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Prior planning prevents poor performancePosted Thursday, February 11, 2010, at 9:29 AM
While most government entities own assets in the name of the public, it appears that very few of them actually plan long-term for acquisition of new assets or replacing of existing ones beyond the life of a vehicle.
This situation exists from the Federal government right down to the local library. The Federal government outgrew the three main buildings which this nation built to house that government, the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme Courthouse, almost before they were completely built and you cannot move in Washington without stumbling over a government building today. Today, the original buildings are icons. Therefore, we are constantly remodeling and attempting to upgrade them, somewhat, to be usable. However, most of the operation of our government actually takes place elsewhere and it is only the fact that resources can be drawn from the entire nation makes it possible that these icons have been maintained instead of replaced. Smaller government bodies do not have that luxury and should plan to replace every asset at the end of its serviceable life to save the taxpayer's money. Many citizens look around and notice that many large projects in this community are in need of improvement. City streets, county roads, state highways, city buildings, county buildings, school corporation buildings, water systems, sewer systems and bridges are just a few of the many assets that all need maintained until their replacement and to be replaced at some point that is beyond the tenure of one administration. Along with the need to replace these assets, there is an additional need for the growth that many citizens desire in the community and work to accomplish. This constant maintenance and replacement cycle is not the responsibility of one elected official, council, board or administration as the lifecycle of many assets is longer than a person's life span. It is the responsibility of the community that will probably be here long after the assets have turned to dust or rust and the population has had significant turnover as people are born and pass on. There are many "plans" in the works at this time in the local area. The school corporation has plans, the City of Brazil has plans, Clay County has plans, and the State of Indiana has plans. What is missing is a unified plan where all of these plans are incorporated into one plan that is concise enough to be manageable while being detailed enough to be clear so that everyone knows what is happening, how their plans fir into the plans of every other entity's plans, and how they may have to adapt to accommodate other plans. You would have to do a lot of research to get an overview, the "Big Picture," of how all of these disjointed plans will affect the community. I do not see much "cross-talk" between local government entities with a common goal established, only the apparent attitude that "I'm going to do this. You deal with it." Everything is connected and interactive. What our school corporation, town, city and even the library does affects what the county can do, even if it is only by spending tax dollars that the county could use for other things. If there is not a plan that we have devised, then we are not proactively affecting this community. We are only reacting to the actions of others with hasty decisions that will have unforeseen consequences later that will be the cause of more reaction on someone's part. It is time to bring all the plans in line with each other. "A failure to plan is a plan for failure." Comments Showing most recent comments first [Show in chronological order instead] |
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Clay County Guy -- I was still in high school when I-70 went in. I returned to Clay County eighteen years later and was astounded at the lack of development. I had thought that there would be a town that had sprung up there.
I don't know what the county knows about plans in the works by the City of Brazil. I know that the City is planning improvements there, albeit as you say, a good quarter of a century late.
Basically, I tried to get everyone involved with the schools. Frankly, I would have liked to have seen the involvement that Fort Wayne had with their school building program where the city, county, civic organizations, and even churches formed an organization, came up with a plan, and only then did the school corporation take action. We formed building committees, then a corporation-wide committee of mostly corporation employees and relatives and sent the recommendations to the board for action after a couple of years. I doubt if the city or county has even looked at what is currently under construction or knows any of the numbers that are going to affect them.
Can you imagine the county's end of a telephone conversation with the school corporation - "we have a thousand jobs coming to the I-70 inter change in 2 ½ years. Oh, most of the people are expected to live around Brazil. What do you mean, you don't have room for the influx of students and you don't have the money to expand? Didn't you include some expansion when you spent $26 million to renovate? What do you mean, you didn't know that expansion would be needed? Don't you read the local paper about our efforts to bring in industry over the last few years? Why hasn't anyone from your organization attended the meetings of our organization to see what is going on?" A similar conversation could occur between almost any two taxing authorities in the local area. Actually, with the property tax "circuit-breaker" they should already be talking and deciding what the priorities are in case we hit that "circuit-breaker".
I have to agree with Jenny, water sources have historically been one of the deciding factors as to the establishment of population centers. Now that we have the capability to pump water instead of having to build where it is, we have the flexibility to populate land that we could not previously.
Education, on the other hand, is a more recent development that is, nonetheless, important to our society in this day and age and vital to the individual unless the individual wants nothing out of life except a hovel and a subsistence diet.
I have to agree that water, power, communications, and transportation would be a big factor to bringing in industry which would cause a ripple effect that would bring in population that would expand the tax base but then would demand schools. However, without a plan, the schools would be overwhelmed long before they could be improved. Plainfield, IN is currently in just that situation, almost before they can get a school built it is filled to capacity and they need another one. If we bring in a company with a thousand jobs, say a quarter of the employees move here from somewhere else. If one-half of those employees have a school --aged child, our schools would need to accommodate 125 more children. Our elementary schools are currently undergoing renovation with no allowance for growth, yet the county and the City of Brazil have been trying to attract business and population for years. Almost four years ago, a school board member told me that it was desirable to have a model school to attract people but the plan never included expansion to accommodate them.
This is the problem, everyone is doing something for and to our community but no one knows what is being done. We need to improve communication between everyone until this whole team of draft horses is pulling our wagon in the same direction at the same speed before we wreck our wagon.....LOL.
I'd be thrilled if we could just get the city of Brazil and Clay County on something of a cooperative level. It amazes me daily as to the roadblocks that they (as city and county governments) put in place ourselves locally that has choked economic development that would have produced a tax base that would have helped fund schools and roads and water projects.
We're easily a quarter century behind in putting together infrastucture that would entice others to invest in us. What has, or I mean HASN"T happened on our mainstreet of this county...I-70...is embarassing. I guarantee you we've already lost a business that would have brought 1000 high-paying jobs to this county because we couldn't come to an agreement on how to get the basic water and sewer to that area. Sadly, and absolutely amazing, but not surprising.
I would like to know if a plan has been considered that will provide a tax revenue base to support all these grand plans? It's like the chicken/egg scenario. How to attract people, both business and residential, to invest in this community. What single thing should we invest in first to assure that the community is desirable enough to warrant further investment and support. Frankly that housing plan to fill empty lots with single family dwellings and even to sell property in arrears of paying taxes just does nothing to entice my wanting to invest when the infrastructure doesn't include a consistent water supply and schools that are more competitive without the individual knowing that they must fight for every opportunity to excel. Community needs to be selling something that is coveted. Got to find something to hold out there like a carrot to kick start the interest of investors. When I have driven through water/ice flows on Billville Road for 10 years, seen academic opportunities diminish each year bit by bit, I feel that the voting majority of the community just isn't making the right choices as far as what they want and what they really need. Water is the most essential nutrient. Education is the one thing that can never be taken away from you even if you house burns or you lose your job. All other projects are pretty much secondary in importance. One can live with potholes but cannot live without potable water. One can earn a wage but with more competitive education can earn a living. You look at all the projects in third world countries. Water and education are at the center of just about all of them. Think about it. Have a good day.