Schrumm on engineering RFQ
The NHR (by Luther Turmelle) is reporting:
Republican Town Councilman David Schrumm said he supports the hiring of a consultant.
"We ... need one to counter what W/S Development is going to be telling us," said Schrumm, who is an opponent of the project. "And there's no question they ought to pay for it. They're the ones who want something from the town, not the other way around."
Schrumm said the town needs to choose a consultant that will challenge the data that the experts hired by the shopping center developer will provide.
"They're going to try to show the least possible impact on municipal services," he said. "We have to make sure the consultant we hire will truly protect the town's interests."
I certainly hope the likely impact study gives more than just "least possible impact" scenarios. I'd find an impact study much more believable if it includes ranges of likely scenarios... from best to worst case.
Tim White
33 comments:
Considering all the high-gloss cherry-picked pro-mall 'evidence' from W/S and friends that has been presented, how can semi-judicial boards fairly evaluate the matter _without_ some outside expert evaluation?
-csh
We definitely need someone to do an independent evaluation.
It's about time someone said we need some independent evaluations. WS has had it pretty good so far, all the studies have come from their side. It's like you looking for a job and your the interviewer.
When it came to this deal the P&Z rolled over and played dead! To hear Marty Coburn you would think this was the invention of the wheel. WS has so many people in their back pocket I hope we really get an independent view.
Thanks should go out again to Mr. Schrumm for looking out for the best interest of the townspeople.
The Democratic town council was all too happy to give their approval without raising any, any, any pertinent questions and the P&Z was happy to approve the change to the town plan and the zone change without considering the many ramification or any cost benefit information, or any testimony of our own paid department heads. P&Z didn't even need our town lawyer at any of the meetings to clarify some very disturbing explanations and inclusions. P&Z rolled over and gave the developers, not just what W/S wanted, but our local boys who now have the loosened zoning they always wanted and can build residential in any of the existing commercial zones with only some minor text changes that are now impossible to reject. These 12 to 13 people have given away Cheshire to the developers and the P&Z staff has helped.
That's my thought.
Have any Republicans voted for the project? I thought that there republican votes from both the P&Z and council.
Tim Slocum-Republican and Paul Ranando-Democrat were the lone votes against the zone text change.
The democratic leadership has gone out of their way to push the text change and the zone change. This is their baby. You didn't hear any of them call for an impact study before approving it. They could have rejected it and had W/S do the impact study and them resubmit their proposal again, instead they chose to push it through and all the time saying how good it was. Thank Patty and Marty for helping to pushing this through.
It's about time an independent impact study is made. The big problem is how to prevent the Democatic majority from picking the consultant.
Canton residents said "beware", well now we see how WS does business. They stated they wanted a 65 ft height requirement because they wanted to build a clock tower - what a joke! Now we find out they want to build four story apartment dwellings. Well the joke is on us (or should I say Town Council and P&Z). Before long I'm sure well have more surprises.
"Well the joke is on us"
W/S, Paul Bowman, Doug Calcagni, the Dem Council and the P&Z are all laughing.
Pretty sad.
Most of the misinformation is being spread by the CAVEMEN of Cheshire
Some one should hire a full time fact checker for them
I don't know if they are laughing or not. This is serious and they could be found not to have done this right. A lawyer not present at most meetings is disturbing. They could be found guilt of not doing their "due dilegence" I guess? Many people asked for studies to be done before this was approved. They (P&Z) can't ignore this and will suffer the consequences if they so choose. Someone should investigate this proceedure. Put it on the Town Council agenda soon..
What misinformation? There are a lot of facts out there now.. Forget this "CAVEMEN" stuff and state the misinformation...
CaVE men state building of more schools
not true
"Most of the misinformation is being spread by the CAVEMEN of Cheshire"
Didn't know the W/S and the Cheshire Herald were run by Cavemen. Also, the Dems on the council.
So it is a out right lie to say that this is 'dems baby' when there have been rep. voting yes on every vote.
It's the Dem's baby and it's going to cost us big time.
They rejected SMART GROWTH that would help relieve taxes to support our local developers with STUPID GROWTH.
Let's start thinking how we are going to build all those extra classrooms.
And, we better get EPA to use their pen to increase the sewage treatment plant capacity by another 10%.
