“What’s in it for me?” A larger Greenwood?

After tonight’s reorganization committee meeting I decided to enjoy the nice evening and take a tour of the township on my “classic” Yamaha VX 500 (it’s older than my daughter not sure that makes it a classic but I find calling it a classic a handy excuse as to why I own a 26 year old motorcycle). While cruising around a large portion of unincorporated White River Township I noticed something, not that I didn’t know it already, but it really hit me, this area is not anything like Greenwood. Please don’t take that wrongly, there is nothing wrong with Greenwood but I don’t see the fit, or the benefit, to becoming part of Greenwood.

Some say “We don’t have parks” I saw a lot of large yards, huge green spaces and the Bantam Football Fields with trails. A private group is working to develop more trails. A little further north I saw schools with playgrounds, Independence Park, and a par 3 golf course. It doesn’t take a city government to provide a place for picnic. At the corner of Olive Branch and Morgantown Road I saw a nice house on hill with horses fenced in near the road. Heading south I found well kept homes of all sizes, some huge, some modest, no junk cars on blocks: homes that people have pride in.

What does Greenwood have to offer them; regulations against vinyl siding and rental homes, zoning laws prohibiting horses and out buildings, an increase in taxes to help pay for the $7 million+ rebuilding of Old Town Greenwood? Somehow for all these years the people of White River Township have gotten along without a mayor, a city council or their own police department for years. (Please someone give me one true example of where the sheriff’s department hasn’t performed as well as any local police department or stop talking about it). We take care of our homes; some of us buy our water from a private company some from a municipal utility. We choose between competing trash services. If we want “zoning” we move into a subdivision and create homeowners associations to write the rules. That’s about as local as government can get.

What’s in it for me is a question that has come up time and time again. No one has ever answered that question. Forrest Chambers said tonight “Why don’t they wait to see the final proposal before they say no.” I say, why doesn’t the committee start giving us some reasons to say yes. They have promised to “create an efficient, effective, accountable and representative government.” (From the committee’s mission statement.) What do we see so far? A discussion on how to grow Greenwood’s government, Don Hanlin said tonight that he only expects minor tweaks in the current Greenwood city government. Greenwood is the most “efficient, effective, accountable and representative government” in Indiana? Give me a break!

In time there may be an answer to “what’s in it for me” but for right now, I not only don’t see what’s in it for me, but I don’t see what’s in it for White River Township. There may come a time when incorporation of the highly populated areas is a good idea, but taking vast areas of farm land and a bunch of people who are doing just fine on their own and doing nothing more than extending the current form of Greenwood government to include them doesn’t pass the common sense test. As Senator Fred Thompson says “Why do they call it common sense when it is so uncommon?”

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