Letter to Hays city commissioners:
I was disappointed to see the vote for the $22,000 we decided to spend on an air compressor! Clearly this has not been shopped! It took me less than 20 minutes to find tons of 185CFM air compressors that are diesel powered for far less and many if not most had John Deere engines. Altas Copco had new for $16,000 and there were many compressors like Sulair and Ingersol in the used marked with as little as 950hrs or even less ( that’s less than 6 months of all day, daily use based on a 20 day work month, 8hrs per day without breaks) in the $8,000 to $10,000 area, less than half. Shipping these days is not a big deal and if the city would want, I can give them a shipping broker that regularly saves us around 25 to 50% on shipping of pallets and I believe they do large motor carrier freight as well but would have to inquire. The Atlas Copco is made in the USA and it even looked like there was a dealer in Kansas.
I am wondering if all of you have watched the Strong Towns video and read the material Toby handed out a few weeks ago. I did. The information in the video should be a wake up call to all staff and all commissioners that something has got to change ( if not nearly everything ) and sooner than later! We are going to have to sober up to the fact that we are all victims of this huge Ponzi Scheme to build American cities and that it is no longer a sustainable approach to continue to do city business with. It starts with the $3,000 here and the $10,000 there and builds it’s way up to the big projects like “Bike Hays” and the 13th St. redo.
Anyone can look at 13th St. and see it needs repaired but there are ways to soften the financial blow to our tax dollars and still make it a nice facelift ( i.e. narrow it a bit and give a little of the mowing back to the home owners while using less concrete? Solicit donations for “name on a plaque” for the decorative lighting? Don’t ok the engineering of features we do not intend to use after it is agreed on that we cannot afford the feature, like camera controlled intersections, planters for trees & shrubs, etc…. I mean, my gosh, why would we pay for engineering something we are not going to build! ) I have not seen the crosswinds runway for myself but is it really in that bad of shape?
We have dumped huge amounts of cash into the airport that I thought was much more than what was needed to make it function efficiently and I still take issue with that huge expenditure. I fail to understand how you can load passengers faster by making the building larger creating a further distance to travel for boarding?? Could we have “Biked Hays” for less than some $1.4 to $1.8 million?? How can we support a “Sister Cities” program for any amount of tax payer dollars when the only net for the city that I have seen is a slide show from China, please correct me if I am wrong or I am missing something ( PS…Most of us already have the Discovery Channel ). How can we possibly substantiate a “Convention Center” when we could possibly work something out using the Schmidt/Bickle, Gross Memorial or even Lewis Field Stadium for large gatherings?? My least favorite quote at city meetings it “we have the money”. We do not have the money! Not when we are staring at the need for a new sewer treatment plant to the tune of $26 million, that is for sure.
I realize second guessing water under the bridge is not conducive to a solution at this juncture however, the 13th St. update is not water under the bridge yet and neither is the new air compressor we need. I think you should back up on these and a few other projects/purchases and take a second look before you continue regardless of how you may have voted. When I posed the question to one of your staff members ( whom I will not name ) if it were possible for the commission to back up on something that was voted on I was told “well, sometimes you have to pick your battles” and “I wanted to say something but thought better of it” ( I am paraphrasing ) I thought to myself in the famous words of John Pinette, “Oh Nay, Nay!”. If there is other information that pertains to a spending decision it needs to be made known whether it has been voted on or not, especially if the vote is fresh and reversible. In my mind, reversing a vote ( if needed ) before the money has been spent shows prudence on the part of the commissioners and demonstrates that this is not about egos but about public trust. What a wonderful demonstration that could be!
All that being said, I very much appreciate Toby for bringing the Strong Towns information into the light. I think it is very noteworthy on his part. I very much appreciate Mayor Schwaller for voting “NO” on some of the things he has. Although I do not always agree, in the more than 60 meetings I have attended Henry is the only one I have noted voting “NO” repeatedly on spending our tax dollars in a fashion I feel is wasteful or unnecessary. To all the rest, I appreciate your efforts and to a certain degree in blind faith, trust that your hearts are in this. I do not mean to take away from anyone that has worked hard to make our city a better place to live. I believe our city is in much better shape than a lot due to the work of the commission and city staff but I also see much room for improvement. One “NO” vote cannot make the changes we need. It take three mindful votes to pass or fail any of the decisions that get made at our city hall. It’s no one persons fault we are in the financial situation we are finding ourselves in today from the fiscally broken State of Kansas all the way down to city. The question really is what can we do to fix it and what can we do starting right now?
That’s all I have for now. If you have not viewed it yet, please watch the video on Strong Towns. I was extremely enlightened as I think most will be. If you have already watched it, please encourage the public to watch it as well. It is lengthy but gets very captivating when you get to the part where the only way to maintain our current infrastructure is to either make serious changes immediately or face the possibility of as much as a 42% increase in property taxes and and incremental increase above the rate of inflation every year after, starting now! IF THAT DOESN’T GET YOUR ATTENTION I DON’T KNOW WHAT COULD! Just in case you don’t have it or you want to pass it on, here’s the link to the video and here’s the link to the website. Everyone needs to digest on this information so they can get an understanding of what the future holds versus what it can hold if we start making changes! The more folks know and understand what a “Strong Town” is, the more we can come together and build one.
Thanks,
Scott Simpson, Hays