Letter: Vote Yes on Ordinance 1-2014

Editor:

There are many reasons that Wellington residents should vote yes on Ordinance 1-2014.

The Town of Wellington prepared a “Parks and Trails Plan” in September 2008, however it has been difficult for the town to budget to accomplish this inspired plan.

In November 2011, the citizens of Wellington overwhelmingly voted to reassign some of the current mill levy from the streets budget to the parks budget, however the town found it difficult to begin the development of such a grand plan with the monies allocated. It’s hard to start a major project without the money to do it properly. Often those funds can get reassigned elsewhere and then they are lost to the desired project.

When we build Wellington Community Park all at once, we also will have negotiating power. When you have volume you can negotiate for better pricing. If the project can be built in one major push, then time, energy and money will go much further.

Currently there is a major citizen effort in place trying to make this happen. A lot of free help is being supplied to get competitive bids and to work with local suppliers, all making major donations of time, supplies and/or services. With the passing of this ordinance the momentum in place will be a great benefit to the community.

A loan for construction would allow building a park to the quality designed. The loan would be paid back over a period of time utilizing the already ear-tagged funds without raising any tax.

There would be no new tax required for Wellington Community Park by passing this ordinance.

A quality park system would add value to the community. Realtors, along with appraisers, say that property values in the area would go up by 3 to 5 percent. The community would be a much more desirable place to live and housing sales here would benefit.

A quality park would attract families on the weekends which would benefit the local businesses by having this additional area traffic. More people would spend their dollars in Wellington.

For Wellington to become an even greater town to live in, you need to have the vision (the 2008 plan), however we need to make the effort to make those dreams come to reality. Ordinance 1-2014 is just the vehicle we need to get this done and done in 2014.

Please vote yes on Ordinance 1-2014.

Tim Singewald
Wellington