My Personal Letter to the Floyd County Council
Tuesday evening, if the newspapers are correct, the Floyd County Council will consider making a commitment to retiring the construction bonds for Scribner Place, Phase I. Rather than repeat myself, ad infinitum, let me just urge you to contact your county council member and let him or her know your sentiments. Contact information can be found at http://www.floydcounty.in.gov/county_council.asp for the council, and http://www.floydcounty.in.gov/commissioners.asp for the commission. None of these elected officials have published e-mail addresses at the site, but it does include phone numbers.
The county council will hold its regular monthly meeting at 4 or 4:30 at the end of a long day of budget hearings on Tuesday. We don't know if they will actually take a vote, but your presence or your call or letter will be important. Afterward, county commissioners John Reisert and Charles Freiberger will conduct an open forum on the subject of county participation in Scribner Place. Please go to one or both of these sessions to support the project.
I won't be able to attend, but I am sending a letter to be read or delivered to each body. If you care to write a letter, e-mail it to me or drop it by my store at 604 East Spring Street and I'll see to it that it gets delivered. Here's mine:
The County Council of Floyd County
Dear Sirs and Madams:
The demands of my business, which has been open on East Spring Street for less than one year, prevent me from attending your important meeting that includes consideration of the Scribner Place project. Please accept this letter as my contribution to the public forum.
The use of government funds to jump start development in Floyd County is critical to the survival of New Albany as a center of commerce. Considering that this county is one of the smaller and more compact counties in Indiana, it is important to nurture the urban area as a focal point for commercial development. Residential development, while desirable and necessary, will seldom generate the tax revenues needed to fund the services demanded by county residents.
Now is the time to get started. Fortunately, the Scribner Place project is being watched by investors here and elsewhere to see if the local governments are serious about making downtown a vital core. Failure of the governments to take advantage of the private investment/donation from the Caesars Foundation will destine our county seat to become a rotting and hollow shell.
My wife and I made our investment here in the full expectation that Floyd County and New Albany were committed to bringing downtown back as the commercial and retail center of the county. Any signal you send by failing to support it will certainly be read by other investors as a sign that New Albany is not a place friendly to new investment.
As a resident of the city, I can’t necessarily speak for non-city residents. But as it would be my county taxes, too, that would be used to retire the Scribner Place construction bonds, I would point out that even if the county provides half of the required money, city residents will be paying three fourths of the taxes – all of the city contribution and approximately half of the county contribution. Non-city residents can hardly complain that the development is unfairly costly to them under those conditions.
You stand at a crossroads. Scribner Place is more than a recreational facility. It will be the beating heart that announces to the world that New Albany and Floyd County are serious about quality of life issues, economic development, job creation, and equitable taxation. Please make a commitment to cover one-half of the lease rental payments on Scribner Place.
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Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net
The county council will hold its regular monthly meeting at 4 or 4:30 at the end of a long day of budget hearings on Tuesday. We don't know if they will actually take a vote, but your presence or your call or letter will be important. Afterward, county commissioners John Reisert and Charles Freiberger will conduct an open forum on the subject of county participation in Scribner Place. Please go to one or both of these sessions to support the project.
I won't be able to attend, but I am sending a letter to be read or delivered to each body. If you care to write a letter, e-mail it to me or drop it by my store at 604 East Spring Street and I'll see to it that it gets delivered. Here's mine:
The County Council of Floyd County
Dear Sirs and Madams:
The demands of my business, which has been open on East Spring Street for less than one year, prevent me from attending your important meeting that includes consideration of the Scribner Place project. Please accept this letter as my contribution to the public forum.
The use of government funds to jump start development in Floyd County is critical to the survival of New Albany as a center of commerce. Considering that this county is one of the smaller and more compact counties in Indiana, it is important to nurture the urban area as a focal point for commercial development. Residential development, while desirable and necessary, will seldom generate the tax revenues needed to fund the services demanded by county residents.
Now is the time to get started. Fortunately, the Scribner Place project is being watched by investors here and elsewhere to see if the local governments are serious about making downtown a vital core. Failure of the governments to take advantage of the private investment/donation from the Caesars Foundation will destine our county seat to become a rotting and hollow shell.
My wife and I made our investment here in the full expectation that Floyd County and New Albany were committed to bringing downtown back as the commercial and retail center of the county. Any signal you send by failing to support it will certainly be read by other investors as a sign that New Albany is not a place friendly to new investment.
As a resident of the city, I can’t necessarily speak for non-city residents. But as it would be my county taxes, too, that would be used to retire the Scribner Place construction bonds, I would point out that even if the county provides half of the required money, city residents will be paying three fourths of the taxes – all of the city contribution and approximately half of the county contribution. Non-city residents can hardly complain that the development is unfairly costly to them under those conditions.
You stand at a crossroads. Scribner Place is more than a recreational facility. It will be the beating heart that announces to the world that New Albany and Floyd County are serious about quality of life issues, economic development, job creation, and equitable taxation. Please make a commitment to cover one-half of the lease rental payments on Scribner Place.
-----------------------------------------
Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net
posted by All4Word at 8:24 PM
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