The Cart Before The Horse… Even in Barrieland
All you have to do is look at the back page of tonight’s Salisbury City Council agenda and see that Mikey and Co. plan on annexing the Westwood Business Park and Sassafras Meadows at their next meeting (December 11th). Why then, are the darlings of the developer class going to allocate sewer and water capacity before the land is even annexed by the city?
First, let’s look at the process. Salisbury has never allocated capacity before. They have always done their sewer and water allocation on a first come, first serve basis. There is actually some sound reasoning for allocation to a commercial development such as Westwood. The business park will hopefully be an engine to create permanent, well paying jobs for local residents. But buried inside the resolution there is also an allocation to the Sassafras Meadows residential subdivision.
Remember, the Sassafras Meadows project was originally given the right to run water and sewer lines out to the property because they claimed to be building “senior housingâ€. After the lines were run, guess what? No senior housing. Tom Ruark even had the temerity to stand up at a city council work session and claim that he couldn’t be held responsible because he was just purchasing finished and platted lots. In polite society we call that “a lieâ€. One of Mr. Ruark’s entities already owned the property. He was just subdividing lots off piecemeal and then selling them to himself to build houses.
To placate Shanie Shields and Lynn Cathcart (what would happen if two of Barrie’s lackeys went off the reservation?) there was going to be a few units of senior housing built on the east side of the development. Of course, now I hear that even this paltry amount of badly needed senior housing isn’t going to be built.
Why then does Sassafras deserve the special treatment of receiving a valuable allocation of water and sewer? The answers may lie more in who is a friend of Barrie’s than in what makes sound public policy.
Second, let’s look at timing. Why in the world would the city government allocate, even to Westwood, before the annexation is approved? I can only speculate, but it may have something to do with the annexation timeline.
Remember, this annexation is the pipestem to be beat all pipestems. There is a distinct possibility that the annexation will be challenged in court. We all know that Paul Wilber claims that this annexation is perfectly kosher. We also know what Mr. Wilber’s “expert†opinion is worth. Just ask Linda Kent and the other citizens who crushed his “expert†opinion in court.
Once the annexation is rubber stamped next month, citizens have 30 days to challenge. If that happens, the fun really begins. Rumor has it that Mr. Ruark’s finances aren’t quite as sound as they were a few years ago. Perhaps one of his lenders has decided that a sewer and water allocation is necessary for Mr. Ruark to borrow more against the property or for him to remain within the confines of his financing covenants. Who know’s?
It’s just really odd that this would come about before an annexation. It’s even odder that Sassafras is receiving its allocation under the cover of an allocation to the Westwood Business Park (where there is a good argument for doing so, AFTER the property is annexed). I’m sure it will all come to light, someday. Perhaps when we start combing through the campaign filings of Mayor Barrie and some members of her “Dream Nightmare Team†we’ll get a partial answer.
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Comments
Burying Pork in a lengthy worded documents is a common practice with politicians, locally and nationally. In hopes many would get bored while reading and put it down before getting to the part about the abuse of power, and wastes of monies. Debbie Campbell referred to herself as one of those “Nerdy” people, that sits up reading late at night. Thank you Debbie Campbell~!! And thank you DD~!!
An almost unnoticed annexation flew through the process this summer, to land occupied by Hebrew Quality Insulation.
Barrie’s mayoral reelection campaign donation records indicate that she received not one, but two maximum dollar donations from the beneficiary of this annexation, one under the business name (Hebrew) and one from the owner of the business under his own name. All perfectly legal, of course, but the fix was in.
When it comes to “giving back to the community” $500 goes a long way in Salisbarrie, doesn’t it? Waiting two years to accomplish this return favor was perhaps to take advantage of what she thinks the short memories of her constituents are. She should rethink, as there are some who actually read and remember, and then remind the rest. When Barrie comes up again for reelection, this item should be remembered.
Since they have gotten from the City everything they have asked for “before annexation” why change now?