned after Mr Kohler spoke and all the people from the Dart Heritage program spoke I replied to the representative and said this was all good and fine and dandy but how is it this to come to fruition due to the fact that downtown is not zoned commercial anymore. Mr Kohler made a beeline to the microphone, practically tripping out of his chair, and said That there was going to be a meeting held at the next council meeting and they were rezoning the downtown area for commercial use. So all the years prior the downtown set without the proper zoning for any business to move in. I find that rather strange. And in fact at the next meeting (which was a few years ago) they did rezone the downtown. Imagine that. We are business friendly.

Gary Barge