differnt foci

Garcia said tonight that the pool costs are "irrelevant". He doesnt care how much money we lose at the pool. Again he has shown that he has NO concern about the taxpayers money and NO interest in, or desire to be,in any way fiscally responsible. He has said that several times in the past too- whatever the cost, he is willing to pay it! WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS! He doesnt care HOW MUCH it costs us! he will pay ANY price! as long as its NOT his money being spent! He wants to combine the Ecology Board with the Parks and Parkways Board because "they both like trees"!!? While both of those Boards may have a few overlapping interests, they have 90%+ different focuses. The Ecology Board is interested in rain barrels and water conservation- Parks and Parkways is not. Ecology is interested in residential recycling- parks is not. Ecology is interested in increasing the recycling in City buildings and the gym and pool- Parks isnt. Ecology is interested in getting some fluorescent bulbs for our residents for free, or a big discount- Parks is not. Ecology is interested in residential composting- Parks is not. Ecology is interested in NOT using plastic water bottles, especially at Council meetings- Parks is not. The Parks and Parkways Board was instrumental in getting the state grant by the river, between the bridges; their focus is just different than the Ecology Board's. Not better or worse, just different areas of interest.

Linear Park

It is interesting to note that Phase I of the Linear Park will only cost us 30k of the total of 538k. Does anybody know how much Phases II and III will cost us? If a large majority of the remaining 1.07 will be paid from CITT funds it could be a good thing to have a fishing pier, boat ramp, and picnic area. All nice things to have, but certainly NOT necessities at this difficult point in time. Does a matching grant mean we will have to match the half miilion to make up the enire million-plus? Predictably, the Gazette headline was misleading in that it focused on the tax bill drop and gave short shrift to the fact that the Council raised our fees significantly AND our millage rate. The increase in fees and millage rates was prdicted long ago, and it has come to pass. What are the chances of continuous and considerable cost overruns and change orders on THIS project? Council has never run into a project they couldnt mismanage and misapproriate up to AT LEAST triple the usual and customary costs!!!!!