I was reminded of this Blog-Lebo post,
April 13, 2009 An Ultimatum from Some Athletic Supporters. A follow up post from Mike Madison has links to responses.
Summary of School Board Candidates' Positions on Lebo Athletic Facilities
9. Would you support financially a collaborative project with the municipality regarding immediately turfing the field at Mellon in preparation for the High School renovation project?
Here we are three years later, and still getting pressure from the sport groups. With that in mind, I started a new poll. Please take a moment and vote.
I remember this all too well. And I take particular note of precise wording prior to the actual questionnaire questions, such as "..we are committed to putting our own skin in the game, in terms of our good will, sweat equity AND millions of private equity dollars"; and, "..for improved outdoor athletic facilities"; and, "..in support of private-public partnership". Oh yeah. The same line of empty promises made for Municiple fields.
ReplyDeleteAll talk and no action....we've been subjected to this line of bunkum for years...it's time to fish or cut bait athletic supporters...put up or shut up, as the old saying goes !
Bill Lewis
Why haven't any commissioners offered opinions on this? Or have I missed it? Unless there is come common sense opposition to this, our community should just fold. At that point we have become no different than the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteSamuel, we already heard from Brumfield and Linfante at that farce of a joint meeting. BTW, our newly appointed, baggage free liaison had nothing to report at the commission meeting because she did not go to the SB meeting.
ReplyDeleteElaine
Would it be a violation of the Act 1 limits on school districts to circumvent Act 1 millage limits by having the Municipal Government levy taxes for the school district?
ReplyDeleteWould personal liability attach to those who levied the excess taxes i.e. the Commissioners?
Would the insurance company who insures the Commissioners against personal liability refuse to pay the personal liability claim because the Commissioners violated the Act 1 millage limit and because Conflicts of Interest are involved?
Why isn't the Commission solving their $1,000,000 Pension Compromise with the Municipal unions if they have an extra $1,000,000 in the Funds Balance?
Has there been any mention of a bond issue by anyone for other reasons? Remember money is fungible! Bonds can be issued for one reason that you were not going to borrow the money for and that frees up other money to use in another direction.
John
this is why we need to take away authority from school boards to do anything related to taxes.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, do you think in 2,000 years or so, when archeologist undercover the abandoned temples and crumbling ruins of the Lebonite civilization, they'll ponder what purpose all these non-biodregradable green plastic grass fields served?
ReplyDeleteWill they imagine them worship sites to the vestal virgins?
For those unfamilar with the Vestals from Wiki:
"The Vestals became a powerful and influential force in the Roman state. When Sulla included the young Julius Caesar in his proscriptions, the Vestals interceded on Caesar's behalf and gained him pardon.[5] Augustus included the Vestals in all major dedications and ceremonies. The urban prefect Symmachus, who sought to maintain traditional Roman religion during the rise of Christianity, wrote:
The laws of our ancestors provided for the Vestal virgins and the ministers of the gods a moderate maintenance and just privileges. This gift was preserved inviolate till the time of the degenerate moneychangers, who diverted the maintenance of sacred chastity into a fund for the payment of base porters. A public famine ensued on this act, and a bad harvest disappointed the hopes of all the provinces... it was sacrilege which rendered the year barren, for it was necessary that all should lose that which they had denied to religion."
Giffen Good
I agree with Mr. Adams that all school building projects should be approved by residents. It's the only way to keep expenditures under the control of the people, who are the ones paying the bills.
ReplyDeleteFor those who believe Mt. Lebanon is immune to adversity, I suggest you look around and note the once-proud districts and communities that have declined because poor decisions backfired and resulted in blight. Some of these districts are knocking at our doorstep.
Wise up, folks, before it's too late! It's not up to the schools to provide everything for every kid---that's what parents are for.
Franny Frugal
Gee, wonder where Commissioner Linfante and her Green Environment Sustainability Board Pals (Cappucci & Papke) stand on artifical turf.
ReplyDeleteAside from the fact it takes oil to create to create the stuff, here are other concerns.
Environmental costs of artificial turf
• In 2006, the Athena Institute conducted a study researching how much a school would need
to do in order to offset the carbon footprint of an artificial field. The purpose of the study was to estimate the greenhouse gases emitted during the life cycle of an artificial turf field as opposed to a natural grass surface. The study determined the number of trees to be planted to achieve a 10-year carbon neutral synthetic turf installation. The result was that 1,861 (+23%) coniferous trees would be needed to be planted as a carbon offset.
http://athenasmi.org/projects/docs/UCC_project_ATHENA_technical_paper.pdf.
