A call to contact city about expansion

Dear Editor,
The City of the Village of Clarkston is considering building a new garage for city vehicles and renovating the existing Village Hall at a cost estimated to exceed $440,000. There are no funds dedicated for this, no known financing in place, and the City Treasurer has stated it will take all the available funds the city has available and require property values to increase which is the same as higher taxes.
The city has yet to document all other economic possibilities or what other things this money could be used for like roads, sidewalks or fixing all the things that need fixing in our city. They have provided no costs or priority for any of this even though required to do so by state law.
The Mayor has stated that only “6 to 10 people” have raised objections and that “We haven’t heard from anyone else.” I guess he doesn’t read the newspaper, his emails, social media, or the letters that were sent to everyone in the village, one of which he responded to which is a rare occurrence for our Mayor.
The other members of the City Council have said nothing although three of the seven did vote to not approve the site plan and going out for bids.
We are told over and over by some of our elected Council members that no decision has been made but someone decided to prepare bid and construction documents for either 3,200 or 2,500 square feet of DPW space. Apparently they aren’t sure what DPW needs.
Also, a private office for the DPW supervisor remote from the other village office workers and inaccessible to visitors, custom block and mortar, custom windows, and a building that will hide the current Village Hall.
In fact, the person credited with the design said that was the reason we will have a 20 foot high by 80 foot long block wall welcoming everyone to the only public park and building we currently have in the Village.
I’m sure our former City Manager Art Pappas would be pleased with that since the present, soon to be hidden, Village Hall is dedicated to him.
The city obtained approval from the Planning Commission, although once again not in conformance with state requirements, and what they are calling approval from the city’s Historic District Commission although it is far less than a ringing endorsement.
The drawings are dated for a building permit. None of this is required to get bids and even though we are told no decision has been made about moving forward, the bid documents say construction is to start immediately in May and must be done by the end of this September.
These are not my opinions, they are facts. If this is OK with you then you don’t have to do anything as it seems apparent our city leaders are going to move ahead with this expense no matter what facts, questions and concerns are put in front of them.
If you think your tax dollars could be used for something better and could make the Village of Clarkston a better place to be, I highly recommend you contact the Village Hall immediately, preferably at a public meeting or at least in writing as the Mayor and council members seem to have an uncanny ability to ignore anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
It is your money and your city. Your elected council members are supposed to represent you and they should know what you think about this.
Cory Johnston
Clarkston

A big thank you to the Clarkston News

Dear Editor,
As an entire team, we want to thank The Clarkston News for supporting us during the past eight months of our fundraising efforts for the sale of our Love Clarkston shirt sale!
We could not have done it with out you and of course your advertising efforts to support us! With our hard work behind us – we did it! We raised enough money to purchase our new uniforms for our Girls Varsity Team.
We are so proud!
We also saw Wendy Reardon there too. Thank you so much!!!
Julie LeBourdais
Proud Soccer Mom and head of the Love Clarkston T-shirt sales