Trustee Mike Kelly Proposes A Postponement Of The Controversial Amphitheater Project

There is a very important Plymouth Township Board of Trustees meeting coming up on Tuesday, August 19, at 7:00 PM. This could possibly be the most important meeting of the whole year for taxpayers in Plymouth Township. If you care about how your tax dollars are spent, I urge you to attend.

Trustee Mike Kelly has asked for, and received an agenda item involving the controversial Amphitheater Project at McClumpha Park, to be included in this week’s Board of Trustees meeting. His resolution is pretty straightforward:

Postpone the Amphitheater Project until the completion of the recreation survey to determine the voter’s recreational and facility preferences for the township park.

This a simple and fair proposal, and makes sense for a number of reasons, chief among them is that there is a huge outpouring of resistance for this project. Folks don’t want the amphitheater. In the words of Channel 7 reporter, Jeff Vaughn, “In all my years of reporting, I’ve never seen a City Council so dug in on a topic that has such little public support.” Sure, he mistook the township board for a city council, but you get the point. There is zero support for this project. This is a good reason to have another look at this project.

The folks in the neighboring subdivision do not want this. They are concerned about the traffic and the noise this amphitheater will create, and rightfully so. They are concerned about an adverse effect on their property values. They are concerned about safety with the extra traffic. They have valid points.

Taxpayers all over the township are concerned with the out of control spending. The Township Board borrowed 2 million dollars for the amphitheater, and other pet projects, and folks wanted to be a part of the decision making process for things that they will have to pay for. Another great reason to slow things down, and have a fresh look at this project.

There are folks who believe that the township should have put the fire department’s infrastructure needs as a higher priority than park projects, especially at the cost of two million dollars, when you include the air conditioned pavilion, and the golf course projects. We have three aging firetrucks, none of which is a ladder truck, and folks are rightfully worried about their safety. I agree.

So here is where we stand. Folks have been attending the Board of Trustees meetings in record numbers. These meetings have been very contentious. Contentious to the point of Supervisor Reaume banging his gavel, screaming at the taxpayers, and bringing in the Plymouth Township Police to control meetings that he lost control of. Channel 2, and Channel 7 News crews have been at the meetings to cover them, and report on them. It can’t get any worse at this point, unless folks show up with pitchforks at the next meeting.

We now have Trustee Kelly’s resolution, and I commend him for taking action on this issue. Having said that, I wonder what Supervisor Reaume’s motive was for actually allowing it. I suspect that he feels he has the votes to squash the postponement. Either that, or he has finally seen the light, which I seriously doubt, but stranger things have happened I guess. Well, probably not.

So I will assume that Supervisor Reaume, Treasurer Edwards, and Clerk Conzelman will all vote to keep the amphitheater project moving. I will also assume that Trustees Kelly, Doroshewitz, and Curmi will vote to postpone. The key vote will fall to Trustee Kay Arnold.

Well here is the thing. Ms. Arnold actually voted in favor of conducting the recreational survey to get insight into what the taxpayers of Plymouth Township would like to see, as far as recreational and facility preferences go.

The amphitheater is for recreation, and it is most certainly a facility, so it would seem logical that if you voted in favor of this survey, you would want to know if the amphitheater is a facility that township residents would approve of.

Reaume, Conzelman, and Edwards are constantly telling us that it is a small minority of folks who are against the amphitheater. So it would seem that they would welcome this survey, which would make their case. They should be happy to include the amphitheater question in the survey. If they are right, folks will overwhelmingly approve of the expenditure, and that would pretty much have to satisfy the folks who are against this thing.

If Kay Arnold votes to postpone this amphitheater project, it will at least allow the taxpayers who will be paying for it, to have a say. To have their voice be heard.

Remember, that Reaume, Conzelman, and Edwards cooked this whole thing up by themselves. The Trustees had no hand in this. The township residents had no say in this. The pavilion, the amphitheater, the golf course projects, the whole shebang was all hatched up in the confines of the Plymouth Township Hall, by three people. Once they had the whole thing done, they sprang it on the Trustees on a Friday, and forced a vote on this 2 million dollar bond idea the following Tuesday.

So when Mr. Reaume tells you that it was well thought out, he was talking about three people, and three people does not make a Board of Trustees. Three people does not include the taxpayers who will be paying off this bond.

So on Tuesday night, those three people who hatched up this debacle, will most likely vote to move forward with this amphitheater. The question is whether the Trustees, who had only three days to ponder a two million dollar spending spree, will slow this process down.

The Trustees have the power to ratchet things down, take a long breath, and give this matter some serious thought. These same Trustees have the power to give a voice to the taxpayers who will be paying for this bond.

I respectfully urge Trustee Kay Arnold to cast her vote to postpone this amphitheater project, and allow the survey that she voted for, to be completed. The construction season is over. There is plenty of time to move in a deliberate and thoughtful manner.

Heck, Trustee Arnold has a chance to be the hero. She has the chance to be the voice of reason.

She has a chance to cast the vote of reason...