Every once in a while there are things which need to be mentioned, none of which are big enough to make a full article, but never seem to get said. They kinda' pile up and eventually get thrown into a potpourri of thoughts. Today's the day to dig into that pile.
There are a lot of things sitting in City Council which should be acted upon. This is not unusual, but City Council needs to get on with the City's business, get them out of committee, and do something, anything but ignore them.
Last year a request for action was passed to the Safety Committee from the President of Council concerning noise in the city. This has become a problem over the years and came to a head a couple of years ago when a resident complained of the loud music from Bud and Tooties, a bar on West High Avenue. The matter was resolved by an agreement between Bud and Tooties, the Police Chief, and the resident who had complained. Unfortunately, the matter didn't stay resolved and the noise continues. The problem doesn't end there but spreads like a blight across the city through loud mufflers on cars, trucks and motorcycles. Even worse are the boom boxes in automobiles which vibrate house windows as they drive by. The police department states that there is no ordinance to cover noise, although the City's Codified Ordinances seem to disagree. It's been in committee for about a year, with only one committee meeting to my knowledge. But, we still have the noise. The EPA can define illegal noise levels. Why can't the City?
There is a proposal in Committee to widen West High Avenue. There have been meetings with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) concerning this street "improvement," but the folks who live in the effected area generally have no knowledge of the plans being considered, which include taking of their property by eminent domain by the City. To this date, neither the City, nor ODOT, has had any communication with residents. Does that make any sense? Cost of the project is estimated at $600,000 for the City's share alone. Yeah, that word was estimated. Who knows what the cost will be when the project gets under way in a couple of years.
Three and a half years ago a change was made to the City Codified Ordinances concerning how legislation was brought before City Council. In the updated, a really loose term in this case, City Ordinances, this change still is not included. From time to time the New Philadelphia Law Director makes noises like he is going to bring the ordinances up to date. Doesn't work. I guess it is a case of priorities because the Codified Ordinance book, and the reproduction of them on the City's website, are still out of date. Many of the resolutions and ordinances under which the City operates are not included in the published Codified Ordinances, or have been changed over the years so the published information is incorrect and/or misleading. This is an Administrative problem, not a Council problem, one which should have never been allowed to exist. It is dereliction of duty on the part of the Mayor and the Law Director that the New Philadelphia Codified Ordinances, which are used by the citizens and public officials of New Philadelphia, are not correct. I guess if you can't see 'em, you don't have to follow 'em. Makes life easier, I guess.
The Mayor has requested a Downtown Urban Planner be added to his staff. It appears that he recognizes the need to do something with the deteriorating downtown area. Evidently the survey he requested on conditions in Downtown New Philadelphia confirmed what was already well know to the residents here, but remained a mystery to the Administration. The request for an Urban Planner raises a couple of interesting questions. Didn't the Mayor appoint a Select Committee made up of influential citizens to make recommendations to get downtown up and running again? Isn't this the Mayor's job, to plan for the City's future? But the biggest question was raised by the Council President when he placed the responsibility for considering the creation of the position for Urban Planning. He assigned the task to the Zoning Committee rather than to the committee responsible for Economic Development. Are we missing something here? It appears that of late President of Council makes committee assignments for reasons which have no relationship to committee expertise on any given subject. What's going to be next, the President of Council taking on personally chairing the committees? Whew. The way things are going is it possible that the Council President wants to become Mayor?
One last thing. The White House was ecstatic about the increase in jobs last month. It made great headlines and soundbites in the media. The numbers look great with 431,000 created in May. Of course, 411,000 of those jobs, 95.4%, were census takers. The jobs are temporary, will cost the taxpayer in the long run, produce no increased production, nor monetary gain to the economy. But then congratulations to those 20,100 folks who found permanent jobs in May.
There are a lot of things sitting in City Council which should be acted upon. This is not unusual, but City Council needs to get on with the City's business, get them out of committee, and do something, anything but ignore them.
Last year a request for action was passed to the Safety Committee from the President of Council concerning noise in the city. This has become a problem over the years and came to a head a couple of years ago when a resident complained of the loud music from Bud and Tooties, a bar on West High Avenue. The matter was resolved by an agreement between Bud and Tooties, the Police Chief, and the resident who had complained. Unfortunately, the matter didn't stay resolved and the noise continues. The problem doesn't end there but spreads like a blight across the city through loud mufflers on cars, trucks and motorcycles. Even worse are the boom boxes in automobiles which vibrate house windows as they drive by. The police department states that there is no ordinance to cover noise, although the City's Codified Ordinances seem to disagree. It's been in committee for about a year, with only one committee meeting to my knowledge. But, we still have the noise. The EPA can define illegal noise levels. Why can't the City?
There is a proposal in Committee to widen West High Avenue. There have been meetings with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) concerning this street "improvement," but the folks who live in the effected area generally have no knowledge of the plans being considered, which include taking of their property by eminent domain by the City. To this date, neither the City, nor ODOT, has had any communication with residents. Does that make any sense? Cost of the project is estimated at $600,000 for the City's share alone. Yeah, that word was estimated. Who knows what the cost will be when the project gets under way in a couple of years.
Three and a half years ago a change was made to the City Codified Ordinances concerning how legislation was brought before City Council. In the updated, a really loose term in this case, City Ordinances, this change still is not included. From time to time the New Philadelphia Law Director makes noises like he is going to bring the ordinances up to date. Doesn't work. I guess it is a case of priorities because the Codified Ordinance book, and the reproduction of them on the City's website, are still out of date. Many of the resolutions and ordinances under which the City operates are not included in the published Codified Ordinances, or have been changed over the years so the published information is incorrect and/or misleading. This is an Administrative problem, not a Council problem, one which should have never been allowed to exist. It is dereliction of duty on the part of the Mayor and the Law Director that the New Philadelphia Codified Ordinances, which are used by the citizens and public officials of New Philadelphia, are not correct. I guess if you can't see 'em, you don't have to follow 'em. Makes life easier, I guess.
The Mayor has requested a Downtown Urban Planner be added to his staff. It appears that he recognizes the need to do something with the deteriorating downtown area. Evidently the survey he requested on conditions in Downtown New Philadelphia confirmed what was already well know to the residents here, but remained a mystery to the Administration. The request for an Urban Planner raises a couple of interesting questions. Didn't the Mayor appoint a Select Committee made up of influential citizens to make recommendations to get downtown up and running again? Isn't this the Mayor's job, to plan for the City's future? But the biggest question was raised by the Council President when he placed the responsibility for considering the creation of the position for Urban Planning. He assigned the task to the Zoning Committee rather than to the committee responsible for Economic Development. Are we missing something here? It appears that of late President of Council makes committee assignments for reasons which have no relationship to committee expertise on any given subject. What's going to be next, the President of Council taking on personally chairing the committees? Whew. The way things are going is it possible that the Council President wants to become Mayor?
One last thing. The White House was ecstatic about the increase in jobs last month. It made great headlines and soundbites in the media. The numbers look great with 431,000 created in May. Of course, 411,000 of those jobs, 95.4%, were census takers. The jobs are temporary, will cost the taxpayer in the long run, produce no increased production, nor monetary gain to the economy. But then congratulations to those 20,100 folks who found permanent jobs in May.
No comments:
Post a Comment