Steve Welch responds publicly

The Bargerville Town Council Chair provides his personal thoughts on the merger proposal

The following letter was published in today’s edition of the Daily Journal. In it he makes many of the points discussed in our earlier posting and adds his own perspective on the proposal. 

Dec. 30, 2008

To the editor:

Let me open by stating that the opinions expressed in this letter are mine, alone, as a private citizen and do not represent the opinions of any other person.

With that said, I would like to offer a couple of observations with regard to the ongoing discussion about “mergers” with White River Township.

I find the recent criticism of Bargersville’s merger to be interesting, especially when compared with the merger resolution of Greenwood. Let’s review a few of these direct comparisons.

• Bargersville proposes equal representation on the merger committee, while Greenwood demanded a 4-3 advantage in every vote. Which of these is fairer to the residents of White River Township?
• According to the newspaper, the law firm hired by the township also represents Greenwood, which begs other questions that deserve honest answers.
• Bargersville proposes to study an area of “at least” the portion of the township south of Stones Crossing Road and will consider adding areas if both sides agree. On the other hand, Greenwood demands the entire township, placing the undeveloped area landowners at a serious disadvantage.

Which of these proposals seem fairer?

• Bargersville’s resolution proposes that planning development will be controlled locally, with additional members from White River Township added to the Bargersville Plan Commission. Greenwood’s resolution doesn’t even begin to address such issues. By comparison, which of the resolutions demonstrates an interest in the future of the community?
• There is one major difference between the merger resolutions of Bargersville and Greenwood. Bar­gersville openly states that it seeks to determine the preferences of the residents of White River Town­ship with regard to local government. I haven’t seen any such word­ing on the Greenwood resolution.

The White River Township Board is elected to serve the residents of White River Township, and we are compelled to respect that fact.

The Bargersville merger resolution tries to be fair to our neighbors and tries to give them the chance to participate equally in the process of determining how to provide the best possible government services at the lowest possible cost.

Bargersville does not have any interest in engaging in political games. Our resolution is straightforward, and we’ve tried to make our expectations clear.

I’ve received literally dozens of phone calls from White River Township asking me to do things for them. Unfortunately, although I am sympathetic, I am not elected to represent those folks. All I can say is that Bar­gersville is willing to work with you, but it is not up to us at this point.

Steve Welch

Bargersville Town Council

It’s seems quite clear from this letter that if we want an option other than remaining unincorporated or seeing what comes of the Greenwood merger discussion, we need to be in contact with our White River Township Board and encourage them to reconsider the Bargersville proposal. While the proposal may not be perfect, neither is the Greenwood proposal. It is the best interests of the citizens of WRT to have as many viable options available to them as possible and certainly the Bargersville proposal deserves reconsideration.

Related posts (Automatically generated):

1. WRT Board Meets Tuesday