Did you know that our little city owns a 500-acre "Annapolis National Clean Energy Park" ?. Once again our mayor is trying to be the tail wagging the dog, create a legacy for herself and put our city on the cutting edge of some great, huge, pressing problem. As if taking our dollars to sole source a contract for creating a clean air curriculum were not enough?
This morning I read in The Baltimore Sun and in The online Washington Business Journal (bizjournals.com) that our city is partnering with a new state program to make Maryland a leader in clean energy. It sounds good, perhaps even really great, but hello, our Market House is empty, our police station renovation has lagged interminably, our own water infrastructure is crumbling, our buses can't seem to run their air conditioners and we just created an "Annapolis National Clean Energy Park" ??? Where did this come from? It must be our Waterworks Park out on Defense Highway but have any of you heard about this?
According to The Sun, "The city of Annapolis will offer the center access and free use of the Annapolis National Renewable Energy Park, a 500-acre site under development near the intersection of U.S. 50 and Interstate 97. City Administrator Bob Agee said projects at the industrial park will generate electricity commercially using solar power, gasification techniques and methane from an old landfill at the site. 'Not only will it be commercially viable for production of energy, but you will be able to come there to see different applications of renewable energy,' Agee said. "
I suppose this is a good and important thing, but where is the information we as citizens need to know? Who has worked on this project? How will it benefit we the residents and taxpayers? What has it cost? Was there any citizen input? How viable is this? Has it been adequately studied? Once again we see an example of how our contracted and acting city administrator (can you say sinecure?) Bob Agee gets his hands into whatever special project Ellen "O" wants and one again we see how Ellen "O" is focused on building a legacy, rather than in running our city. Can you see why we need an independent and professional city manager rather than a stooge for the mayor?
We need to know more about this project and we need to know now Madame Mayor Moyer.
See The Sun's article at: energy-center
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3 Comments:
Dear CP:
This is news to me as well, but I heard a rumbling about it a month or so ago. Don't know who from.
You make good, relevant points about the lack of public input into what our city is doing.
In the mayor's defense however I believe this may be a valuable project that could cost little or no tax dollars and it sounds like actually it will be on the old landfill out 450, and a good use of land that will likely receive more attention and maintenance to protect groundwater as a result, as opposed to becoming yet another golf course with all the bay killers that go into keeping that pretty, as landfills often become.
I would like to segway into public discourse, which is surely your weak point. How could Ms. Moyer, who is also a person, reconcile herself to polite regard for you inside herself, disregarding her public face that she must put on, while you lash out at her at any opportunity? I suggest the benefit of the doubt is in order in this case at least. I too am disheartened by the degradation of the bus system, and for personal reasons it is a sore point for you; and the market house is yet another issue, which brings me back to my point. As one with many irons in the fire I must point out that while one thing is not going right that does not mean nothing else can be attended to.
Lets hope this announcement bodes well for the citizens of the city and surrounding community, and like many examples including the above, if we keep a cooperative, inclusive attitude about it there is more than a chance but a likelihood of success.
Will This is what I wrote, "It sounds good, perhaps even really great, but..." This is not about whether or not it might be a good project. It's about the bounds of what is appropriate for a small city to do, and especially in light of what this strapped and mismanaged city should be doing. This is one of her many legacy projects now underway. SO I asked a lot of fair questions about what it costs, what we get in return, etc., etc. I did not by any means suggest the project is a bad thing.
I do not lash out at the mayor at any opportunity although she sure gives us plenty of them. I have come to her defense and supported her on many things. However, when she hides behind this false and phony air of "civility" and when she attacks anyone who testifies before her and when she refuses to ever admit any mistakes or wrongdoing and when she acts as it City Hall and the budget were her personal fiefdom, what would one expect? Not only that, but I took off the gloves with her when a hundred neighbors and I went to city hall to protest gunfire in Eastport--in her neighborhood no less. What did she do? She turned to The Sun and called us, her neighbors, her constituents "rhetorical bomb throwers." Okay. That's good enough for me and right then and there I figured I'd just be a rhetorical bomb thrower.
Finally,if there is going to be a cooperative, inclusive attitude where might it start?
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