Editor, Times-Union: There are some things I want to share with you people here in our area that concerns all of us, especially the citizens of Warsaw.
First it has come to my attention that our city has spent the funds they had earmarked for a couple of new trucks, mainly a trash collector, on the roads. Now normally that would be a good thing except for the part about earmarked for badly needed new trucks. It seems we have the money for a new city hall but not for roads and trucks. That is our great leadership at work.
With further research I have been told we are looking to outsource our trash collection. I am not sure how many local jobs that would end but even one would be too many in these times. Now the contract may end up going to an out-of-town company. Wow! Now we are going to send almost a million city dollars per year out of the city and into another area. That is again commitment. Commitment to make less work for our mayor because he has been so busy with his part-time job. When you add up his benefits and perks it is well over $100,000 per year. That’s a lot of money to most of us and we work full time.
Then there is the old NIPSCO property we bought that was going to be our street department but the police, and I can’t blame them, did not want to be beside the sewage plant. Then I am told the reason we don’t want to dig up the ground there at our police headquarters is the ground is poisoned with fuel runoff from the past. I guess that is some of the experience our Republican candidate for mayor got in 16 years, do a soil sample before you spend tax dollars on a dump.
Now back to the downtown bank. The foundation is sinking. Why? Because we have a high water table and in the days when they built it they did not go down to bedrock and beyond. More gained experience I guess, on our tab. You know General Custer had experience and he was a leader and he was committed to going in guns a-blazin’ but sometimes we need more than words, we need insight and knowledge. I don’t know about you but I’m tired of paying for these guys to go to school to gain experience.
A vote for Opperud is a vote for opportunity. We need a change of our local leadership. I know I am not alone when I say enough is enough. We will start with Warsaw this year and go on to Washington in 2012.
