© Laura Adams, 2012 for ManchesterTownship.org
September 2007.
It started well before then, but that is as far back as the web site records go here. Since that time, other townships have joined in, pulled out, and re-considered. Meetings have been cancelled, re-scheduled, or failed to meet a quorum - with the failing to meet a quorum option being the most popular. Every other township has since pulled the plug on this project, and now, the membership consists of just Manchester Township and the village of Manchester. Five years (and we're being generous, some accounts take this project back seven to twelve years), and the only tangible work seems to be that which is posted on the web site for the MJPC above. It's not much. It certainly doesn't reflect five years worth of work, effort, and resources. However, our planning advisers, Carlisle/Wortman, have served up yet another proposal to complete this futile project at considerable expense, running into the thousands of dollars - during a time period when our township is slated to pull $140,000 from our rainy day fund in an attempt to present a technically "balanced" budget. The initial re-selling point of this project has been that Freedom Township would be re-joining the initiative, thus splitting the cost of the work three ways. However, after stalling for several months, it appears that Freedom Township is now seeing the project as delusive, and has declined or delayed their involvement, which leaves the project, and it's costs, solely to Manchester Township and the village. In both our planning commission and township board meetings, our officials like to tout how this project costs us nothing since the participants are volunteers and how we should continue to move forward with it.
We beg to differ.
Add up five years worth of resources: time, effort, volunteers, man power, re-training, typing, updating documents each and every time an entity joins or leaves the project, sending materials over to Carlisle/Wortman for review and revising AND THEN over to our township attorney for the umpteenth time for even more review and revision. There IS considerable cost. After contemplating all of this, go review the materials produced and posted on the web site (see the link above) by the MJPC after all of this time. It makes the insinuation presented by the planning commission, township board, and Carlisle/Wortman that this has only cost the township and it's taxpayers a negligible amount after 5-12 years worth of work ridiculous. Additionally, to purport that Carlisle/Wortman has not found this project to be lucrative over this length of time is absurd - there are expenses related to this, they just simply have not been released to the public as an itemized expense. Any private citizen, in an average job, with average performance expectations, and average abilities would have been relieved of their duties after about one month of producing so little tangible progress in such a generous amount of time. We've already invested five to twelve years in this project to little or no avail. And now, Carlisle/Wortman wants to charge us several thousand more dollars to complete it? Our elected and appointed officials are following along, at even more time and expense, during a year where we have a documented income deficit and no clear cut incentive to continue to chase this dead horse. WHY?
As a tax payer, with a significant amount being pulled from our rainy day fund to supplement operating expenses for 2012-2013, would you like our representatives to continue to pursue this, or would you prefer that they table it as a future project, to be re-visited when time or circumstances warrant a fresh look?
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