"Save Church" made the 6 o'clock news

My Friends,

What a great success. The Save Church campaign made the CBS 6 o’clock news on Tuesday.

I beg you to watch the CBS News video at the link posted at the bottom and form your own opinion, but first I have to say a few things about comments made by the City Manager, Mr. Berzina.

City Manager Berzina asks if we want a road with potholes. Well, my friends, the answer to that question is no. Does Mr. Berzina believe that our only options are to wipe out the trees or have potholes? He poses the question in a way that suggests there is no in-between. Very tricky, Mr. Berzina.

Mr. Berzina also boasts that because of the bad economy, the project will cost only 2.4 million dollars instead of 3 million. The only problem is that whether it costs 3 million or 2.4 million, the project as it is planned today is unnecessary. In that respect, 2.4 million is not a very good deal at all. If it’s a good deal Mr. Berzina wants, I have an F-16 I can sell to him at half-cost. What? Mr. Berzina doesn’t need an F-16 Fighting Falcon? But he’d be getting such a great deal!

Listen, folks. The last thing the Corinth officials needs to boast about is how thrifty they are. Don’t they know that we’re 5 million dollars in the red because of their thriftiness?

It’s hard to admit you’re wrong. And to the council and newly-elected mayor’s credit, this project has been tossed around and had so many hands in it, that it’s fair to say they never intended for it to go this far. The trick now is to appeal to their sense of community, to their obligation to serve the public, and most important of all, to appeal to their common sense because the current plans to widen Church defy common sense.

We need to ask them why we need the project.

Was a traffic study ever conducted?

What about North Haven and Wildwood and the traffic conditions created there when Church is a welcome invitation to cut through residential streets to get to the highway?

Why did Don Locke promise us the trees would be saved, and why did council later recant on that promise?

All sarcasm and nasty rhetoric aside, the latest Save Church campaign is very simple. We need to convince the council that it’s okay this one time that they have already wasted our money. We need to look past the money spent and look toward what we’re getting if we move forward with the widening of Church. The outlook is grim and irreversible – that’s why we have to convince city council to take a step back, take a deep breath, and do the right thing.

To see the news video, copy and past the link below in your address bar:

http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=42327@ktvt.dayport.com


Sim Portnoy
Citizens of Corinth for Transparency and Accountability