Published: May 06, 2008 05:37 pm            

Take them up on their offer

It would be a stretch to say Paul Wyman received even a lukewarm welcome from Howard County Commissioner Dave Trine Monday.

Wyman asked the commissioners to help fund a plan to keep the YMCA downtown. After the hour-and-a-half hearing – which included impassioned and sometimes bitter exchanges between Wyman and Trine – Commissioner Paul Raver moved the board decline to amend its 2008 Capital Improvement Plan to include $300,000 toward the purchase of a downtown site for the Y project.

Raver’s motion was prepared before the hearing – in typed form. The statements of Wyman, Randy Morris, Charlie Skoog, Dave White, Kim LaFollette and Janie Young mattered not.

Wyman, a county councilman and spokesman for the group trying to secure public funding to pay for land to ensure the Y builds an $8 million-to-$9-million building downtown, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the commissioners’ vote.

“We will go to somebody else for the money,” he said. “This is too important for the community. An opportunity like this doesn’t come about every day.”

According to Raver’s motion, the commissioners believe “the following issues must be considered, publicly debated and resolved before the Board should consider committing public funds to purchase of this Site for the YMCA:

“1. The impact of the 2008 property tax reforms, including caps, upon the County’s finances, including EDIT funds.

“2. The impact of the City’s proposed annexation upon the County’s finances, including EDIT funds.

“3. The impact and priority of other pending proposals for use of County EDIT funds, including the transfer of the New London Conservancy District to Russiaville.

“4. Details on the structure of the proposed transaction, including what entity will purchase and own the Site.

“5. Whether the County should give public funds to a non-for-profit religious organization for the construction of a facility.

“6. Whether the construction of a new YMCA facility in downtown Kokomo will foster economic development in Howard County.

“7. Clarification and more detail on the consortium’s projected cost estimates for the project, including the costs of environmental clean-up of the Site and utility relocation.

“8. Details of the environmental studies performed on the Site.

“9. The YMCA’s final commitment to this Site and its projected timetables for fundraising and construction.”

OK, let’s publicly consider this. We urge Wyman and his group, members of the YMCA board and others important to the Y’s downtown plan to explain the proposal in one – if not several – town-hall meetings. The Kokomo Tribune, and our friends at the Kokomo Perspective, will help coordinate – even moderate – what we foresee as question-and-answer sessions.

We hope to hear from you, all. And we hope the commissioners will be in attendance. For, as Wyman said, this is too important to the community.

        

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