People have asked, why are you running against Mayor Watson? I made this decision very late in the process -- around July. I made it based on many factors, but there were two that sealed the deal. 1. Mayor Watson had fallen short on his promise to start the road to I-40 by 2014, and in June of this year insisted that he still thought it would be underway before the end of the year. He was not being truthful when he said this because he knew it wasnt possible. He was saying something he knew to be false just so he could cruise to re-election unopposed. 2. Some of the same investors/developers that built the apartments in NLR that have crippled us with respect to traffic have formed an improvement district just off of Maumelle Blvd and Vestal Blvd. Their plan is to extend two different roads to the land Maumelle has within its city limits for a third interstate exit. NLR Wastewater is also laying a massive sewer line to serve that same property. Maumelle signed a contract with that landowner that we would provide a road to the land around the 3rd entrance by 2007. In eight years, Mayor Watson has failed to deliver on that contractual promise. We stand a very real risk of losing that land to NLR and with it our 3rd entrance. Mayor Watson is playing a very dangerous game with the peoples money. Not only could inflation cause the price of the 9.8 million dollar extension to go up, we could lose the land we have to NLR because we havent fulfilled our contractual obligations. If that occurs, Maumelle will lose $3,000,000 of annual potential sales tax revenue (the entire city only brings in $2,000,000 at present). We will lose the zoning that we have carefully developed to guard against more apartments, and we will be at the tender mercy of NLR. At a time when the stakes are so high has Mayor Watson moved with our best intentions? NO At a time when Maumelle stands so much to lose has he shown leadership? NO Has he kept in touch with the property owners in that area to try and maintain our city limit boundaries? NO. Did he move boldly to try and get our interstate exit project in conjunction with the I-40 widening project? NO Im not doing this to climb some political ladder. Im doing it because I dont want to see the community I love drift further into decline because we lack the leadership to achieve our goals. #Preston4Maumelle
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 17:25:00 +0000
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