first time in a long time-the Council (most of them)
did something they can feel good about!
June 29, 2024
The makeup of the City Council changes, and it is always frustrating to sit
on the sidelines praying that the city fathers do what is best for the city as
the whole. It is no secret that it has been a hard pill to hold down when the
stupidity starts – hard for everyone excepts those who always think they are
right – when they aren’t). Frustrating because there’s usually no way to fix
it.
Well, happy days are here again! The CC voted Tuesday night to abolish a
committee that had run the limit of effectiveness. By doing so, they eliminated
another unneeded level of government with the intent of making things run
smoother. And it effectively puts the CC in a front row seat with their hands
directly on the controls of Economic Development (ED).
Hell, the city does not even have a development director! A firm is
contracted to handle development matters. The individual they have doing the
work for Marshfield is one I consider the best in the industry. Basically, they
do the footwork, and make recommendations to the CC. But now rather than
stopping off with the ED board on some issues, it will go directly to the CC.
And some very worthwhile proposed development projects were either shelved or
discouraged after the visit to the ED board.
But those are just a few concerns about the ED board recently. Although it
never came up in the CC discussion of eliminating the board, there were issues
within the last year that raised a few eyebrows. First, the mayor supposedly
didn’t have enough friends who lived in the city that she could choose from to
appoint to the board – they CC had to make an exception and allow a person
living out in the country to fill a position (albeit she was a business owner
in town) – and she even became chairman of a "city" board.
Next, someone (the chairman) on the ED board made promises she could keep –
that the covenants for the Mill Creek Business Park would be changed to accommodate
the non-profit, non-taxable business which had already purchased a building and
wanted to locate there, but ran into that one, little problem. AND, made a
different promise to the Columbus community, that the city had money she could
get for them to help with their proposed fieldhouse project. The status of
anything positive coming from the CC for those two projects remains uncertain
at this time. Both worthwhile projects. But the people involved with them were
taken down the wrong road as far as the city is concerned, and leaves many,
many people wondering why.
Sad part -SAD part of it all, the ED chairman took to finger pointing to
cover her tail when things went south for the boys/girls club proposal – going
so far as to blaming the alderman who took part in the covenants (not allowing
not-for-profit businesses for Mill Creek Park) twenty years ago!! Then, led all
the Columbus supporters to have to fend for themselves, making several trips to
plead their case in front of the CC at several meetings. Could have saved a lot
of energy if one person, the chairman, had gone through the channels to get
things done. So used to the private business approach to similar situations
where the decision merely needs to be made without approval of the government
body.
Promises! Promises!!
But all is well, now.
The Economic Development Commission is no more!