Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Kudos for those farmers that attended the Pickerington City Council meeting last night. I say farmers because you had to be one and have your boots on and wading out of the building once those in charged finished speaking.

I understand some young fellow from Preston Trails made a prepared statement outlining his concerns about the uncontrolled residential growth in our community. He pointed to the problems with the schools, our roads, our Police Department, our Fire Department and our quality of life.

Old Bill Wright jumped all over him for saying the City?’s development policies are hurting the schools. He said that the Pickerington Schools have scored a perfect 27 out of 27 on the state testing. He further stated that there is no proof that these portables have any negative effect on our school children. He says he teaches his children to endure these hardships. So I guess Mrs. Reade needs to scratch Old Bill off the list of City Councilmen needing to hear from the public about the condos. He is clear on his position as of last night. He doesn?’t mind his children going to school in a portable, eating their lunch at 10 AM and waiting in line for a rest room opening.

As for the traffic tie ups in the morning, it is all Reynoldsburg?’s fault and that new Wal-Mart that I see many of our Pickerington residents going too. Mrs. Bushman claims there is a problem with the light just north of the I-70 on Route 256. Well I hate to tell her that these problems existed before the Wal-Mart was even thought about. I have drove up route 256 for years now, even when it was a two lane road. The problems have been getting worse each year. Hughes, who is one of the few people in this city that can walk to work, tries to tell us that the road is better now than it was. Well Mr. Mayor since the road was widened you and the Township allowed hundreds of new homes to be built. It is backed up every morning. Call in sick and try it at 7:30 AM some day during the week.

Then our rookie Councilman Dave Shaver was asking about the fiduciary responsibility of the City Engineer Jerry Daily to the City of Pickerington and their tax payers. In other words the city awards Mr. Daily?’s company non bid contracts and Mr. Daily is the one with the final OK on this work's completion. Of course, Mr. Fox takes this as a personal attack on Jerry and wants to end the discussion so they can pass some more contracts for Stilton. Mr. Fox is really more concerned about someone talking negative about Mr. Daily, than he is protecting the Tax Payers dollars when it comes to these engineering projects. In the immortal words of Lou Postage, ?“Brian WAKE UP!!!?”












By Mark O. Zorro

OK, I'm awake!

If Mr. Wienieski had his statements in writing, I hope he will consider posting them here. I, quite frankly, have grown weary of attending these ecclesiastic tribunals called City Council Meetings. They are too scripted and boring to keep attending. Some people say it rattles them when we attend en masse, but I haven?’t noticed that. I do wish that the night that the Honorable Mr. Postage screamed at us at the top of his lungs without being gaveled, that the gallery, en masse would have simply stood up, turned around and faced the back wall until his tirade was over.

Once again, a City resident speaks up for the first time voicing concerns about his quality of life and he is ridiculed, harassed and dismissed. Mr. Wright and his colleagues do not understand that we understand that the QUALITY of EDUCATION in PLSD is second to none; that?’s why many of us live here. However, the QUALITY of LIFE in these schools leaves much to be desired. By the way, be prepared to hear that condos typically draw fewer students per unit than do houses. That?’s a factoid that Mr. Stemen shares a lot. The rest of the equation is units per acre, which is seldom mentioned, in the same topic. Let?’s complete the equation and trust me, these are only example numbers: 4 houses per acre at 1.8 students per house = 7.2 students. 10 condo units per acre times .8 students per condo = 8 students. Hopefully someone from either the PLSD or the Boundary Committee will weigh in with the correct students per dwelling but those numbers are probably pretty close. I hope Mr. Wright is teaching his kids to endure ALL the hardships his decisions and those of his colleagues make will cause them. More dangerous rides on the bus because of poor traffic management and roadway design, aging portables that render them more unsafe than need be, overcrowded classrooms, lunchrooms and sports team. This list goes on and on.

Now on to the fun stuff! Apparently Mrs. Bushman wasn?’t aware that they were building a Wal-Mart way up there in Reynoldsburg. Because if she had, she would have noticed the traffic lights strung across 256 and thought (as the rest of us did) ?“Hmmm, I wonder if these lights and restaurants and stores and gas stations will affect traffic in my City??” Wait a minute, she lives .5 miles from work, works long hours, probably shops in the City. Heck she probably didn?’t find out there was a Wal-Mart up there until it was brought up at the meeting. Wait, don?’t some, or even all of the other people supposedly running the City live and work close to Lockville Road? Shoot, maybe none of them even drive up that way. Maybe they didn?’t know there were new traffic lights going up.

Keep up the good work Mr. Shaver and Mr. Wienieski. People are waking up. But when you wake up from a long slumber you are a little groggy. Then slowly the fog lifts. You splash a little water in your eyes and look at the calendar. Hey, it?’s November 2003 and time to cast your votes. We?’re wide-awake now!






By Maverick

can we get the facts?

In response to your posting about Mr. Dailey, can someone cite and post the legal basis for singling out Mr. Dailey and his contract?

Other cities do have similar arrangements in place. Thanks

Call ODOT

Will a traffic engineer please respond to Maverick?

I think it's time that some of the concerned citizens migrate north to Reynoldsburg and attend their City Council meetings as well. They have primary input into how the traffic from Taylor Square is timed and managed, in addition to ODOT.