A Few Notes from the 6-19-08 NA Council Meeting

A 6PM workshop update on New Albany's Greenway project was held prior to the regular council gathering last evening and there was good news to report. The bridge issues over both Silver Creek and the Ohio River seem to be closer to being resolved sensibly.

The current plan is to use the abandoned railroad bridge at the Loop Island trail to connect us to Clarksville and postpone the idea of a vehicular bridge over Silver Creek for now. It appears that common sense finally floated to the surface.

It was also reported that the K & I Bridge connection is getting ever closer to a reality as well. All of that is still a year plus into the future but at least the conversation is more in the "gonna happen " sphere. One can only hope it stays that way.

As for the regular Council Meeting there was a notable lack of Administration representation present. Neither the Mayor no deputy Mayor saw fit to attend. One has to wonder, are they giving up or stepping back to plan another approach??

As was reported elsewhere, the highlight of the evening was Councilman Messer stepping up to question some less than supportable information that was presented from the other side of the table. Yea Jack! Where have you been?

The other two events that caused me to be guardedly optimistic was firstly, the report from the redistricting committee that their work is done, a plan is on the table for the Council's consideration, and said committee has been disbanded.

I personally urge this Council to get this item on the agenda and deal with it post haste. Eight years of duty shirked is far beyond long enough!

The other item that gives me a modicum of hope is Council President Gahan's stated intention to form at least one and possibly more committees at their next meeting to begin research on New Albany's outdated Housing & Building Code, (it was passed in 1969) and to look into rental property control issues (or more to the point, the lack thereof) as well.

Dare we hope that New Albany as a city will migrate forward to the 21st century and recoginize the rental business as (God Forbid) a BUSINESS!!!

To do otherwise is to insure that future entraprenaurs will continue to look at our (choke) fair city with a jaundiced eye. In addition to things like infrastructure, workforce availabilty, schools, & tax structure, good businessmen also look to the availabilty of affordable clean safe housing for themselves and their future employees. What we currently have to offer is not only laughable but disgraceful as well!

Perhaps we have at long last got to the point where some in leadership are at least willing to recoginize it as a problem. The burning question is, will they dare proceed to solve it?