I apologize for not posting in a few days. There have been many home issues to deal with. I want to say a special thank you to Mary who has continued her support of seeing both sides of an issue. We sometimes tend to forget that living in the perfect society on earth is unattainable. We will always have issues to deal with in our everyday lives. It is how we choose to confront those challenges that sets us apart.
In the recent months I have listened to many people talking about how to save money. "Cut back on this and do without that", are common in this current economic climate. The one thing that I have not heard is, "How can we bring money in?".
Cutting spending will only bring us so far. We cannot rely on savings to bring this city into the future. Look at any city in the world and you will see their method of survival. You have to have revenue to make ends meet. Look around town...
There are no restaurants in this "city". There are no sustainable businesses (I am not talking about port businesses) such as retail or other. Luckily we have the Hot Springs Resort. I would love to see us thrive as a city. However, many people want our city to stay as a suburb. You cannot have it both ways. Suburbs are part of a large city. They have revenue derived from business.
We need to focus our efforts to the task at hand. That task is not to count every penny. I am a huge supporter of following government spending. We need to make sure that the books are in order. Yet, there seems to be a huge disparage between where citizens are looking. In researching labor in the last month I have seen interesting things.
Some residents have been focusing on the amount of money paid to the city maintenance staff. I find this odd considering that our city planner accrued close to 80 HOURS of overtime last month. That must have been a lot of planning. Although, in checking further I have heard (yes, the almighty hearsay) that most of this time was spent on a berm overlooking a dredging project. This project was not costing the city anything at the time. I understand that some oversight is necessary but I cannot believe that someone who is a part-time employee can accrue that many hours.
The worst part of this scenario is the fact that the city council approved the amount of $40,000 to be given to the individual who was in charge of the project. This is hard to swallow when no contract was made in advance. This person only wanted the debris that was removed as payment. How are we to move forward when the council is taking steps in the wrong direction?
I am trying very hard not to be negative but all I can say at this point is.....
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Hi Abigail,
ReplyDeleteYou raise some interesting points. I may be misunderstanding you here, but I believe looking for cost savings and trying to increase revenues are equally important factors in improving our city’s financial situation and are both worthy pursuits.
We do have a couple of restaurants in town, the NB Resort as you mention and Ye Old Golf Shoppe Grill at Beacon Rock GC, but I agree it would be nice to have more choices. I’ve never run a restaurant, but certainly the number of customers who either live in our area or are willing to travel here is a major factor for success. Doing all we can as a city to attract businesses will help build that clientele and is an ongoing process that our city government is pursuing. We are always open to any ideas you or any residents may have to share.
Regarding the Hamilton Creek project, our city planner was required by several government agencies to be on-site during the actual working phase of the project. It’s also worth noting that he is being paid for the time spent there through a grant, not out of the city budget.
As for the $40,000 amount that was approved at our last City Council meeting, that was for work done outside the scope of the original project specifications and was approved by all five members of the council. The work was deemed vital to protecting the existing pathway that connects our town via the Highway 14 underpass and was supported by the residents in attendance and our mayor in discussion before the council voted. While that amount of money is significant, it would have been far more expensive to have delayed that work until later.
If you truly feel our current council is heading us in the wrong direction, there’s still time to file as a write-in candidate and take on a more active role in our city government.