Grinding hard work

While attending last evening’s meeting of the Reorganization Committee, it became very clear how hard the committee has worked. They have investigated the current environment, checked out options, talked with officials and residents and looked at many things from many angles. During last night’s meeting the Parks and Recreation and Land Use sub-committees presented their findings.

The entire meeting took over four hours, without a break, to go through each report in detail, making comments and corrections along the way. There were some common themes: First, they are concerned that neither community, Greenwood nor Center Grove/Smith Valley feels they are paying for improvements in the other area. Second, any boards that are expanded generally revert to their current size in 2020, this is to give the communities time to unify on multiple levels. And third, many of the committees they are proposing to expand are comprised of volunteers who may be paid $50 a month, barely enough to pay for the gasoline they will use, hardly an “expansion of government.”

I was also very pleased by the reception of my presentation on Public-Private Partnerships. While deferring discussion of the Finance Committee report, they allowed me to start about 10:45 PM. Even at that late hour, committee members took time after the presentation to ask follow-up questions. In addition, the Chair, Pat Sherman, agreed to gather some committee members together, such as head of the finance sub-committee Paul Reed, to meet with representatives of the Reason Foundation and other resources mentioned in the presentation.

The voters of both Greenwood and White River Township need to respect the effort of the committee and consider their proposal seriously. Whatever decision the voters make it must be based on the facts of the proposal and not rumor, hearsay or emotion.

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