I am very apposed to this money being spent on a dog park or anything else, and I am also not really happy with the plan for the city to buy up even more of the down town for the "sports complex" future use at this time. It has nothing to do with being a "small government" person. We have roughly 10% unemployment in the city of Jacksonville, have seen fees and other costs go up in relation to running this city government..........every year including this year, we have people losing their homes, we have people who are having a hard time paying for the food to feed their families and paying their bills since every single thing has gone up but incomes, we have $4.00 gas for our cars putting a further burden on the residents of our fair city, we have asked our police and firemen to take pay cuts (because we were broke ?).............and then, there are these 2 articles published in this very newspaper that some of your employees apparently don't read ?
Jacksonville could face $500 million bill over workers not in city pension plan
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-02-23/story/jacksonville-co...
Mayor Alvin Brown promises Jacksonville pension reform, but the 'how' remains elusive
'It's bankruptcy if nothing is done,' warns a lawyer familiar with the fund.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-02-23/story/mayor-alvin-bro...
Given all this, does anyone really believe we should be spending $75,000 on a dog park or spending another $125,000 on more land for future use of the sports complex. Both of these are discretionary spending bills............and I don't care if it is left over from another project.............save it for an emergency. The problem we have downtown is these folks think if they aren't spending money, they aren't doing their job...............and they have spent us into a hole so deep, we may never get out and it NEVER stops. This, to me, is a no brainer.............if you are using any common sense at all, you don't do it (as John Crescimbeni did, you vote NO).
The fate of the $75,000 plan could be decided by City Council on Tuesday.
A plan to build an Arlington dog park has momentum on Jacksonville’s City Council, but it’s raising howls of criticism from smaller-government advocates.
The full council could decide Tuesday whether to approve spending $75,000 to create a leash-free area inside Ed Austin Regional Park at 11751 McCormick Road.
An earlier plan to spend $112,000 stalled soon after it was filed in 2010, and district Councilman Bill Bishop lined up residents volunteering to work on the park before filing a new bill (2012-70).
“The dollar amount this time is a lot less,” Bishop told the council Finance Committee, which endorsed the bill 6-1, with Councilman John Crescimbeni opposing it.
A council recreation committee approved the idea by the same margin, with Councilman Matt Schellenberg firmly dissenting.
“Do people know that they’re going to be spending $75,000 in an economy like this?” Schellenberg asked, calling the price “out of whack” with other expenses the city is facing.
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