Blogger Foreword: There was a bit more about the actual boundaries of the property Mrs. Weber is discussing with the township, with a lot of it shrouded in history. It was inconclusive, and I did not have it in my notes but picked it up in positioning the recording to begin public comment. There is always more in the meetings than I have the note taking speed or the keyboarding stamina to get into the blog. If you really want that, the choices are to come to the meetings or watch the videos of the meetings. OK. Here goes public comment, and your faithful blogger was first in the order.
Carole Pollard: I want to summarize something I said earlier. As awkward as this may have been tonight, this brings more together and more to work with. We have a task force that has agreed to be part of this, and they pull more together of the community than the four committees do. The committees are all the usual suspects--almost all are in the restoration society. This is exactly the right time, and right source of impetus and it may be awkward, but I thought that was what we were working for all along. [A plan and a way forward to really use this building.] The task force and the existing committees should be able to do a dynamite job.
This is like people trying to avoid having the feather come down on their heads [to designate someone who would be doing a difficult job]. It is their job, no, it is their job, so nothing gets done. It is time for some things to get done and whoever feels the greatest need is the source of getting something done.
This is not a surprise. It is absolutely no surprise. It has been pushed off to the side. The committees have been convened, but there is no regular schedule for their meeting and talking and no strategic plan and there is a point at which the assessment committee gets phased out.
Sorry if I'm boring you, John.
[John Festa was making disgusted faces and shaking his head and generally being rude. Tough. He has done a great deal to earn the kinds of comments that Dave and I in particular made this evening, and in listening to Dave's earlier comments about how John Festa should have known about the conflict of interest, I realized how much I condensed his remarks in order to get the substance of them. He pushed John Festa hard on how he absolutely should have known better.
[And he did. I talked to Todd Peetz shortly after this meeting, and he told me that he had told John Festa several times that his company could not bid the elevator project. So all of that posturing in the previous meeting about not knowing about the conflict of interest clause? Completely disingenuous (an elegant term for in inelegant 3-letter word meaning falsehood. Want me to spell it out? Lie.).]
Continuing: If the whole thing does not move forward now, it will be pretty clear that there was never any intention of it ever moving forward. That is stuff we heard for years: the elevator was put forth as something that would kill the project [to make the school useful]. That didn't happen. [It didn't stop things--we went ahead and got the grant to install an elevator.]
What Jeff and Chad are suggesting as a teen center--there are grants available now that were not available before. It is a matter of keeping the ball rolling. It has been a lurch forward and a long rest and a lurch forward and a long rest. It is time to keep the ball rolling steadily forward.
Bill Kelley had no comment.
Mary Ann Weber: Is that really the best place for a gazebo, with small children there? If it is just decorative, why not make a bigger one that is more usable? Also, I asked about keeping something open as access to my property. I was told that it was township property. My attorney told me that since that is the sole access to my property, access has to be kept open.
Dave Pollard: A couple of observations. It is interesting that states are allowing medical marijuana to be grown, but if you are trying to grow hemp, which is a source of paper, the government will come in and destroy it. A governmental dichotomy.
Edinburg has a gazebo with roads on two sides. I have never seen anyone in there. It looks like just an ornament. The people who should hear this always leave before it comes up.
[Blogger: That was a reference to the fact that John Dickey, Jim Aldrich, Amy Janca, and Barb Herbold always leave once they have had their say. One would think that they would be interested in the rest of the discourse about this topic, unless they know that all they have to do is wait until the trustees (well, two of them) bring out the rubber stamp.]
Dave, continuing: If the gazebo is not to be actually used but just admired, will you have to have parking?
John Festa: Our risk insurance company said no, you do not need parking.
Dave: Looking at this sketch over here, all this with Mrs. Weber is moot. The ORC might change some of that. Because if it is going to be used, you are going to have to have a porta-potty.
I am struck by the contrast between Mrs. Weber's situation and Bill Kelley's discussions about School Lane. We are talking about a few hundred feet compared to several thousand.
Bill: 3/4 acre.
Dave: Bill Kelley has brought this up and has been ignored but you are hellbent that Mrs. Weber not have even an inch. If it continues, it leaves the township wide open to a lawsuit, and it is something that you will not want to face. But you will have to be more even handed in your approach.
Sue Skrovan: Three comments. One, regarding the fair board. Some pictures needed to be updated from the BZA and zoning commission. I wanted to thank Carole Pollard who has always come on a Sunday to come and help clean it up. Also, the road crew came and took it to the fair.
The other thing is that talking about the committees, it would be a good idea to get them together and see about the master plan. I thought the committee for the master plan would be the utilization committee. I thought the building assessment committee were assessing the needs and structural integrity. Now that the elevator is going in, that opens all the doors. I don't see how we couldn't finish the plan. We need to meet and get it done. Thank you.
[Blogger: That ended the public comment. I did not stay, but walked out with several other people. There were some discussions in the parking lot about the incomprehensibility of John Festa's argument and purpose. If you know who backed him for election and have been reading the blog regularly, you know what his purpose has always been: to oppose anything that moves the school forward. He seems to think that he can keep us from seeing that. Right.]
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