• Researchers have analyzed compounds emitted from the crumb rubber used in artificial fields.
They found over 25 chemicals were released over time, some of which are known to cause cancer. Artificial fields have not been in use long enough to determine if this exposure is harmful to people; however, we can be sure that athletes, coaches and fans are being exposed. Once the chemicals are in the water, exposure becomes a community-wide risk. These compounds will be washed into the soil, the ground water, or collected by a sewer system (depending on how the field was designed to handle rain).
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/turf/turf_report07.pdf
• The current working cost for disposal of an artificial turf field is more than $1.00 per square foot (some estimates are as high as $2.25 per square foot). The crumb rubber and sand infill mix can weigh more than 120 tons. Currently, car tires cannot be disposed of in a landfill, but crumb rubber infill can. Whether landfills will continue to accept crumb rubber at their sites is unknown.
Seems to be yet another conflict of interest by our leaders.
Giffen Good
Just found this call to action on the Lebogreen.org website.
ReplyDelete"Pledge an Act of Green
Posted on February 29, 2012 by admin
Help Earth Day Network reach A Billion Acts of Green.
A Billion Acts of Green, the world’s largest environmental service campaign, inspired over 500 million environmental actions from individuals, businesses, governments, and faith-based and civic organizations all over the world in what is being called a global referendum on the environment. Help make it to a billion for Earth Day!
Make your pledge online at: http://act.earthday.org/ then tell us about it here by posting a reply.
I'm pledging this to stop the nonsense posting my reply here.
Don't turf the damn fields!
{The study determined the number of trees to be planted to achieve a 10-year carbon neutral synthetic turf installation. The result was that 1,861 (+23%) coniferous trees would be needed to be planted as a carbon offset.]
Giffen Good
Samuel, and others wondering if we have other options about our Recreation issues. We do have some options. I shared with the Commission in our last meeting some of those possibilities. Some may not be perfect but it's a start to get some improvements not only with fields, but the pool and our neighborhood parks. We cannot do anything to move forward if we as a community we can't have a conversation that might be out of our "personal" comfort zones. We can all agree that space is limited, and money is tight. If anyone would like to see the idea, it is public and I am happy to share it. I would like more input to make it go from a decent idea to a good plan.
ReplyDeleteKelly Fraasch
Ward 5 Commissioner
I feel compelled to post a reminder about the Twin Hills site, which Mt. Lebanon foolishly bought from Scott in the mid 1990s for $1 million.
ReplyDeleteThat purchase has accomplished nothing but provided some foliage and quiet for a few residents---a totally unacceptable expenditure of public money.
I suggest the athletic backers get out their shovels, chainsaws, hoes and wheelbarrows and start clearing that area. Though some of the site is hillside, perhaps one or two ball fields could be salvaged from some of the land.
Carole Brown
Kelly, this has less to do with the fields than it does with abuse of power. The half-baked Mellon turf idea is just a symptom of the illness. If you have some idea you believe has merit, then let's discuss it. But you can see by what is posted here, the common sense crew in Lebo sees through the BS. I love that someone pointed out the hypocrisy in some of our recent transplants from the left coast supporting an idea that involves an artifical surface and wasted energy (the lights on at night. Where do the greenies think the power for those lights originates? It really makes me dizzy thinking about how dumb modern day so-called environmentalists are but I digress. I true environmentalist would be figuring out how to work with what we have).
ReplyDeleteAs I said, if your idea is viable and you think will get buy-in, float it out there.
Kelly, You are a good and considerate person but I'm not interested in supporting the dishonest athletic supporters. Their idea of fund raising is reneging on political promises and raising taxes; that is a despicable way to behave and that set a horrible example for children.
ReplyDeleteWe have too many weak minds in politics right now and I believe the Lebo that I helped develop is weaker for it because public servants serve special interest groups at everybody's expense.
If you can't be honest enough to live up to your promises and you can't take care of what you have then don't tell me about another idea until you can set a good example for your children.
I think you know I'm right here or you would have floated your idea on this blog.
Bet of Luck on the commission; I hope you do as good a job as James did on the Board. He really is exceptional.
John Ewing
John, Kelly is setting a good example for her kids no matter what she says here on the blog. She was meeting with constituents from 7:30 this morning until 1:00 this afternoon. She is taking her role as commissioner seriously. She asks lots of questions and brings lots of ideas to the table and honors her commitments. If she is a liaison to a board, she goes to the meetings. And that is all I am going to say about that.
ReplyDeleteElaine
Elaine,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't suggesting Kelly is setting a bad example; I am saying the athletic supporters have set a bad example and are being rewarded for that bad example when they should not be.
John