Bridgeport Township DDA Meeting July 14th, 2021 & Other Musings

This will be a long post that will cover the DDA board meeting and other items I feel a need to comment on.  First I would like to apologize for the poor quality of the video.  My camera is good but the lighting is dismal in the meeting room so the video comes out grainy and blurry.  Most of the members there have no microphone, they can barely hear each other, and I can barely hear them at times.  It will be very hard for the public to hear some of the conversations, and the nuances that I could hear and see in person.

First let’s start with a history of DDA boards:  They were meant to be temporary and the focus was supposed to be on reviving failing historic town centers and infrastructure.  They were supposed to have sunset clauses written into them, they were never meant to be a permanent part of any local government.  Their original purpose has been ignored and abused for so long now that it has just become accepted practice.  DDA board members are not elected officials, they are appointed.  The DDA board answers to the township trustee board; and the DDA Coordinator answers to the Township Manager, the Township Manager is also the DDA Director, a point that someone seems to not understand.  The township board and the DDA board should act as two independent bodies with that chain of command.  My problem is that it seems that the two boards act as one entity, answerable to no one.  I believe it is required by law that the Township Supervisor sits on the DDA board, and that should be the only overlap between the two in my opinion. Here in Bridgeport we have two other township trustee board members that also sit on the DDA board.  It is my personal opinion that creates a conflict, especially when you have half of the DDA board members not even show up for meetings and votes.  How many people really run this township and make the decisions that affect the lives of the residents? 

Some of the people on the DDA board, and in the township offices, that I know and like very much.  Some I don’t know at all so I don’t have an opinion on them.  Some like Augie Tausend, I find him a likeable person, and he can be very easy to get along with.  We don’t speak any longer, but I have no problem with our interactions in the past.  At least to my face he has never been disrespectful to me, unlike a few others.  I do have respect for him on a personal level, but would still like to see him gone from office for numerous reasons. There are some other township elected officials and employees that I would like to see out the door today!

Another thought before I move on back to the DDA board meeting:  Any employee or official of our township that deals directly with the public should never be abrasive, arrogant, condescending, confrontational, or a bully!  And no township employee should ever be privately contacting members of the public that post opinions online about the township, and trying to get them to stop their “negativity”.  That is extremely inappropriate.

** If you watch this on YouTube, it will show you what times what segments start at, and you can watch it in theater mode.

 

Now onto the actual DDA board meeting:  This was another very interesting and informative board meeting.  I hope everyone will take the time to listen to it all from beginning to end.  I will only be focusing on one part of the meeting – The non-motorized trail along Fort Rd. 

This plan has been talked about for many years I believe.  My reaction has always been a big eye roll.  I have never seen that as a viable option.  They say they would have the wider paved trail from the gravel parking lot on Fort Rd./Fayette St.  going to the dike, then from the dike to Dixie they would have a regular sidewalk. First problem is you have the people’s homes.  Some are very close to the road and the sidewalk will go right through their front yard, too close to their homes for my comfort if I was a resident there. I took a quick drive over there this morning just to refresh my memory on the layout.  One problem I saw was close to Dixie there is a utility pole and there is not enough room between the road and the pole for a sidewalk.  I guess you would have to move the pole to make room there.  Then down where the culvert goes under Fort Rd. into Davis Park, I don’t think there is enough room between the road and the once beautiful pond, now destroyed, for the wider trail they are talking about. Wasn’t that section of Fort Rd. washed out a few years ago from flooding?  We are in a flood plain, we will always have flooding.  What will happen to the “trail” in another bad flood?  Will it wash out and need to be repaired?  How many times will that happen?  How much time and money has this township wasted on things they have put in the flood zone that just ended up destroyed?  I believe the flooding is worse in that area due to several factors.  One being that there used to be two culverts that ran under that road into Davis Park and one has been removed.  I don’t believe the one alone can handle the water flow in times of severe flooding. I believe that is also part of the cause of the damage that has been done to this area.  Bill Wheeler mentions the “ditch” that runs along Fort Rd. from the once beautiful pond over to the river.  That is NOT a ditch, that is a frigging man-made disaster of this townships making!!  Way back when in time, this township dug that ditch/canal as a canoe launch from the pond out to the river.  Is the canoe dock still in the pond?  No it is not!  Is the pond still there?  No it is now destroyed.  Is the canal still there?  Well technically it is, but it is usually dried up and at other times just a nasty mucky mess.  The river is still there but damaged.  Why do people think that sand bar has formed in the river at the end of that canal from hell?  Some of us that have been here much longer than some of these officials and employees of this township, and have actually been alive longer than some of them; we remember the beautiful pond, and the wetlands, and the river, that have now been destroyed by just one act of this township. Some of us actually give a damn!! 

There is a phrase that really irritates me, like nails on a chalkboard, that phrase is “Lipstick On A Pig”.  I don’t think there is any more appropriate phrase for this trail plan than Lipstick On A Pig!  You want to build all these beautiful parks, make it a livable place for the residents, improve the townships “ratings” etc…  I call BS on that!! This township doesn’t need more parks, doesn’t need this trail.  This township needs to properly take care of what you do have now.  You mow them, but not much else is done.  You don’t have enough money, enough manpower, enough time etc… to properly take care of what you do have.

Oh the township cares about the environment and river etc…  I call BS on that too!! .  How much trash have I personally had to haul out of these parks and river because the township was not doing it?  Would the township still be burning illegal trash down in the woods on the Davis Park “island” if I hadn’t spoken out about it?  If you truly care about creating beautiful parks etc… for the residents, then you would fill in that canal, restore the pond, and repair the damage to the river.  Talk to experts about having two culverts back under that road.  The damage to the wetlands on the other side of Fort Rd. will probably takes decades to repair on its own; but the damage on the townships side should be repaired by this township. To do anything less than that, to put in that trail, is nothing but lipstick on a pig! 

There is one other subject that I would like to give you my opinion on, and it is just my opinion, probably the most hated opinion poster in Bridgeport Township.  This is something I noticed mostly during the discussion on the trail along Fort Rd., but I did notice this nuance throughout the rest of this meeting.  There are subtle nuances that viewers of the video may not be able to pick up on because of the poor video and audio quality of this video.  I will admit that I could be wrong in my perception of what I saw there, but since I did talk to several other people that watched the video of this meeting and they said they saw the same thing, then I will share my thoughts on it.  Remember I said at the beginning of this blog post that the DDA board answers to the Township Board and I feel that the two act as one entity instead of two separate entities.  I also mentioned that the DDA Coordinator answers to the Township Manager, the township manager is their boss and has the power to hire and fire the person filling that position.  When Bill Wheeler started talking about the Fort Rd. trail, the Township Manager/DDA Director spoke up, and seemed upset, because this was the first time she was hearing about this.  OK, so maybe not everyone is in sync yet, but maybe it is more like not everyone is in "the clique"?? Chain of Command.  What upset me is what I perceived as coming from Bill Wheeler towards the Township Manager as a very dismissive attitude towards her concerning this.  Don’t roll your eyes and look to the board members, the Township Manager/DDA Director is your boss, the one that has the power to fire or hire you.  She is the Township Manager, you are not.  Like I said there are nuances in tone of voice, body language etc… that the public may not be able to pick up from this video.  I thought maybe my perception was jaded by my opinion of Bill Wheeler from dealing with him over several years here in the township, but others I have talked to share this same opinion of him, and others say they saw the same thing in the meeting.  My opinion is that he can come across as very arrogant and condescending towards others, that he thinks other people are just idiots and he is smarter than everyone else.  About the only good thing I can say about his work is that he does a good job with the baseball games and the miracle league over at Liberty Park, but I don’t actually know that first hand because I have never dealt with any of that over there.  I have another perception that I may be wrong about, but it seemed to me that the DDA Board also has the attitude that they will do what they want and don’t answer to anyone??  I would love to hear other people’s opinions on all of this. 

BTW, if I was the Township Manager, Bill Wheeler would be fired, or at least not the DDA Coordinator.  Maybe there is someone out there that is more qualified for the position, and more personable?  Maybe he should spend his time focusing on just one job, as the Parks and Recreation Director?

I could heap lots of praise on the DDA Board for things they have done in our township that truly enrich it and the resident’s lives, but I also have concerns about things. How much land does the DDA Board actually own?  How far has the DDA District been expanded here in the township?  I think some of these things have gone way beyond what DDA Boards were originally set up to do.  They were meant to be temporary tools to be used for the benefit of local areas, not permanent government entities, and not large property owners and developers.