Let the games begin! It’s budget time in the City government again.
I am interested in seeing a new Sports Complex get built here so I watched the video of the last Council meeting. It was a travesty. It went over 4 hours and accomplished nothing. The Council and the Mayor spent more time yelling at each other about nonsense than they spent discussing the actual budget. It is worth watching 10 minutes just to see how low your government can go. They are one step short of making a good YouTube video like the Taiwanese Parliament fight. You have to see it to believe it. The one constant over the 6 years of gridlock is the Mayor. The Council members change but the results under this Mayor remain the same. Nothing gets done.
Mayor McMillan has proposed building a large athletic complex that is truly needed in the community. She has proposed buying land in this budget. Her preferred site is in the County adjacent to the Industrial Park. The absurdity of that idea is an issue of its’ own. I am glad she proposed building the complex if the goal is really to build the complex for the citizens of Clarksville. That site in the County went down in flames with a small amount of discussion and an 8 to 4 vote against it. Some Council Members with an interest in getting something done in the City for the City’s taxpayers proposed putting the Park on Tinytown Road. This idea failed in a closer 7-5 vote. The Tinytown Road site was not her first choice but the sports complex is either needed or it isn’t. If it isn’t needed, why did she propose it? If it is needed, then building it on Tinytown is far better than not building it at all.
This is the point where a real leader who knows how to get a deal done steps in and pushes it through for the good of the citizens. Councilmen Grubbs and Lewis have spent six years voting as she instructs on every vote taken. She could make this happen with ease. Just tell those two to vote for it and it passes 7-5.
I have heard some people suggest that the goal was never really to build a sports complex. Her goal was to buy the land at exit 8, period. If she fails to compromise and support the Sports Complex project on Tinytown Rd, I believe that line of thought would be proven correct. And THAT would be worthy of real investigation.
As Councilman Powers so aptly stated in the last meeting “come on people, what are we going to do? We tax (the public) and take their monies and promise to something with it. We need to erect something. Let’s do something for Clarksville. We need (the sports complex) sorely.”
They meet again on the 14th. Bill Powers is right, we need the sports complex. If you have kids playing a sport in this town, you know there is a crisis for fields and gyms. Let your councilman or the Mayor know it’s time to do as Bill Powers says “let’s do something for Clarksville.”
It will be interesting to see if the Mayor can compromise and get her own idea of building this Sports Complex done for the citizens of Clarksville. If not, somebody really needs to ask her if that was really the goal to begin with?