Letters to the Editor, Aug. 3
School district should ask voters
O’Fallon School District 90 has laid out its plans to issue a $17 million working cash bond, without voter approval. This is a backdoor referendum. There is no intent to ask our permission. The intent is the challenge of “Stop Us If You Can!” The last time District 90 attempted a backdoor referendum we demanded the measure be put on the ballot. The board refused to place it on the ballot in spite of the successful petition effort.
Are new facilities really needed? Is pre-K a public function or can be provided privately? Is now the time for huge new debt? Interest rates are higher than they have been in 22 years. Are we having financial issues due to continuing inflation?
A better method to obtain funding for construction projects is to inform us at an informational meeting to discuss and answer questions about District 90’s needs. Put the referendum on the ballot and let us decide if we want to take on this debt. If we agree with the need, the bond issue will pass.
I think the District 90 Board of Education would do well to ask our permission to issue a $17 million bond.
Send your opinions to each of the board members and superintendents via email. Website of90.net. Show up at the District 90 Board of Education Meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 15 to voice your opinion(s).
Contact me to discuss if you like: SteveSpringer12@gmail.com.
Steve Springer, O’Fallon, former District 90 School Board Member
Residents deserve an apology
Mayor Roach lectured citizens at the July 17 City Council Meeting, but he didn’t have his facts straight. He said citizens insinuated The City was wined and dined by Meijer to facilitate the Pierce Boulevard development.
No citizen accused Meijer of doing that. A review of publicly available meeting videos reveals what was really said. Citizens said, “The City has been courting Meijer ….”
They repeated Community Development Director Justin Randall’s statement from the May 10 edition of the O’Fallon Weekly, which reported that “Randall said the city has been courting Meijer for eight months and is pleased with the application.”
At the same meeting, Mayor Roach rudely dismissed a citizen who spoke longer than five minutes about the effect of the development, cutting her off mid-sentence. How demeaning! The city courted Meijer for eight months, yet residents whose lives are affected have just five minutes to plead for their future. Residents must live with this daily, not the council or the mayor. The majority don’t care. Meijer isn’t in their back yard.
Residents asked many questions. The response? A lecture from Mr. Randall and Mr. Denton at a Community Development meeting. The questions raised at that meeting were deferred to a Q&A document hidden in the agenda attachments for the July 17 Council meeting.
Residents did not lie. They were pleading for their lives. The city lied by omission by refusing to address the neighborhood’s tough questions.
Mayor Roach, an apology is in order.
Kie Zelms, O’Fallon