Dustin James wrote:Mike - I agree with Kate, good post.
As for your financial question, it was answered over on the other thread, though you have to tip-toe through all the invective and muck throwing
http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11023Christopher Bindel said:
As far as I understand it the Detroit project is costing $3 million however the City of Lakewood is only responsible for 20% of that, as the state is covering the rest. That comes out to $600,000. This is a number I have heard several times and is also what I believe Shawn said.
As far as Jim's $13 million, I have not seen where he saw that, as it was not in the article he posted, and I would like to see that so I can better understand Jim's post. However my thought is that the $13 mil probably is the cost for all of the the Clifton, Detroit, Madison and Franklin/Hilliard projects together, and we would only be covering that at 20% so it comes out to a total of the city investing $2.6 million over something like 4 years, or however long the projects will take.
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Hi all,
Actually the answer came in the mayor's blog post, which is referred to a little further down in the post that Dustin is referring to. The mayor's blog is on the City's website.
Jim wrote:
Christopher
The title of the article was
"The View from the mayor's office- Lakewood Ohio
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
What’s up with all of the activity on Detroit?
Our $13 million investment is beginning to pay off!"
Then break out the pie charts though slightly confusing and you end up with somewhere
between $6.46 million and $9.8 million on a project that costs $13 million.
While Mayor Summers post is informative, why can't one public official say, "It will cost
XXXX and we pay XXX" is beyond me.
The entire point of my asking this in the first place was, how can we possibly afford all of
these extras if we are still operating on a $4 million deficit by year's end. (Mayor Summers
has downgraded that $4 million dollar figure he gave in January to $3 million based on
cuts and savings made to date.) It was a serious question, about serious issues. We have
had two very hard working groups be told there is no money for their projects as the city
is broke, and they had committed $7,000 to a study so it was no longer available. The city is broke.
So you hear one side, then the other, and then see all of this spending. I am not talking
about if we need way finding, brown signs, anything. I am merely trying to understand
how we are spending the money, and where it is coming from. No trick.
It really shouldn't be this tough.
I'm not sure I have all of this right, but the update on the signals comes from the State of Ohio, because Detroit is a state road. (If I got that wrong, it's not State, it's Federal, and I'm sure someone will correct me.) Our portion of that-- just the updated signals, is $600.000.00. New signals. I don't know whether the state has paid for the fact that we updated to more decorative poles--- or they would just pay for the standard ones-- I don't know if the state pays a portion for the removal of the old poles, or tearing up and re-doing all the sidewalks. I do know the State hasn't paid for the new street signs, and taking the old ones down, or the way-finding signs. I don't think the State is paying any portion for redoing the sidewalks so that they're pink now, or removing all the beautiful blooming trees from in front of the old CVS and Huntington and Caribou. I don't think so. I hope Quaker Steak and Lube is paying for tearing up the sidewalk in front of their new place and cutting into the pedestrian zone with a patio. I hope Quaker Steak is paying for the new driveway on Andrews, and the redone parking lot behind it, because that would be great.
But I think the 600 thousand is our portion of the new lights on Detroit. The Detroit beautification project is not a government-funded project. I mean except for our own Lakewood government. That one's all on us, though I can't speak about possible grants, etc. I think this is why Jim asked for the break-down in the first place.
Mike, I like your post also, because it made me think back to the beginning of this thread. In another thread about the mission statement of the Observer, Councilman Juris called Jim O'Bryan a jerk, and made it clear that he thought Jim was unworthy to lead the Observer project-- Meg Ostrowski came in to ask for civility there from both the Councilman and Jim and told them both that more was expected of both of them as public figures.
Jim started over and asked what the actual cost of the price of the of the Detroit project was. Councilman Juris started a new thread asking to meet with the Board of the Lakewood Observer. And soon after came this "take-your-eye-off-the-ball" email. I don't think this thread was a train wreck or a waste of time. If someone sent me a threatening email, I would post it for my own protection, so that everyone knew that I received something like that, in case the "power of that position" started being used against me, I would have proof that someone was claiming that behavior. I wouldn't--until now--think that it was fake. I have never received a fake email and not such a long time earlier, Mr. Juris was calling Jim a jerk, saying he shouldn't be leading the Observer project and demanding to see his Board on the Deck, not a big stretch, I can see why Steve thought it was real, why wouldn't he?
It makes me think that whoever did send that email follows this Board. It makes me think that whoever did send that email wanted us to take our eyes off the ball.
And I'm ending up again, in the same place as Mike, going back to Jim's original question, how much did this Detroit project cost? Did we have a say in it? The Mayor stated last week that we are seeing "the fruition of our eight year plan" in Downtown, which is why it is so congested. People have been asking for a plan, over and over again, we keep having community meetings: "Pick your favorite ten buildings to save" meetings, or the new "Community Vision" meetings to "define what Lakewood is, and where it should go..." When all along there is this successful eight year plan? We would have liked to have seen this eight year plan during the Phase 3 Committee to see how it figured in which schools we were being asked to get rid of. And which historical buildings. Does it follow The Code?
Section1173.02(b)(4) The City acknowledges as a matter of public policy that the preservation and protection of residential neighborhoods is required for the health, safety and welfare of the people. If there is a successful eight year plan we should know what it is. Especially since in the State of the City address the Mayor said that we were looking at a potentially serious budget shortfall, and that we were going to have to suck it up and pay for some major sewer overhaul. Did we have the money to do "interior decorating"? Didn't all of us already know where the lake was? And where the hospital is? This is all for visitors? So we bought new drapes and carpet and furniture, and painted the house for visitors? When we have to pay for sewers? I'm not saying that this isn't all accounted for, etc, and proper in terms of our budget. But what about communicating with the citizens about how and why their money is being spent?
Anyway, as I said, I would have posted that email for my own protection, and then this long thread would have ensued, as everyone in their own way, tried to parse it out. I think everyone here did a relatively good job of handling it and being respectful. I think it is very disturbing that we don't know who sent it, or what their motivation is, and I hope that it is being further investigated.
Betsy Voinovich