Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.
The Manning Street issue is not over. I know alot of you are sick and tired about hearing the issue over the years however, at the last public hearing we had on the subject, I specifically asked whether or not the $80,000 was enough to do this wasteful road. The reason being it ( the dollar amount $80K) had been placed in the CIP for years.
We all know and have read stories about the escalating gas and oil prices right?
And we all know that Asphalt is made with oil right?
Ok now here is what happened.
The 80K project went out to bid
5 bids came in to pave this new road
Low Bid comes in at $124,400.
Almost 50 K more than budgeted.
You all know how I will vote especially if I thought 80K was a waste of taxpayers money
The question really is lets see what the taxpayers associations heroes on the council do with their votes
And then lets see the same association defend their approval votes to spend an additional 50K for a personal agenda!
Stay tuned! and watch your tax dollars being flushed!
Oh and by the way, on the agenda is the renaming of the Manning St Ext because we alread have another Manning St 50' away.
What name can you come up with for the new road?
I like Waste Rd. or how about Dumb Ass Lane!
You have a good name to Share for this road. I'd like to hear from you!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
22 comments:
sure brian, how about "corruption court" or "abuse alley?' "recusal required road" has an appropriate ring as does "payola place."
your damn right brian people are sick of manning street. they are also sick of your disingenuous arguments and resultant dereliction of duty.
your conduct throughout this has been deplorable. thanks for the update. i will be certain to tell my councillor(s) to vote yes on any supplemental because reconnecting manning street is for the greater good of derry.
anon 11:08,
Sorry you and I don't agree on this subject. And you say you want this for the "greater good" of Derry? I'm sure you read the 2001 Traffic report on this subject when you make comments like that correct? If you had, you would know that the roadway would have little to slim impact.
How is that for the greater good of Derry??
yes B- i did get a copy of the report and in fact read the small after thought comment you predicate your entire argument upon. just a quick reminder manning street was not a focal point of the studies evaluation. in addition it was authored in 2001 as i recall.......things have certianly become more congested in the intervening 7 years on 102, right brian?....you're not going to try to argue the contrary are you?
no B-, we should rely upon the expertise and judgement of the MANY town employees who's job it is to evaluate and implement such things as traffic flow. according to them.....manning street will be "RE-OPENNED" because it will relieve some pressure on 102 and therefore "serves the greater public good."
i don't know what's worse, the fact that you don't see that anything that can be done to move things along on 102 is a priority or that you are willing to compromise your integrity by putting forth specious arguments while at the same time refusing to recuse yourself from voting on this matter which obviously directly impacts you personally, that is just not right and borders on corrupt and i mean that literally.
anon 5:12(11:08), Ah, good come back however, The study if you had really read it in its full context reveals it specifically with the Manning St ext. ( looks like I must post the whole thing again on this blog). The Town Experts hired the true traffic experts and paid them handsomely for this unbiased report and low and behold it states it is a waste of money because it will have MINIMAL impact relieving any 102 traffic.
Of course you must of missed that part correct?
And you must be listening to a certain councilor when you accuse me of having a biased opinion however I ask this of you. If the experts say it will have no impact then how the hell do I make out and not make out on a possible road connection? Nice try!
If you had done your homework you would see 3 years of people in my district petitioning the council in three different years all saying they don't want it. I as dist four councilman will voice the concerns of my district. Plain and simple.
