Welcome New Councilmembers

It looks at this point to be concluded that your City Council will be staffed by the following people this January:

• Ben Varon
• Jean Garber
• Dan Hubbell
• Lisa Jensen
• Carol Simpson
• Steve Buri
• Sonny Putter

First I would like to extend thanks to all of the candidates who ran for office this year as I have an appreciation for the time and dedication it takes to run a campaign. And second, a word of congratulations and welcome to our newest members. Lisa, Carol and Steve may be new to the position but are all involved and knowledgeable of local issues and should be able to quickly fit into their new roles.

I would also like to note that I think it speaks volumes about our community to have such a diverse and young council. I find it very impressive that we will have three women seated on our council of seven.

And lastly I would personally like to thank Pam Lee and John Dulcich who will be leaving their seats in December. Both Pam and John have been members of the Newcastle City Council since the city was incorporated and have spent a good amount of their personal time serving the members of this community. It has been an honor to serve with both of them in my short tenure. John is the person who gave me the opportunity to serve on the planning commission years ago when I first expressed interest. Without his support and mentor ship I would not be involved in the way I am today. And for that I am thankful.

Windtree Park Update

The path to begin Windtree Park is still ahead of us. I, as many of you have, were expecting to see some progress this summer. The current status is that the city staff is prepared to put the project to bid after delays this summer due to our public works department being focused on preparing for work on Coal Creek Parkway.

But at Tuesday Sept 18th's council meeting, Councilman Bill Erxleben raised 2 issues regarding the park. First he expressed concern that the money approved for the park in 2006 was not properly accounted for in the 2007 budget. This is mostly an issue of procedure and the city staff is tracking the paper trail. This unfortunately will delay the project for a few more weeks until the procedural matter can be resolved.

Secondly, and more concerning, is that Mr. Erxleben advocated removing money from the park project and questioned the expense as extravagant. Additionally he called into question the public process leading up to the decision to move forward with the park. I personally take exception to his diatribe as I personally witnessed a very active public process. These are my neighbors he is talking about and for him to claim that all of the hard work and involvement by the more than 30 residents of Windtree was insufficient is frankly a slap in the face. Possibly he should have attended more meetings himself ? Members of the Parks commission have commented to me that the involvement in the Windtree Park process should be a model for community input in the future.

I encourage everyone interested in seeing Windtree Park completed to attend the Oct 2nd Council Meeting to express your displeasure with the current delays.

I would also like to point out that I attended the City Council candidate forum this evening. It should be noted that council candidate Russ Segner publicly advocated removing funding from Windtree Park and to use the money instead for changes to the intersection where the Valley Medical Center is currently located.