To the Editor:
When Piqua’s Mayor Hinds took office as mayor in August 2016, she stated that she wanted to do something about the heroin addiction in the area and promote Piqua’s downtown projects, taking issue with the “negativism” over Piqua’s on-going projects. (Source: Dayton Daily News, “Area Transplant Turns Energies to Mayor’s Office,” Aug. 28, 2016, article by Nancy Bowman).
The heroin addiction continued to soar (Source: https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/opioids/opioid-summaries-by-state/ohio-opioid-involved-deaths-related-harms) and Piqua continued to pour money into downtown projects that the taxpayer had no vote on a single issue.
On October 21, 2019, then, Mayor Hinds had a public walk through Fountain Park and the Hance Pavilion. (source: https://www.facebook.com/CityofPiquaOhio/posts/141555730567357) The Hance pavilion that was rendered unsafe due to lack of a city maintenance schedule. Why were those charged city properties not maintained under Mayor Hinds’ administration? Yet, the downtown projects were promoted against those trouble-making, disruptive, nay-sayers who questioned the unelected elitists’ power and authority placing continuous maintenance debt upon the tax payers without any thought to encouraging new industry and businesses in town.
Mayor Hinds is no longer mayor but city commissioner. With a new city manager Oberdorfer, and the persistence of getting the city government (Mayor Lee, and Commissioners Grissom and Fogt) back to the citizens they represent; we see disruptions in the city’s (persistent self-purchased Award Winning) financial department after the city’s finance director resigns and a second employee on administrative leave (Source: Miami Valley Today, Piqua Finance Director Resigns, July 15, 2021, by Aimee Hancock).
Finally, we see a new candidate challenging Mayor Lee, in the 3rd Ward, with the platform of (1.) developing the downtown projects and (2.) owner, tenant occupancy rate within the city, which has been two of the major topics promoted for years by the unelected elitists driving the debt in the city. Isn’t that interesting?
— Terry Wright
Piqua
