Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

What happened at last night's council meeting?

Was it well attended by citizens?

By Curious George the second

Promise keepers

Last night the citizens who attended the Pickerington City Council meeting saw for the first time in a long time local politicians keeping their promises.

I believe one of the promises made to the Citizens of Pickerington was that they would create a responsive city government. Last night a new ethics ordinance was passed that came from the Ohio Ethics commission and this ordinance will require the Managers and Directors of the City government to reveal their sources of income and this with be filed with the Ohio Ethics commission as public record. This will give citizens the right to request this information if they have any questions. This will also provide training for city employees to be trained and understand ethics in government. This does not accuse anyone but it does put everyone on notice of the standards.

The new elected government promised to control growth. They passed with three readings on an ordinance as an emergency to enter into a contract with McBride Dale Clarion to update the Comprehensive Land Use plan and to help the city development a Growth Management Plan. This firm wrote the Hudson Ohio Plan that is posted in our pages to the left. This process will take a little over a year. The Mayor said it will involve a lot of public input. The process of controlling the community's growth started last night.

Tied closely to the item above was the approval of the bid to expand the current Waste Water Plant. The issue was tabled. One important issue here was the amount of debt the city would incur with going forward with this project. Facts were presented by the four new members of the council and once that information hit the floor the old council members wanted to move forward to another subject. They didn't want to be bogged down with facts and studies. This addresses two promises one of controlling the debt and the other controlling the growth.

The sewer plant expansion is back on the service committee agenda and both Hackworth and O'Brien voiced opposition to this expansion. Please do the math since it takes two votes to get it out of service and the only other vote would be Parker. I think there will actually be a plan in place before this comes before council again. I doubt we see a new expansion this year if they wait until after the growth plan is completed.

The sad part is that the room was only half full and I am hoping they were all out to the Township leaning on them about there zoning commission meeting.

The council did pass a zoning variance for Cat Tracks to sell used cars that are lease returns on Refugee Road. The property accepts a lot of restricts in the hours of operation and the number of cars. It does keep this business in town. The cars for sell are only a small part of this business.


The city is borrowing $2 million to provide funds for the Diley Road widening which is left over from last year. There is a public ODOT meeting at the Peace United Methodist Church at Long and Diley roads tomorrow from 4 PM till 7 PM. If you can't attend there are forms at the City Hall that you can write questions to ODOT for answers.




By Back Bench Sitter

Silence is Golden

George

I see you asked about the City Council but didn't ask about the zoning commission meeting in the Township last night. Is the zoning meeting less important than what went on at the council meeting?

Since I see or hear no responses from that meeting or about that meeting I guess it went the way I predicted it would in favor of the land owners. Next Harry and Terry get their shot at it and wham we get 214 new homes or about 250 more kids.

I hope the news media took the time to report on it. Probably not because they only want the controversial subjects. The township has everything under control so why bother them with news coverage?

If we had no public involvement in this meeting and we must now depend on Terry and Harry good luck folks.



By Average Joe

Still time to object

Hey Average Joe,
Will you be at the Township meeting tonight? They allow comments from the public. Make your objections known loud & clear. I hope the meeting will be packed with citizens who want to be heard but I am afraid that just like the council meetings,we end up with a handful of folks in attendance. Apathy is rampant.

By lin