Supporters of the City Manager form of government have
claimed that a strong Mayor will make Brunswick's poor reputation of the
60's and 70's return. We have a news flash for them.
When Tiffany's Cabaret performed market research for a city that
would support their type of establishment and allow them to prosper,
wouldn't they have looked at the mid-1990's reputation of Brunswick, not
our early 70’s reputation?
When the first payroll check cashing company moved into Brunswick,
wouldn't they have looked at the 2001 reputation of Brunswick, not our
early 70’s reputation? We now have two payroll check cashing companies.
We just replaced a closed restaurant on our main street with a
relocated gas station. We are replacing a closed fast food establishment
with a tobacco store. We have companies in our industrial park
threatening to move out of Brunswick because we have not provided them
with basic telecommunications services.
Visit our parks and look at the old Stop signs bolted to the rusting
playground equipment to keep our children from falling off because the
sliding boards have been missing for years. Read the obscenities written
on the playground equipment. No, the Parks Department cannot stop it,
however they can clean it off. Hopkins Park equipment has obscenities on
it that were there last year.
Even though our youth sports associations have “Brunswick” in
their name, the City does not help support them. The City actually
charges the associations to use the fields. Our fields! That is why the
cost to you is so high; you are paying twice!
The Brunswick Lake project has so much appeal and potential that City
Council has agreed to subsidize the new homeowners association! So you
live in a neighborhood where you pay hundreds of dollars each year in
dues to a homeowners association? Perhaps all of the homeowners
associations in Brunswick should sign petitions asking City Council to
subsidize their dues as well!
Residents of Brunswick have lived through flooded basements and homes
for years because of sewer problems. Yet City Council just keeps doing
studies while at the same time quietly putting a multi-million dollar
line item in the budget for City Hall improvements. Maybe they need more
room for the high-priced consultants doing these flooding studies?
The above companies are betting on Brunswick keeping to our current
direction and it is downhill. This is what over a quarter century of
City Manager government hath wrought. The past is now. It is time to put
it behind us.
Our families cannot afford another quarter of a century of City
Manager government. It is time for us to take back control of our future
from the entrenched bureaucrats.
