RANT & RAVE: Posted August 5, 2010

Editor’s note: Each week we print a selection of anonymous rants and raves submitted by our readers. Keep them under 250 words, free of profanity and personal attacks, and have at it. You need not sign your submission, which you may e-mail to peoplesgazette@gmail.com or mail to Gazette Editor, 7736 N. Toya Vista Road, Payson, AZ 85541. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Gazette staff.

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College students mostly spend money on pizza

The mayor and his merry band of councilors tout the ASU college coming to town as the fix of all of the town's ills. The citizens of Payson need to ask the hard questions and see if the town council will start to provide answers. What will the true number of students be? I hear anywhere from 600 to 6,000. If we add 6,000 new citizens to our town, we will see a significant financial impact. Wear and tear of streets, higher use of services like police, fire, parks, library, etc. will all impact our town budget. The town costs will increase commensurate with a population increase. But will the town income go up at the same rate? These new citizens to the town will typically not be paying property taxes. In addition, students (especially those attending a college that touts low cost) will most likely not be paying sales tax at the same rate as the current citizens. Students spend money on pizza and books and not much else. So if the town’s costs go up and its income does not go up at the same rate, that means increased taxes for the rest of us. The only question will be whether our sales taxes will go up, our property taxes, or both. Lets hope the mayor and councilors start to provide the information the citizens deserve. If they do not, assume the news is bad and it is being hidden from us.

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Let voters decide if we want another college

We voted on a WalMart Superstore. How about a referendum on whether this college thing is good or bad for us? How about we bring Gila Community College into the discussion as well? How about Kenny the Who lays his cards on the table and proves he has $550 million? So many claims, promises and questions, so few answers. I miss the days when we had a town council that was willing to ask the tough questions and wasn’t beholden to realtors and developers. Growth for the sake of growth is a bad idea.

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Who's watching the henhouse this redistricting?

Is anybody else thinking what I’m thinking? Now that we’ve conducted a new census, it’s time once again for Gila County to redistrict. What do you want to bet the supervisors will hire the same old consultant who skewed the districts 2-1 in favor of Globe? The same guy who told former Payson Mayor Ray Schum that he had to do it to please the people who hired him. Ray fought long and hard 10 years ago and lost. Now Ray is in Palm Springs. Who is going to lead the fight this time? We can’t let this happen to us yet again. We have more people. We pay more taxes. We can’t allow them to gerrymander us 2-1 again.

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PSWID couldn’t have screwed things up any worse

What do we do now? The water district situation in Pine and Strawberry is serious. We have few alternatives. No other buyers. Property values plummeting. Ch2MHill is a joke. They are a huge international engineering firm. Do you really think they have any long term interest in our district? Of course not. Are they the last professional we can get to work for us? Howard Matthews' newspaper plea was pathetic. If Howard and Co. had done their board-watch better we might not be in this position. Howard is in no position to offer advice on the board's conduct. Could we have screwed this up any worse? Doubt it. We need solutions and we need them fast.

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Time for Greer and Lovetro to walk away

Mike Greer and Gary Lovetro are working hard to remove the team that should be credited for bringing PSWID to where it is today. Can’t they see that their removal of the team that has 1) accomplished the purchase of the Pine Water Company and the Strawberry Water Company and 2) has preached the need for due diligence in the purchase of water wells is removing the foundation of PSWID. For the good of the community, Mike and Gary should leave before they do any more damage.

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PSWID board actions both blind and irresponsible

Let’s pretend that you want to purchase a certain piece of property and the seller presents you with a purchase agreement. Upon reading the purchase contract you find that 1) the property is in a flood plain; 2) in order to reach the property you need an easement; and 3) the easement that the seller grants you remains in the seller’s control and the seller is able to change it at will. Would you still be willing to purchase that property at full asking price? Well folks, that is exactly what PSWID is doing. Isn’t it about time for board members to remember they are held to due diligence and that means they are required to show care when dealing with public monies? Isn’t it time to remember that they have been elected to represent the interests of the community at large and not the interests of a few?