V. Hugh Lewis II
I honestly don’t know where to begin this week.
Over the last 20+ years I’ve watched Council make some boneheaded decisions, usually ending up with them reversing course. But this week, there must be something in the water as Council and Tourism Board have obtained new heights in their idiotic, not well thought out decisions.
Let’s take the low-hanging fruit first: Tourism’s unwillingness to share the Visitors Center as a City Hall.
In their infinite wisdom, they seem to have forgotten that the City owns the Tourism building. City Hall has occupied part of it for almost 3-years. And, the “set aside” money for construction ($310k) isn’t enough to cover the kind of expansion required. Let’s not talk about how the building went over 10 years with little to no maintenance while under the supervision of the Tourism Board.
Personally, I think Tourism should move into the Fire Hall across the street – there’s an office, a bathroom, and space for exhibits and medium sized meetings.
Money is tight. Resources are limited. We’re all going to have to give up something to make a new City Hall happen.
Now for the next easiest bad decision: Not allowing feeding of wild animals.
Council promised a committee to get public input and find a solution rather than straight up outlawing feeding animals and birds on public property. But, the Councilman who volunteered to do it, didn’t want to take minutes, so didn’t do what he committed to. Big surprise there.
The City made a commitment to help solve and control the stray animal situation in town by giving Friends of Jefferson Animals (FOJA) funding. Last year during budget, Mayor Patricia Finstrom proposed completely eliminating that funding, saying that if we’d just stop feeding them, the problem would solve itself.
Council ultimately gave FOJA a raise after public outcry. Now, instead of ending the funding, it’s illegal to feed wild animals and birds on property that you don’t own or occupy.
Seeing as there are at least four feral cat colonies in downtown which have been being fed for 5-6 years, I look forward watching tourists being followed around by hungry animals begging for food. That’s going to be a good look for us.
Lastly, public property is up for grabs for private use and “improvement” thanks to Council agreeing to buy a fence and some raised planters built without permission at the end of River Oaks Drive.
I’m gathering up “rustic” 4x4s to build hammock stands in the parks, and “beautification” planters in the alley behind me. I’m debating a duck blind along the bird watching trail too. That’ll make it easier to watch the birds right?
Then when someone complains about them, I’ll call them a “beautification” project, verbally volunteer to maintain them forever, and then ask for a check from the City to purchase them from me.
And if I’m really lucky, I’ll put it across a side entrance to someone’s property, and they’ll just have to deal with it since they can get onto their property from another direction or street.
If you have two or more ways to access your property, remember Council thinks you’re only entitled to one…
Truthfully, Council needs to remember that they are here to represent ALL of the people – not just their friends, dinner mates, pew buddies, and old families.
They need to be thinking about the future, and respecting everyone’s rights.
All of these actions need to be reversed. Speak up and “harass” your Alderman.
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