I did finally get around to doing a little painting on the west side of the house yesterday, but not until around 4:30. I ended up getting in 2 1/2 hours, and have went over the 50% mark in coverage, but probably not in time to cover the entire job...The small stuff{trim, climbing on porch and kitchen roofs} is going to take some extra time. Regardless, if all goes well, and I don't fall off the roof or ladder and end it all, I should be done in plenty of time to celebrate the completion before my goal date of Labor Day, that being September 7th.
On Monday I note that I have been doing this blog for 2 full years, starting July 27, 2007. Who would have thunk it?....I've had over 20,000 visitors in the last year{since August 2, 2008} alone, and I'm sure I've pissed off my share with my blatant partisan politics and other opinions...today I will probably piss off a few more, these close to home.
Celina=Den of Thieves?
First off, let me say...I have lived in and around Celina, Ohio, since late fall 1962. My dad, originally from Scott, Ohio, some 30 miles to the north, picked up stakes in our home of Venice, Florida. He purchased a Marathon Gas Station{it's still one today in the 100 block of South Main Street}in Celina, and without a family vote, we left the sunshine and the Gulf of Mexico for this town of 11,000, mostly Catholic, all white folks. I was into 8th grade, brother Mike was a Junior, sisters Marty 5th grade, and Kelly, just 4 months old. In those 47 years since I first moved here, I've been gone and back on several occasion. Celina, always seemed a safe haven to head back to...a real Americana type town, low crime, not a Hell of a lot of Diversity, and no real "bad apples"...Patricia, from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, moved here at 20 years old in 1973, we met when I was 24. We married and moved away in 1977..back in 1980 to live on a farm for a decade, then into Celina in 1990, and bought the current house in town in 1995.
Celina has changed, the population has grown somewhat, from 9 thousand to about 11 thousand folks...it now has pockets of child molesters, drug dealers, and folks have moved here for the easy welfare...our own little "Melting Pot" of sorts. While still a decent city, it's not 1962 Celina anymore...of couse American has changed as well, and not for the better.
Fast Forward...Buy a building, put up a parking lot____
Celina City leaders over the past few years, have had a habit of doing several things which appear to me{and my guess is quite a few others} "Suspect". Our esteemed Mayor, a Republican{actually many City Council member that call themselves a Republican in this town are actually RINOs Republican in name only}, no better than your average Liberal Democrat...in fact I trust some of the Dems on Council before some of the RINOs...and for me to say that, you have to know that I have to clamp my jaw tight. Anyway the Mayor and her hired guns, the Safety Service Director, and the Development Director, have been in the process of buying abandoned buildings, on the tax payers dime, they can get their hands on. Why, you might ask? Well to put in more parking lots of course.
Buy a building on the taxpayers account, tear it down, taxpayer paid of course, and put in a parking lot. far from downtown, even though we have a municipal lot, and parking spaces on the south end of Main Street that nobody uses anyway.....Downtown for the most part is dead. A victim of the Wal Mart side of town.
In recent months, we have had our former Safety Service Director resign, in the dead of night no less, no 30 day notice, no 24 hour notice, no notice at all...Seems he wanted to get back to the family business. My guess is, it was before the other legal shoe dropped. When or if this happens, I admit I don't know, but let's face it, it's pretty suspect. Then Lo' and Behold, the man gone, is immediately replaced by a City Council member of the Mayors' choosing, on a temporary basis of course{insert eye roll}, because he plans on running again for council next term.
Now on the the good stuff.
Eminent Domain____
It seems the City, in order to appease the Yuppies that move to the area from Dayton and Cincinnati, and the various "Movers and Shakers" locally feel, the need to make the Grand Lake area more attractive...nothing wrong with that, is there? Guess not, especially considering the Lake already a lovely emerald green color from the Algae formed by the farm runoffs. Sure the fish died long ago, and it stinks like those dead fish, but what the Hell? It can still look good, can't it? Anyway, I'm getting ahead or behind myself.
