You Can't Make This Stuff Up~

Okay, let me get this straight; we (Fayetteville) spent just shy of a million dollars for the city to implement a paid parking lot to increase revenues. Back in June of 2010 the city council agreed, 7-1, to a budget adjustment, adding 2.5 new full-time paid positions and allotting $289,000 each year to the Walton Arts Center.

Fayetteville residents now have well over a million dollar initial investment and hundreds of thousands of dollars annually committed for this one project; all the while citizens, mostly business owners on Dickson, screaming no.  

It goes downhill from there. Over the course of the last several months this parking tale has been a point of contention for merchants and patrons alike. To my knowledge this has been an ongoing issue addressed at every council meeting since. So on December 7th, the city council made changes to the times of paid parking, the maximum amounts of fines and freeing up Charles Ave.  and a few other changes that are spelled out in the Fayetteville Flyer story

Move to December 29, 2010 the City of Fayetteville puts this out:

Starting December 31, the new Dickson Street shuttle will begin.  This shuttle will be running on Friday and Saturday nights from 5:30 pm to 11:30 pm.  It will be on a ten-minute frequency schedule, making a trip every 10 minutes from Dickson Street to the Fayetteville Historic Downtown Square. 

 Free parking is provided in the City of Fayetteville parking lots that are located one-half block west of the Downtown Square--behind the Bank of Fayetteville and on both sides of Center Street.  These city parking lots are free during those dates and times.  Moreover, there is no fare being charged to use this shuttle, courtesy of Ozark Regional Transit.  Donations will be accepted on the bus to help out local charities.  Please see the attached map for the routing.

The purpose of this route is to help out the public and the Dickson Street merchants/Walton Arts Center by providing even more access to free parking in the Entertainment District.

So (I need a Red Bull) we are now using a government funded transit system to help people avoid paying the parking fees of a government funded project implemented to increase revenue~ again at the expense of the taxpayers?

Now how do we pay for the parking lot? How are we paying for the gas for the FREE shuttle, the transit worker for the extra hours?  How are we paying the 2.5 full-time employees, the $289K to the Walton Arts Center not to mention the maintenance of the parking system now not being used?? 

HELP ME~Is it just me; or our “leaders” on every level constantly implementing plans that cost us HUGE amounts of money only to come back, sometimes just moments later, to cost us MORE money to fix what they broke?

I encourage you strongly, if you are the least bit concerned about the direction of our city, state and nation, the debt  being heaped upon the backs of unborn taxpayers  compounded daily by government entities on every level and the consistent usurpation of the will of the people; please get involved. Please help in any capacity you can.