McEUEN: Citizens should have a say
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 15 years, 6 months AGO
When we first bought property on the lake in 1987 I thought Lake Coeur d'Alene and the city beach were beautiful. We loved the small town feel. Then Penney's and all the surrounding buildings and stores were razed for Hagadone's shop complex. The park was improved in part for his benefit; still, it also benefited people using the downtown area.
Fast forward to 2008. House prices began to decline, jobs and income declined. Coeur d'Alene businesses, including the resort hotel, pay some of the lowest wages in the country. Our property value has decreased significantly in the past several years, yet our taxes have risen to pay for city employees, improvements and dreadful pieces of metal called art which have appeared all over town without anyone I know ever having had the opportunity to vote on them.
Now comes the plans for a several million dollar park which they admit to not knowing the total cost of building to say nothing of upkeep. Patrolling the underground parking areas and ongoing maintenance will be very expensive to us taxpayers. We have just recently had our water, garbage and sewer bills increase. All this in an economy which has declined substantially in recent years.
I am not sure who picked Team McEuen but I did hear Sandy Bloem state that since she and the council were elected by the people we should stand by whatever plans and decisions they made. Do they know how easily they can and should be voted out of their comfortable offices? A large proportion of the local residents, who by the way would be paying for this dream park to be used by tourists three months of the year and the rest of us two or three times a year if that, are on fixed incomes. We will not benefit from tourist dollars. We do not get cost of living increases and now it seems we are not even to be given a chance to vote on whether or not we want to finance this dream park for the benefit of the few.
At least give us a chance to VOTE on this important investment in our city.
JANN KENDLE
Coeur d'Alene