Getting ready for the coming winter storm? Stocking up on candles and batteries and fuel for the generators? County road crews are putting down salt and preparing for the long haul. Ambulance crews are gearing up for car accidents, and fire crews are standing by. It looks like it might get messy.
The Stockbridge Downtown Development Authority is waiting, too, hoping to avoid a similar storm Wednesday evening. If the Village Council meeting is anything to go by, well we should all fasten our seat belts - it's gonna be a bumpy night.
As a government entity, the SDDA works with captured revenue to improve the Stockbridge business district.
For a while now they have been paying alot of the Village bills.
Like the electric bills for the street lights.
Like the snow-removal bill for this year (that was contracted to an out of area company by the former Village Manager) for $10,000. (You read that right 10K for snow removal)
Like the maintenance for the park.
Like trash removal for all the businesses that surround the Wood Street parking lot.
The list goes on and on.
Why should you care about the DDA? You should care because this is your money. How it's spent is governed by laws set down by the State of Michigan.
Alot of those laws were completely disregarded by the old regime, leading to some dicey decisions that I'm not sure won't come back to haunt the new DDA and Village Council.
But those kinds of dicey decisions are what happens when no one is watching.
The new DDA is doing their best to clean up old messes and move forward with new ideas and projects designed to make this Village attractive to businesses that will employ people who live here and draw people in to shop, eat and buy goods here.
You should come to the meeting.
The weather will be lousy, the roads will be bad, but what you learn may make the trip out worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment