Our rain has been great and so far, no rainbow. When a rainbow beauty does color over gray skies I wonder if Mayor Casey will find her pot of gold under that arc. With careful reading of her “State of the city” report (Free Lance, Jan. 5), my puzzlement pointed to the conclusion that everything seemed free for her to give away. Let me explain.
Because safety is a primary concern (actually housing is primary) she reports four new police officers are hired with Flock cameras and gunshot detection included. Plus the fire department hired five new firefighters, plus a new truck with an upgraded ladder. No price tag is mentioned.
Next comes some magic. High on residents’ wish list is road maintenance. The mayor waves a wand to deflect frequent requests for improvement to Fairview and Union Road, where she says that these are county roads.
However, in November she voted to include these roads in the city’s “sphere of influence” so that thousands of new homes could be built.
She acknowledges a $3 million grant to improve the airport runways. She neglects to report the source of these funds, which probably came from the FAA who actually controls the airport’s lengthy runways for jet use in case of any unforeseen emergency.
Included in her improvements, she “leads the charge” to expand and improve the surrounding business park on land now lost to agriculture.
Using “sewer impact funds” she has maintained sewer service and will replace two membranes. She neglects to inform why this is important. These and other improvements doubled sewer capacity so sewer service can be given to thousands of homes outside city limits like those in San Juan Oaks and on Fairview Road, which financially burden the city.
It seems that growth in population has outpaced growth in affordable housing units as this mayor has reduced the requirement from 20% to 15%.
Moreover, this out-of-control growth has outpaced comfortable living for all residents and proved that no free gold exists under the rainbow of fast growth encouraged by this mayor.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
