Jeff Kenney’s Culver Citizen article on the Entry Level Housing decision by the Town Council popped up on The Pilot News website over the weekend. (You can find The Pilot News version here or the Culver Citizen version in a previous post here.) Unfortunately in the interim, the Council rescinded the decision to move forward this year and instead chose to delay our application until next year. Thus like the wispy home I’ve shown multiple times in the past (see left), affordable housing in Culver has slipped from our grasp until at least 2017. (Wow, that was one of the sappiest sentences I’ve written in a long time!)
I can’t help but be frustrated by this. First because we had been working towards the grant deadline of November 2nd for the last 9 months. Second, after the decision on September 22nd (the meeting in the Citizen article) I was asked to rush around to get the necessary items lined up which included a special Culver BZA Hearing and a tax abatement hearing with the County Council. Both of which had been arranged prior to finding out that the plug had been pulled. (The final piece was completed at 4:55 against a 5:00 deadline. No stress there!)
The abatement hearing has been cancelled. The developer has been told to cool his heels. No follow-up meeting for the Entry Level Housing Task Force has been scheduled. The only thing that is continuing forward is the BZA Hearing. If the BZA is still willing, I plan to go ahead with that hearing. I am thinking that it can’t hurt to vet the location ahead of time. All the neighboring property owners have been alerted.
I hope our development partner hangs with us. I hope we don’t lose opportunities with our target audiences. I hope the grant availability is there next year. I hope the County Council is still supportive next year. I hope any changes in the Council following the election doesn’t realign the will of our leadership. I hope the subsequent changes in the appointed boards and commissions doesn’t change their will to move forward. That’s six “hopes” we now have in trade for the momentum we previously had. Let me throw in one more for lucky seven and say I hope all this works out.
Image Source: www.homeloanstoday.com
Image Source: Unknown (found on Pinterest)
I’m not going to comment on Speaker Boehner’s performance. As with almost all politicians, there has been good and bad. I am going to comment on his “retirement”.
I have a problem with him considering his elected position a job from which he can retire. Stepping down from his position as Speaker of the House is fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that he ran for an office and barring health issues or something else catastrophic, he should honor his commitment to the people of Ohio and finish his term.
Representatives are elected for two year terms. It shouldn’t be that onerous to fulfill his commitment. The problem is that he’s a career politician. I have heard reports that he planned on retiring at the end of 2015 even as he was running for reelection for this term… which ends in 2016. He considers it a job, not a sacred trust with those he represents. It’s another reason so many are fed up with our government representatives theses days… They just don’t get it…
Source: Image borrowed from brietbart.com
If you don’t get the joke (title above), just type WECS in the search box on the right or you could start with this post here.
Last year I wrote a post (here) on QWERTY keyboards and why I thought we were taking a step back with two finger tying on iPads and their ilk. For anyone intrigued by the birth and widespread adoption of the QWERTY keyboard, I ran across an in depth article at discovermagazine.com called “The Curse of QWERTY” that you can read here.
So… Culver Elementary School sends their smoking staff across the street to use our curb in front of our office as a smoking lounge since they have a non-smoking campus. Miller’s Merry Manor on the north side of town is a non-smoking campus… so they’re sending the smoking construction workers (Not Ours!) across the street to smoke on the Culver High School non-smoking campus. Can’t you just hear Elton John singing, “It’s the circle of life…” Of course that might not be the appropriate reference since we’re talking cancer sticks here, but you get the drift…
Image borrowed from Shed Simove