Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Waffle House on Diley

I am hearing a rumor that a certain Pickerington City Council member wants a three lane Diley Road expansion so he will still have room to open a waffle house and serve COFFEE.

E. RESOLUTION 2003-24R, ?“A RESOLUTION TO DESIGNATE A PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE FOR THE DILEY ROAD WIDENING PROJECT AND THE DECLARATION OF AN IMMEDIATE NECESSITY AND EMERGENCY IN ORDER TO INFORM ODOT AND THE PUBLIC OF SUCH DESIGNATION PRIOR TO THE DECEMBER 2003, PUBLIC MEETING,?” First Reading, Maxey. Mr. Maxey moved to approve; Mr. Parker seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Sabatino, Mr. Fox, Mr. Shaver, Mr. Wright, Mr. Parker, Mr. Maxey, and Mrs. Riggs voting ?“Yea.?” Motion passed, 7-0. (CONSENT AGENDA ITEM)

Above is from the minutes of the Election Day Novemebr 4th 2003 Pickerington City Council meeting. Mr. Sabatino voting YEA!!!!!!!!!! No questions just YEA!!!!!!!!.

This was before the votes were counted that evening.

Help me out here





I guess either I am missing the point of all this or everyone else is. The bigger picture on the Diley widening issue seems to be spread across several postings and several media stories. Let me try to sum it up here. Correct me if I am wrong.

• Diley was designated to go to 5 lanes ever since ODOT made it known that 33 would become limited access and Diley would be an interchange. Seems sensible. This was 1997, right?



• Diley was subsequently rezoned from its prior uses to all R-4 residential by emergency legislation.



• Over 2,000 houses were approved to go in the Diley Road area.



• Councilman Sabatino was on P and Z when the plats were approved and voted in favor of all them.



• Councilmen Parker and Wright were on council and voted to approve all the houses, approve Diley widening and approved the resolution to make it 5 lanes.



• Of the $13M cost, $10M will be paid by federal funding.



• If federal funding is lost, any improvements will be paid for solely out of the pockets of Pickerington taxpayers.

So much for the history lesson. Fast forward to today.

• Council has met every demand place on them, by the Diley Citizen?’s group organized by councilman Sabatino to disrupt the process to resolve the situation he helped create.



• The citizen?’s group, rather then accept the concessions made by council instead demands more and more and the demands are becoming more unrealistic.



• Sabatino suggests placing the widening on the ballot. This will almost ascertain the loss of federal funding and the loss of the project.



• Wright and Parker are mute on the subject.



• The rest of council and the mayor have to take all the heat for playing the hand they were dealt.

Summation



To all you Diley residents ?– why don?’t you, just for once, storm into a council meeting and ask questions and direct your anger towards the exact people who put you where you are? Can?’t you just ask Sabatino on the record ?“Did you approve all the houses on Diley that has resulted in the need to widen our road??” Ask Parker and Wright if they did or did not contribute to the process that results in the widening.



You threaten the wrong people with recall and referendum. Tell Sabatino, Wright and Parker you are going to recall them for causing all this. Recall and referendum rights are guaranteed you by the charter. It can be a most valuable tool. Just wield your tool correctly. Recall the three that caused this, not the 4 who are stuck fixing it.



I hope there isn?’t a rational soul among the Diley road citizens that can truly believe that they can blame the other 4 for their anguish. Stop beating a dead horse and take action to stop Sabatino, Wright and Parker from being able to do this to anyone again.



You said you all were willing to pay more taxes to fund a road that is more pleasing to you. Here is your chance. It has been reported that a 3 lane could cost from $7M to $10M. According to my calculator, $7M divided by the hundred or so people at the last public hearing is about $70,000 per person. Get out your checkbooks. After you write that check, go ahead and plan to write another check in a couple of years when you are pleading with council to widen the road to 5 lanes. When traffic is backed up to completely block your driveway and you can?’t get in or out and you want the road widened for more flow, write another check to get that done too.



3 lanes, 5 lanes or 25 lanes ?– the cars are coming. You can?’t stop what Sabatino, Wright and Parker have done. All that can be rationally decided is how to best handle the traffic.



3 lanes only??? Give me a break. No one can believe that.





By Just not getting it

Letter to the Editor

Why don't some of you folks put your thoughts in a ''Letter to the Editor'' so a few more folks could see the facts on the Diley Road situation as you have stated on the PATA site. If your facts are true and you have documentation to that effect, more people should see them.

better yet

Why wouldn't a good editor direct his/her staff to document into the body of stories the facts. If these postings are facts, don't they belong as the basis of the written stories the public gets?
Remember editors get to be selective with letters and the content of a letter is much less than the body of a column.
But maybe editors are being selective NOW by excluding these facts posted here and not questioning the flim flam Council members.