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January 28, 2010

Reader's Forum: Jan. 29, 2010

Anonymous The Tribune Star Thu Jan 28, 2010, 08:32 PM EST

Problems would come with new gravel pit

How many people living within the city of Terre Haute ever thought that they would have to worry about a gravel pit moving into their neighborhood? Probably no one, but that may be exactly what is getting ready to happen on Boston Avenue in Terre Town.

A company, ST Construction, is asking the zoning commission to give them a variance to allow them to open a gravel pit at 15th and Boston. That is just five blocks down the street from Terre Town School and right next to Terre Town Baseball.

A lot has changed since a gravel pit operated there many, many years ago. Terre Town has grown into a well-kept, middle-class neighborhood with an outstanding elementary school and recreational facilities for our children. Is it really in the best interests of our community as a whole to introduce a gravel pit into this situation?

Are you ready to share your residential streets with the huge dump trucks full of gravel? Are you ready for the mud, dirt, dust and noise that come with them?

Are you ready for the potholes? Should the City of Terre Haute be responsible for maintaining streets that were not designed for this traffic? Are we ready for the school buses to have to share the streets with these trucks? What about the children walking home from school along streets that do not have sidewalks and would be routinely used by heavy commercial traffic? (Does the school corporation have an opinion about this?) Are you concerned about the effect this operation could have on our well-water? What impact would this have on your property values?

These are just a few of the problems that may come with a gravel pit. If you share these concerns or have any others you should plan to attend the Zoning Commission meeting on Feb. 3 at 9 a.m. in City Hall in the Board of Works conference room. This issue may be voted on at that time.

It may be your only chance to let your opinion be known.

— Jim Jeffers,Terre Haute



Learn lessons from the past

With all the technical devices to search history, Gov. Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Bennett might want to rethink the auto-retention at grade three plan for students not passing the I-Step.

In the mid-80s, Minneapolis Public Schools established a very similar retention policy based on test scores. They were called benchmarks. After two years of field testing and two years of implementing the retention policy, they did not achieve the desired result. Different methods of instruction, approaches to learning, etc. were all required. More of the same was not the answer.

The superintendent who took these courageous and innovative steps in Minneapolis would go on to retire from that position to go on to be the chancellor of New York Public Schools. He committed himself to visit EVERY school in NYC and spend at least a half day in each school and see every classroom within each building as well as speak to each employee working with or in the proximity of children.

He was keeping up this blazing pace when a late-night asthma attack called for emergency aid. As he and his wife had elected to live “among” the people, they didn’t realize how long it would take for that help to arrive. Dr. Richard Greene, NYC’s first African American Public School chancellor, died that night.

True leadership takes researching the history, piloting solutions, making corrections, and literally throwing your whole self into it. Answers are not always simple, yet solutions are not always complicated. I wonder if either the governor or Superintendent Bennett have ever heard of Dr. Greene. He was a very good listener and even better observer.

— Muriel Ryan, Terre Haute



Politicians allowing tax base to erode

I listen to local politicians saying they have to cut services and staff because they have no money. At the same time they are allowing a TIF district east of Terre Haute to be formed that will pay no taxes into the general fund for the next 30 years.

They are also giving a tax abatement on the new Holiday Inn that is being built on Indiana 46. This is property tax that will not be paid into the general tax fund.

They are also talking about a new park that from what I have read in the paper it will be 5,000 to 7,000 acres or the Pfizer property. Terre Haute is buying the old paper mill property, ISU is also buying property. In these situations, it takes property off the tax rolls, because neither the country, city or ISU pays taxes.

So what we have in this county is an eroding tax base, meaning we have less property you can tax. You will have to make cuts or raise the tax rate on the taxpayers or start taxing something else. When your library closes, your schools have less teachers, your leaves don’t get hauled off, and your roads have potholes, thank your local politicians who allowed the tax base to erode.

And thank yourself, because WE voted for them.

— Tim Certain, Terre Haute

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