McIntosh Mirror: Reflecting news in the Tosh

Want to impact your community? Many of McIntosh's citizen boards have open seats and a council at a loss as to how to fill them.

Light-up McIntosh December 15

Light-up McIntosh will begin at the Civic Center at 6:30 p.m. The event will host Santa Clause and an area choir from six local churches will sing.

05.31.07 -- Poll: Building a new McIntosh School

Check out the following story about building a new McIntosh Area School. Then, check in with what option you are leaning toward.











Poll closed. Thanks to everyone for participating.
Results:

Give the school the land: 8 votes, 16 percent
Help them build a school: 25 votes, 52 percent
Do nothing, keeping leasing land: 15 votes, 31 percent
I have a better idea: 0 votes, no one...

If you'd still like to voice your opinion, the comment section is still open







Have a better idea or more to say? Leave a comment in the forum.


(Poll began with 10,186.)

posted by Cher @ 12:24 AM,

11 Comments:

At   June 04, 2007 11:25 AM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

Does Lee have to recuse himself from any vote on the school?

 
At   June 04, 2007 11:53 AM     ,    Blogger Cher    said...

They'll probably need to ask Scott Walker or call the Ethics Commission.

Playing it by ear, on one hand, Lee stepped down from the school board months ago. On the other hand, he has kids that go to the school, family that works there.

The key question here would be "what would Lee or his family personally gain from the town building the school a building or from the town giving the school land to build on?"

I'm not sure he would gain anything different than any other resident with a child in McIntosh would gain.

Further, his kids aren't going to go to that school forever. It's only K-5. The odds are if he's got older kids, the building wouldn't even be complete while they are young enough to go there.

It's true that this is an issue he's passionate about. He's been open about that. Further, there are other people in town who are as passionate about the school but don't have children who would go to this school. Chris Rath, a code enforcement board member, is a fine example.

Building a public school is a far different scenario than other issues recently played out in town where conflicts of interest existed surrounding personal petitions to the council and town officials.

 
At   June 04, 2007 6:32 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

The town cant afford to finance a school, heck they cant even run a water department. If they desire to give the land to the school, then fine. but to finance the school and then to lease to the private school, leaves the tax payer in a fix, especially if the school fails.

 
At   June 04, 2007 8:26 PM     ,    Blogger Cher    said...

Good points.

There is the fact that there's a pending water fee in the works...

Some had concerns about the town losing assets by giving the land to the school. Building a school would balance that.

However, the idea of the town taking out the loan to build the school would mean that over so many years the town would actually be investing in something that would be worth millions, increasing its assets.

Further, as long as the school is there, if I understood the conversation the other night correctly, the school would be paying off the loan. Someone made a good point the other night about how school's don't just fold. A point Lee made was this area is going to face a lot of growth in the next 50 years.

The council has been chomping at the bit for the last few months to build a town hall, too. A gov't complex and school isn't such a crazy idea. If the town is going to dump $200,000 and up into a town hall, this seems like the least painful method for taxpayers.

I got the impression this was at idea phase at this point. Actually, I thought it was kind of cool to see most of the people in a McIntosh meeting working toward something positive for a change.

I don't know what the answer is here.. borrow, build, give the land back. That's for y'all to figure out together.

But finding a way to build a school might just be something McIntosh needs to do as a community, and not just for the kids.

 
At   June 06, 2007 11:58 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

Does lee recuse? no his big idea, use 100 grand to pave the parking lot after the town gets the loan. pretty good ssince he didnt ssupport the town repaairing the drainge problem. hhed gladlly use the road funds to pave aa lot for the school. we got to get a decent bussiness man to serve on the council.

 
At   June 07, 2007 6:54 AM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

Ok Mr. Brillant, why do you start giving up some of your time to serve instead of complaining?!

 
At   June 13, 2007 12:08 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

Yes Lee does have to recuse himself. Just call the county.

 
At   June 13, 2007 12:14 PM     ,    Blogger Cher    said...

On what grounds?

 
At   June 13, 2007 11:17 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

Mr. Brillant, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, well said. In fact since you have such a firn grasp of the obvious, i'll start using Mr. Brillant. Although your not the first to make such an observation.
Maybe i'll spend a few minutes to explain how the town can have a new city hall building. Paid for and no debt.

 
At   June 16, 2007 6:13 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

I believe Lee's referance to 100,000 dollars was goiong to come from the school. The school would be a VERY good tenant, and a very low risk for defaulting. Please look at the financial reports before you make up your mind. Once the loan is paid off it would turn into a source of income for the town. I think I heard the figure of 60,000. Lets all go into this with an open mind and look at the facts. If you have some concerns or need some data please contact the school. They plan on going out into the community in the near future to try and address residents concerns. Please, Please,Please seek out some information before you come to a decision. This can work !!!!

 
At   June 16, 2007 11:30 PM     ,    Anonymous Anonymous    said...

No matter how bad an idea, it can work, if everyoone pulls together. BBBBBBBBbbut it is still a bad idea.
Mr. Brillant

 

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Editor and Publisher:

I'm Cher From McIntosh, FL I'm a graduate student at the University of Florida working on a master's degree in Mass Communication. While I was finishing my undergrad degree in journalism last year, I reported on McIntosh, Fla. for an in-depth reporting class. I figured that the reporting and the public record files should go somewhere people can access them. Reporters don't report to keep the information they find to themselves. Some of that reporting is included here in a forum that allows response. McIntosh suffers because with no news coverage, the local government and the rumor mill have too much potential to run rampant over residents. I moved to McIntosh in the fall of 1999. My profile

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