(continuation of August 7, 2017, regular city council meeting commentary)

There is an old saw that, “…a picture is worth a thousand words…” meaning a picture tells the story much clearer, black and white and more objectively than a bunch of written words.

“Mayor Tom and I (Alcester FO Pat Jurrens)”…the opening salvo of FO-speak meaning Mayor Tom and I are about to drop a Styrofoam cup of boiling coffee in the collective  bare-skinned laps of the Alcester City Council.  Mayor ‘Tom’ looks over at FO-Pat as she explains (I swear I could see FO-Pat’s hand move as Mayor ‘Tom’ bobbed his head up and down in the affirmative) that Alcester NEEDS to implement a street maintenance fee based upon frontage foot.  Yeah, right!  So why cannot Mayor ‘Tom’ and FO-Pat budget enough funds to repair Alcester’s streets?  WHY?  Property owners are already on the hook for the curb and gutter abutting their property as well as the upkeep and maintenance of any sidewalks abutting their property and if those sidewalks need to be replaced they must be ADA compliant; width, slope, grade, and etc.

Home owners to take a good long look at your front footage and see how Mayor Tom and FO-Pat’s wild-hair ride is going to affect you.  Oh, check out 410 Hyden Drive and the vast amount of frontage feet involved with that property.

Past failure to do timely, routine street repairs has resulted in our streets increased vulnerability to significant and more involved repairs in the future.  Kind of like a tear in the seat of your jeans.  If that tear is not repaired, every time you sit, squat, or bend-over that little ol’ tear goes from an I-Phone screen size to a CinemaScopic 90-inch LED Back-Lit screen size on which ya’ll watch your favorite football team.

Our property taxes supply the funds to maintain our streets, so why are we black-topping alleys Mayor ‘Tom’?  IF we are short on funds to properly maintain our regular city streets, WHY the devil are we black-topping alleys?  WHAT heavy load is the alley between Dakota and Iowa Streets carrying?  The weight of city hall?

Pictures≠363 words