Amd as far as being more congested in 7 years try, well I'm here to say that we have basically the same amount of people in Derry as we did 7 years ago thanks to our growth management ordinance. Look it up yourself and you will see i'm correct. This is the true facts of the issue
actually B- i listen to all councilors. this in no way means i agree with any one or more of them on any consistent basis, being the generally challenged lot that they are.
as such i have listened to you as well. it is painfully obvious and i should think embarrassing that you are still publicly willing to attempt to spin an immovable object. manning street is in the CIP. it has been for years. manning street was debated and was approved last year. you have no right distracting the town council from doing today's pressing business because of your personal agenda.
manning street will be paved brian as it once was and will be again.
as for your traffic scenario obfuscation. B- just where in our region has most of the development occurred in the past seven years? try something drastic and think beyond your usual constraints. when you get the answer, be sure to tell us all how they access the highways.
one more thing, as i recall, you are the councilor in the area that will benefit greatly with the completion of the proposed rail-trail. in fact, i think some of the folks working on this live in your district. how come you were not there supporting them when they came forth to do something that will benefit the "greater public good?" and don't bore me or any other readers with your "fiscal responsibility" nonsense. weren't you the one that tried to tag the town with a legal tab because of your own blunder not to many years ago?
no B- once again i think you have some soul searching to do. at the very least you owe the rest of the derry honesty about the personal nature of your conflict with manning street being completed.
Well maybe we are making some progress. To be clear. Taylor Library Addition has been in the CIP for years ( I don't see that being done) SO, just because someone stuck it in the CIP doesn't mean I have to vote for something. I voted no on the Additional as well. ( whats my seceret conflict here??)
"Manning St was debated and approved" you say.
Correct- At a cost of $80K not 125K
And If I use your thinking here for a moment- More traffic will also bring more traffic onto Rollins with or without the waste rd. Oh also you mentioned that it will connect as it once did. ( No, the old part of Manning dead-ends. This is an additional roadway. Again, you tell me how I benefit or how I won't benefit by putting in this street where the report says Minimal impact.
Lastly, I do support the Rail trail idea, in fact I have a link on this page. I publically came out and said it is a good idea. However, I don't want to spend 225K of taxpayers money on it- Let them raise private funds like everyone else.
And last, yes its true- I'm not perfect and can make a mistake. So i guess if you would like to continue to dig up past disagreements to make a point well at least I'm a man enough to admit them and post it here for all to see.
Anon 10:47, why should the taxpayers of Derry pay for the rail trail to be completed. Did the Town of Windham pay for their rail trail to be completed, I believe not. The Windham Conservation Commission donated $45,000 and the rest was paid with donations. If people want to pay $225,000 of taxpayer money to the rail trail that should therefore designate the project as recreation and the Rec. Dept. can stay in Veterans Hall because if we are funding private projects with their funds they can go without a new building. The Derry taxpayers can't pay for everything ... especially since I doubt the rail trail is going to benefit the businesses in Derry unless you are an eatery.
I believe BC has several good points here.
First as I pointed out during the Exit 4A discussions, traffic downtown is not increasing (per DOT counts). I suppose those counts could be slightly distorted by people bepassing downtown on side streets but Manning certainly would not be a major conduit. Derry is simply not growing. BC, since you and I NOW agree on that, why should Derry do 4A?
I also believe that Manning Street paving is a coin toss as to whether it is worthwhile at $80k and becomes really questionable at $120k+. (I'm cheap...even with other people's money.) BC your case on the fiscal side would be much stronger if your overall voting record on TIFFs, 4A, and the other good old boy boondoggles was not so dismal. Inconsistancy causes people to question motives. Perhaps you are simply representing your district. I doubt Manning Street will have any impact on anything including your property values. We are being distracted by this nonsense while millions are spent wastefully (with your active support).
The front page of the Eagle Trib this morning suggests a movement afoot for a commuter rail from Lawrence to Londonderry.
Is this the path I think it is?
anon 10:43,
Yes, You are correct! This new Manning St Ext they want to build is exactly OVER the rail road right away. The town does now own this right away however IF any rail connecting Londonderry to Lawrence does in fact find enough federal dollars to even become a reality. This is where the tracks lie. Maybe they can just GO AROUND DERRY.
Doug,
Its nice to see we can agree on something ever once in a while.
My support for 4A & TIFFs are because I believe we need these to stimulate Econonmic Development and that is it. We need to move our Residential/Commercial ratios and we need to do this soon. If Derry Builds out as more residential- We are doomed to higher taxes for good. This scares me enough to support these issues. Talk is talk but there is something to be said in trying to get something done.
BC- Now that the bogus traffic rationale for 4A is off the table, I'd be happy to discuss with you the merits of different development options. We seem to share a desire to promote development and change the tax base mix. Problem is that the people who promote 4A and tiffs appear to have no ability to calculate. If they had calculated likely Return on Investment they would see that these projects are not beneficial to Derry. (Unfortunately I suspect that benefit to Derry is not their objective... they may have something a bit more "direct" in mind).
Bottomline: More commercial development is good, not every project that claims to promote development is worth funding.
p.s. My grandchildren (yet to be born) will not live long enough to see rail in Derry. How many hundred years of federal planning do you think that might require? Don't loose any sleep about Manning St and railroads, its as likely as an airport on Manning St.
DJN,
Frank Childs, our CFO who has won many awards is the man who crunches the numbers for the Tiffs and recommends this process to the council. I'm sure he is qualified to make this call.
And Again we agree, more Economic Dev is needed and that rail is probably a long ways away.
hey brian. if you are willing to defer to frank childs as qualified to make the call on town financial matters would it not be consistent for you to rely upon our qualified DPW chief (and others) in their recommendation to pave mannings street?
brian while you are struggling with the above inconsistency because you won't be honest about your motivations, ask yourself, isn't it time you take this whole sordid affair out of the political gutter? or would you rather drag the councils limited focus off the bigger messes they have to clean up after years of excess and poor judgement?
take the high road brian, it will get you more votes.
BC - you confuse administration with policy setting. Tiffs are nothing but accounting devices that move money from one pocket to another (while paying additional interest to do so). Mr. Childs' job does not include (I believe) recommending funding devices. Furthermore if any Return on Investment study has been done on 4A or any Tiff, I have not heard of them and would be delighted to learn of them and read the quantified expected benefits to Derry of the project and the underlying assumptions.
DJN
anon 12:25,
I can answer that very easily. Back in 2000, The council at that time was asking the same questions on whether to pave the road. Also at that time there was no majority vote, In fact the majority was AGAINST it. Then One councilor ( who wanted it) Said, here is the deal, Lets have a study done and We will take the reccomendations of this study by an unbiased company. The rest is History- The study said WASTE, The councils since then have turned it down up until this present council.
For me, No other motive that it is a waste. ( In fact) when I approached DPW about the 2001 traffic study- There line was " WE DON"T HAVE SUCH A STUDY. Thats when I personally drove to CLD and got a copy. When I presented the copy to the DPW Chief, He apoligized. Hmmm How did that study just disappear? What was the motive?
There used to be a link to this study on your website. Since you have re-opened the issue, could you please put the link back, so we can see the study for ourselves?
Thanks!
BC, I usually go along with your thinking and reasoning. But on this topic, you have lost all credibility. You do not want the extension since its in your neighborhood. I respect that view, but do not wrap it up in some political mumbo jumbo that you are doing it for your constituents.
Brian,
Maybe you should take a look at www.derrypoliceunion.com
I'd like to hear your thoughts
How come you say all this on your blog but not even a peep during the meeting?
anon 6:33,
Yes I have seen the police union's web page. It has not changed for 2 years ( message).
If the union wants an outside company to review the dept. Let them offer to pay for one. I think there is some truth to all sides and I think there is some union members who don't like administration policies. I'm willing to keep an open mind on the issue at hand.
anon 7:08,
What more Could I have said. I felt I didn't have the votes to stop the wasteful spending. I did however want the proponents to VOTE on spending an additional $50K to put the road in. I think the taxpayers deserve to see these councilors wasting your $$$. Unless, you believe like JB and think it will be the best thing to save the downtown. Keep dreaming JB. With optimism like that, we should of made you the ED director.
Post a Comment