Why would the Clinton Daily News say they don’t know why the council did not approve the changes at ACME park phase II prior to the work being done? Guess they missed the Sept. 2nd meeting. Guess they don’t read their own paper. Monte Goucher came before the council and explained why the changes were made. The changes had to be made. Would anyone put 40 foot tall poles in 4 foot deep holes? Would anyone build a parking lot and roadway knowing the ground underneath would sag and warp? The changes we approved after the fact related to changes that could not be avoided. They were design flaws in the park. The changes (except 1 over by $580) were within Grayson Bottom’s approval level. Grayson brought the changes to the council to keep everything in the open. The Clinton Daily News thought the laser grading was a new item, when in fact if they had read the support document from Monte Goucher, they would have realized $130,000 dollars had been in the originally approved items, and this was a change to $35,000+. This saved the city just under $95,000 dollars and increased the amount of land being laser graded by adding the parking lots. Good news for the project but not reported that way in the Clinton Daily News.
I don’t even pretend to understand the Clinton Daily News motivation for their Editorials. I have never (in 4 1/2 years) gone to Rod Serfoss to discuss an article or editorial. I always figured that the job of the newspaper is to sell newspapers. However, I did find time to discuss this with Rod Thursday, September 18th. Most of the problem with the last city council meeting related to the Clinton Daily News feeling they did not get information. The information passed to the council members is public knowledge and always available and has never, ever been held back, not even one time. However, if you do not have something you would like, I always thought reporters would ask for it? On multiple occasions I have given my personal copies to Mr. Green, when he has come up after a meeting asking for information. I know the paper has a job to do and always try to support that responsibility. However, in this case, Mr. Green never asked me or anyone with the city for copies of what had been given to city councilmen. The Clinton Daily News simply wrote the editorial asking why it was not discussed in open session and making veiled references to “what has happened in the past two weeks concerning Acme Park that we aren’t supposed to know about? There are usually many things on the City Managers update and very seldom do we discuss each one. The report on the golf course and Acme phase 2 were included on the City Managers report in response to a request I made two council meetings earlier.
Instead of doing the job of the paper and getting the facts, the Clinton Daily News simply got FRUSTRATED and the editorial was written. Although I have (at every opportunity) assisted the Clinton Daily News with documents over the last 4 1/2 years, I cannot read their mind and they did not ask or question anyone before they wrote the editorial. Let’s hope in the future the Clinton Daily News will do a better job of gathering information and not just expect the City of Clinton to know every item the Clinton Daily News would like to receive without Clinton Daily News requesting anything.
My only response is I have tried at every turn to work with the newspaper and will continue to try to work with the newspaper. Unfortunately, there is a difference between information not being available and the newspaper not doing their job and asking for information. Hopefully, in the future, the newspaper will be more honest with its readers.
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