I promised a lot of people that I would update here when I found out anything definite.

(***a special note: It looks like Mayor Ballengee and Councilmember Wade may be taking some extra steps in order to keep citizens better informed of what Town Council is doing! Both of them now have Facebook pages. Look 'em up and start a friendship. Hopefully, they will make good use of a free and easy way to keep citizens informed!***)

Well, I've seen two petitions floating around thus far. Both are for Town Council and they are for Ernie Wade and Steve Huppert.

I have heard a lot of other rumors and know of a several other possibles but to the best of my knowledge, no one else is obtaining signatures at this time. I will let you know as I find out more.

Mayor Ballengee's recent article in the News Messenger can not be helping his buddy Ernie Wade much. The Mayor gave the impression of enthusiastic support for the new bus service, but Ernie Wade was not the strongest of supporters in this instance. In fact, he was pretty darned concerned about the costs and if it would pay for itself or not.

Given the number of comments I've received from people who keep seeing an empty bus make the rounds at the Mall, that may be a genuine issue. However, if you took time to look around the Mall area during the two weeks before Christmas, there were a lot of empty parking places and traffic jams were no where near as numerous as they have been in the recent past based upon what I saw. Then, there was the danged weather which didn't help much at all.

While a lot of small stores were hurt deeply by low sales, where the Town may feel the real crunch is in those big box stores that reported good sales. I wonder if that was volume of sales or value of sales that was reported. Volume of sales may well have been good. If they were due to the huge discounts being offered in those stores (small stores can't typically buy in the same volume so can't compete with those cut prices) there could still be a serious affect on sales tax and BPOL revenues for the Town.

One thing is for sure. Anybody who is elected in May better be ready to do some serious belt tightening. Any campaign promises made better come with a clear plan for how to pay for them and what will be cut in other areas. And, most importantly, citizens need to be asking those questions and demanding answers. This is not a time for false promises. This is a time where citizens need to know exactly what to expect. It is time for citizens to do their homework and take the time to look at past promises, voting records, and actions rather than be lulled into complacency by rhetoric.

Simply put, if you want my vote:

1. Tell me what you are going to do.
2. Tell me how you are going to do it.
3. Tell me how you are going to pay for it.
4. Tell me if service costs will increase.
5. Tell me if taxes will increase.
6. Tell me WHICH taxes will increase.
   
7. AND, clearly explain what, if any, cuts in other areas will have to be made.

Give me the goals, objectives and strategies...but give me something that was missing in the Goals recently adopted by Town Council. GIVE ME THE TIMELINES TO SHOW WHEN THESE WILL OCCUR. Don't let your promises be put away on a shelf somewhere and only be brought out at election time.