On the Kitsap Caucus blog I posted much of the same information, but asked why groups support measures like these, while individuals who don’t join tend to vote against them.
I saw this today on the Manette Neighborhood Coalition site.
The Manette Coalition Board of Directors has unanimously endorsed the Neighborhoods Now! Levy.
We believe in supporting measures that promote parks that we can walk to from our homes. An investment in maintaining and retaining open spaces in our neighborhoods fits with our core values. The Neighborhoods Now! Levy is affordable, has a time limit (6 years) and will benefit all citizens of Bremerton; many of our parks are in dire need of revitalizatioon.
As an autonmous neighborhood organization, we have become more involved in attending city council and park commission meetings. The process has been enlightening and interesting. We may not always support everything coming out of city hall, but this is one measure that is highly beneficial and gives great value for a very small personal investment. Please mark your ballot “YES” on proposition 1.
If I lick my finger and put it in the air, I can’t tell you which way the wind is blowing on Bremerton’s Proposition 1. I’ve heard lots of support from different groups. Supporters canvassed the city’s likely voters and have planted signs around town.
Bremerton City Councilman Cecil McConnell and council candidates Roy Runyon and Cassandra Helmrick have all said they planned to vote against it, but I’ve heard of no organized opposition actively campaigning against it.
Seems to me the voters who appreciate Bremerton’s mayor and strong team of visionaries will vote YES!
They have actually pulled Bremerton from slum town toward prosperity and a quality life for their citizens and they’ve only now begun.
Those citizens will vote YES! For Neighborhood Parks.
Most Bremertonians want to continue the forward motion to prosperity…or so it seems to me… and a YES! to neighborhood parks adds to the life quality.
Sharon O’Hara
Vote NO! The City of Bremerton already has a park development fund in place. Why should we be taxed more? I would really like to see what the Mayor has done with this fund.
Chapter 3.25
PARK DEVELOPMENT FUND
Sections:
3.25.010 ESTABLISHED.
3.25.020 APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS.
3.25.030 ADMINISTRATION.
3.25.010 ESTABLISHED.
There is hereby established a fund to be called the Park Development Fund for the acquisition, replacement, expansion and improvement of parks, recreation facilities and open spaces of the community. (Ord. 4744, Added, 12/31/2000)
3.25.020 APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS.
a. All monies and other assets currently held by the Park and Recreation Facility Development and Roosevelt Capital Assets Funds together with all earnings thereon.
b. Collections from the operation of the Gold Mountain Golf Course, in excess of the sums necessary to pay the golf course debt service, operation and maintenance expenses and capital renewals and replacements.
c. Any additional funds received by the City which are committed to park and recreation facility development.
d. Donations and bequests specifically dedicated to the fund. (Ord. 4744, Added, 12/31/2000)
3.25.030 ADMINISTRATION.
The Park Development Fund shall be administered by the City Treasurer and the Mayor. All monies received by the fund together with investment earnings thereon, may be expended only by authorization of the City Council. The City Council will normally consult with the Parks and Recreation Commission before commitment of these funds. Expenditures shall be limited to items which address the community’s park, recreational and open space needs. (Ord. 4744, Added, 12/31/2000)
I’m sure a comment is coming to answer your question, paradyne64.
My comment has to do with the fact Bremerton has thrived and come alive through the efforts of Mayor Bozeman and his team.
Additional team candidates must be independent thinkers but forward thinkers…willing to work for the common good and goals.
A naysayer who plants their feet square into the middle of a peony and yells NO … who cannot agree to disagree and move on…is not someone who can benefit our town, any town.
For overall benefit City Concil members who equate kids, families, and environment with parks is the mindset we need.
Those who equate parks to ‘sex’ should have no place in City Council.
Be careful who you vote for…
Sharon O’Hara
Sharon,
So you could careless that the city already has a park development plan in place? Don’t you care where this money has gone? I would like to see where the Mayor has spent this money before raising everyone property taxes. All I was doing was pointing this out, which no one has brought up before. I lost all trust in Mayor Bozewell after he publically thanked the Port of Bremerton for exercising their right for their sneaky 150% port tax increase while ignoring the voter rights of thousands and thousands of property owners, which I take it you are one of the lucky ones that don’t have to pay it.
paradyne64… I wasn’t aware of the specifics but all cities/towns run by ordinances and plans….’parks’ had to have been addressed.
In this case, dating back to the year 2000.
Over those seven years the money had to have been used.
Call the Mayor’s office on Monday…tell him you want to know – specifically – how the money was spent.
He has done a terrific job…in part by listening to his constituents. He wants your input and he is someone I’d call a people’s mayor with vision and conviction.
I do not know Mayor Bozeman… have never met him. He might be charming…he might be a frog…I don’t know or care.
I know what his leadership and strength of purpose (incl. a strong team) have done for the town I was born in…the town I worked in, played in… a wonderful homey town.
If I was very lucky, I saw a movie at the Roxy Theater once a month or so…and a milkshake at Olberg’s Drug store was a special treat.
Combine a desire for total control and lack of vision to the beginning of Bremerton’s descent into skid row, a deserted town and slum landlords to take advantage of the poor who had nowhere else to go and give a welcome to the drug and criminal types.
Add non visionaries to the local government and the years slid by.
Today is a new day. I’ve seen the positive changes…the new hope for Bremerton… and I’m surprised that you don’t see what I see…. that you don’t see what this mayor has done for this town.
Call the mayor’s office Monday and let us know how it went, will you?
As all things, change requires new and adjusted plans.
Sharon O’Hara