By Anonymous
There seems to be a pattern here in Payson, that has been going on for years, and is going to ultimately cost us not only the town we live in, but possibly our lives as well.
“Running in Place “ is one of the most frustrating experiences, and demands that you use all of your energy, and therefore completely wears you out, without going anywhere. We have been visiting our town since the 2000, bought a small manufactured house here in 2006, and finally decided to retire here . We liked the size of the town, the wonderful caring people we met, found a church we liked, and decided to get involved with helping the town in moving forward with improvements…or so we thought. And this is where the frustration started.
The Bush Fire came within 20 miles of our town. If it was not for the incredible dedication and efforts of the firefighters in saving lives and property to the south of us, we could very well have been another Paradise, California. You see, Payson is almost a mirror image of Paradise , California. It burned down, lives were lost, the town devastated, and will never be the same again. Every one of us knows that it is just a matter of time before we have another major fire. We have been lucky too many times. And this time our luck could have run out. So, how does this correlate with “running in place?”
For the past ten years or so, many concerned citizens have worked on volunteer committees getting an “Ordinance” drafted and approved by the town to begin cleaning up the abundance of tall weeds and grass, dead trees, trash, and other materials that contribute to fueling a fire. The Ordinance hopes to address not only city property , but businesses and residential property with homes, and vacant land .Much time, research and dedication has been spent to get an Ordinance to the point that it would make sense to the Town Council to approve…so we could get an ordinance program STARTED! But, time after time, it was not approved, delayed, agreement not reached and delayed again. And, as such, the “Running in Place” continued—for years and years. The committee members time after time became worn out and frustrated, as there was always a delay, always push back from certain “interests”…and exhausted, once again, the members gave up. You see, this is the “game” that is played in our town….over, and over, and over again. “Wear’em down. “wear’em out” “they will eventually give up”. A strategy that seems to have worked well for those who have their own agendas.
So, here we are once again. The current “committee” for drafting an Ordinance to
Build a “Fire Adaptive Community” has been STALLED ONCE AGAIN. Completed and ready for review by the Committee in February of this year. Submitted for “Legal approval” at the end of February. Then it sat in “Legal review” until a few weeks ago . It appears that it has been submitted to the Acting Town Manager….and STALLED AGAIN. Why is this? While the Bush Fire was burning close to our town, it’s importance was IGNORED for some reason. No, it is not a perfect solution, will need to be amended and improved along the way, but it is a way to STOP RUNNING IN PLACE!
This Ordinance needs to be given a voice NOW, and we need to implement solutions to clean up the town NOW, develop communications systems in the event of fire, flood, or any natural disaster for ALL residents, and develop and implement evacuation routes out of our town NOW!
SO, ACTING TOWN MANAGER, WHY ARE YOU STALLING THE ORDINANCE THIS TIME?
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