The city leaders latest schemes include buying the old Acid Plant, Versa Pak Factory, Direct TV Training Center Building, barring buying it, they will try to pull a good ol US Government trick...they plan on stealing it through the corrupt practice of Eminent Domain. The process where a local, state, or Federal Government wants something, and the owners either won't sell or are asking too much, they just take it.
The Direct TV Building it seems sets a little to close to our city Garden of Eden, Lake Shore Park and Drive...the city wants it, so they can build{Drum Roll Please}...Another freaking parking lot, which might get used 7 or 8 times a year. The gentleman who owns the building has loaned portions of it out for K9 Training for City Cops, and says he spend $16,000 on vandal damage, the city claims it's almost abandoned, they are lying...The man paid $400,000 for the building. The city offered him $275,000. What a deal! He balked, and the city and there talking head in the legal department are now going after the building in the glory of Eminent Domain. I'm sure our Founding Fathers would be so proud...they might have a party for those involved in this land grab...My guess the party they would have would be a "Necktie Party".
In addition to the attempt to steal this property{or as one council member says "Let's Keep this Rolling"}, at taxpayer's expense, they are also in another lease/land grab that would effectively cut off much parking to one of the city's landmark bars. Now this bar has had a past, some of it seedy to say the least. But it's a business, a successful one, with some apartments above, it makes money, it's owners pay taxes...it sits next to the railroad track and of course Lake View Park...the city leaders can't have that, can they? So let's put one of Celina's landmark bars in peril...so much for our council being "Business Friendly".
Let me say finally, I know most of the council members personally...bought my house from one, one stood up for me at my Baptism, a couple of teachers, and other folks that care about this city....but they are dead wrong on this one. Our utility rates, once one of the lowest, are skyrocketing, our streets and alleys are in shambles, and our business downtown is dying. What are they spending money on? Freaking buildings, so they can give us more parking lots, all for the glory of the Grand Lake. WAKE UP CELINA before it's Midnight!
back later>>>
The symbol of Celina, Ohio....and the Direct TV Building which the City wants...by hook or crook.
5 comments:
Pat, my wife liked the small part of your town we saw while at the festival. The lake area. She did some research on the lake when we got home. It's only 5' to 7' deep. I thought that unusual. Then she found out the lake e'coli level is or has been high over the years. No doubt because of the shallow water and the amount of homes built around it. Must admit it looks nice. I will admit, one thing we did find easily was a parking spot.
Anon: The lake was hand dug back in the 1830 era, and has never been deep...over the years the dredge machines went at it...but could never keep up with the sediment coming in from the farms.
We used to swin in the lake and never worried about the turds and other material in it....the e-coli levels have been high since we started taking readins back in the 1980s when I worked at the local health department, and no doubt for many years before that.
Thanks for stopping by...
Mercelina trailer park. We are all aware that if the council votes to purchase Mercelina for 2.9 million dollars we are all out of the park. Moneyntalms! But the council could make the offer continent on woke type of compensation allowed to the home owners to helpnrecover some of the cost of being displaced. The city and mercelina owners were glad to have us all stay in the park when the smell from the lake was so puttred you could not stand to be out side or on the lake and it actually was unsafe. Some of us even paid dock rent in that period. Now you and the Mercelina owners are saying deal is done keep paying lot rent and come up with the money to move your home out. There is no consideration for the people who are on a fixed income and live there full time. This is wrong! Do you want this attitude for your citizen of Celina to be what represents the City of Celina?
Bottom Line John and Joanna....the tax payers and citizens are screwed AGAIN!....Mr Bryson has to be spinning in his grave...then another $300 thousand paid by the tax payers. And then, did they tell us what the final bill for the so called park and improvements will be? Hell NO!...this is a joke. Celina's streets are a mess, the alley routes are worse....and yet these bastards continue to spend dime over dollar to purchase, what? Between the corrupt lawyers, like that sawed off runt "Louie the Worm" and others, the city contines to fall into a major abyss.
I dont know which is worse , State of Ohio not recognizing the problems of Grand Lakes watershed pollution ignored since 1960s or Celinas ignorance of using Grand Lake as a water supply since 1952?
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