11:02 The majority of the P & Z that voted to pass the zone text change were democrats...so it is a "dem baby"
You will notice the CAVEMEN talk above
Not making any sense
Telling lies and misleading
Repeat same thing over and over
Wow the Dems are very powerful, they must have made all of the republicans vote for this project. Did not three on P&Z and one on the council vote yes? It is the town's baby not one party or the others.
"Wow the Dems are very powerful"
They sure are powerful. If you didn't know, they run both the Council and P&Z. They can approve anything they want and they definitely wanted W/S and everything that the local developers wanted. They wanted it from the Dem Town Chairman all the way down. It's their baby and they should be ashamed.
In fairness to parties concerned and independent, third party fiscal analysis for the North End project needs to be completed. It should not cost much at all to do, here is a suggestion.
On a sheet of paper, across the top of the page, make the following columns; Item, W/S & Town of Cheshire, initial item cost, responsible party operational cost and responsible party and projected tax revenue from the development.
List under items all the items that need to be built, constructed or done. This should include all services, infrastructure, continued operational items such as Police, Fire etc.
Sit the Town, W/S, P&Z and members of the public to fill out the sheet and agree to the numbers.
Add up the columns to see who will pay for the initial items, who will pay for the long term operational items. If the long term operational items cost less than the the projected tax revenue to be gained then the development should be a success. If the long term costs are less than projected tax revenue, better stop and reconsider.
A consultant hired by W/S will be partial and I'm afraid a consultant hired by the Town may also be partial in favor of the development.
An open meeting would be one way to start to get to the real costs of ownership of this project.
Someone should tell the majority of the republicans on P&Z that their votes don't count. I am sure that the republicans voted 3-1 for this, and it won 7-2 so if the three republican voted no this would be over. It is the town's project not either of the parties.
Has anyone ever heard Ernie DiPietro, Matt Hall or Patty Harris question the benefit of this mall. All that they said promote it. And your still not hearing any of them question the costs to the town.
The Dems own it and they are proud of it. The people of Cheshire were never given the facts and never given the chance to vote on it. So, no one should be saying it is a town project.
From The Underground Town Hall
September 19th, 2007 by Cindy Kleist
Now many of you have contacted me on the “Underground” channels asking me to become a write-in candidate for the Town Council.
Well, as you know, I did attend the GOP caucus in August with the hopes that I would be nominated to run for the Town Council. Unfortunately, that never happened. When I attended the caucus, some people looked at me sort of funny. Actually to be honest, I felt out of place being there because I am a liberal person on many issues.
But one issue I am staunch about is accountability by government to the people and open and honesty. Many people are on the blog-website bandwagon now, but they have me to thank because frankly, I started all of this “awareness” several years ago when I ran shows about town issues on the Cox Public Access.
I called the Registrar of Voters and they told me I had to contact the Town Clerk’s office. But in order to be a write-in candidate, I have to be on the “ballot” so to speak and I believe I have until Oct. 23 to do this.
I will give this serious consideration over the weekend. I hope all of you will support me because as you know, I may speak my mind, but I am honest and fair.
I call it like it is and I discuss ALL issues, but I give praise and criticism when it is deserving. As I have said before on earlier posts, this will be a big undertaking and I am sure a lot of people connected to the town will be talking their mush, but that is how it is. Let’s get people in our Town Government that have a pulse and not act like the Night of the Living Dead please!!!
You Go, Girl!
What are the names of the three republicans that voted for the text change? Strollo, Kurtz and Dawson. Think about it.
Three elected officals? What do we need to think about, only one voted against it, think about that.
Patty Harris is the chairman and in this position she had the power to move the discussion in any direction that she wanted. She didn't ask to have the town lawyer present, didn't ask for input from our town department heads, didn't follow up on most of the concerns that the public raised, didn't ask many questions from the applicant, didn't ask for a impact study and just let the time pass until they could take a vote.
Anon 12:12 Two voted against the zone text change. Why did the other seven elected officials vote for it? Did you listen to the reasons they gave on why they supported the zone text change. Someone please show that video again.
Anon 9:36 Good point. Maybe she thought that having two lawyers on the P&Z was OK. Their expertise is not "Zoning law" sorry to say. One did try and bring up some good questions but was whatever---
Looks like that goofball poet that couldn't wait for the lifestyle center has gone off to college.
I would have expected him to be chiming in by now with all this talk of WS and the PZC.
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