Our esteemed mayor in Hooper has bowed out of the next election; maybe it's time to reflect on some of his accomplishments.
1) He was influenced by two councilmen, a developer and an engineer who lined his pockets with a conflict of interest, forced a vacuum sewer on the people with no vote, ignoring a petition showing the vast majority wanted no part of it.
2) He fired a city employee; then when it came time to defend his actions, he crawfished and hired him back with a hefty raise and covered the whole thing up.
3) In a hurry-up-deal, he annexed all of Hooper sewer users into the sewer district. So, on top of the $43 a month flushing fee, we had to pay about $70 per year more on our property taxes.
4) He rubber-stamped a deal whereby we can't opt-out of the district until all the debts are paid. That eliminates any chance of Hooper having a plant of its own.
5) He refused to establish any recreation or sports programs for our youth.
6) He force West Haven to raise sign-up fees for Hooper's kids because he wouldn't contribute anything to their program. That put the burden on Hooper's parents.
7) He spent the money he could have used for a recreation program on a brand new, 10-wheel, fancy, uptown dump truck that's just a decoration. We need it like we need a root canal.
8) With grant money, he built a fancy trail to nowhere on 5500 West for no other reason that to enhance the property of a developer-politician.
There are many more accomplishments I could mention, but I'm limited to a specific word count. Don't despair--things would always be worse.
Ed Venstra
Hooper
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