Do you think T or C and Williamsburg polycart customers should pay more so rich new homeowners at the Turtleback Mountain Resort can pay less to have their trash hauled and recycle for free? An expansion of the T or C collection center is proposed to accommodate them.
The city must cram capital projects over a few years that should be spread over 20 or so. Must, because the city is leaking 57 percent of the water it produces in warm months. Must, because the city was under an order by the NMED to fix the sewer.
The City of T or C is considering how much to increase water and sewer rates and T or C City Manager Gary Whitehead came to the Village of Williamsburg April 9 Trustee meeting to explain what effect such increases could have on Villagers. It’s complicated, because the Village owns…
Conformance to the Government Conduct Act is largely dependent on government officials self-reporting or checking each other. Or city contractors not offering emoluments and/or rebuffing importuning government officials' requests for employment or kick-backs. The press has a duty to expose a lack of reporting conflicts of interest.
What the city looks like and how well its physical assets serve us is largely decided by the ICIP process, which badly needs the public's goad to improve that process, in the form of public critical thinking, questioning and input.
Grants, if they come through, may avert the need to impose higher rates. The city already increases wastewater rates by 5 percent and water rates by the amount of the Consumer Price Index every year in July. Even greater increases may not be needed.
Are you alarmed by rate increases in your city bill? Wait until you see the new ones proposed.
Different government agencies' grants/loans come with different requirements and costs/rewards that the city commission doesn't consider--at least not in public--which is the only place that counts.
A grant application for the parking lot renovation and solar-panel-covered parking canopy has been submitted, but more money is needed for the interior renovation.
T or C Mayor Rolf Hechler claimed it was morally if not legally right to break a law and he'd do it again in response to a pending ruling from the court. The divine right of kings is resurgent for this local leader voted in three times so far.
The larger issue is the city commission's disregard for the democratic principal of equality under the law.
Capital outlay money from state legislators or the governor comes with the least oversight and strings. Grants from U.S. legislators are nearly as hassle free. The city manager and more city commissioners participated in lobbying this year, receiving about one-third of what was requested from state legislators.
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