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Bob Savage,

You make a good point which can be expanded upon. Let's take your very accurate point about the Mickey Stevens fields. When the facilities that nurture children with sports and entertainment begin to be neglected, that is the first sign of urban decay. Look what happened in Providence this past summer with the closing of the Davie Lopes pool and other facilities. The same signs are beginning to appear in Warwick.

As other examples: We no longer have a paving repair program. We used to allocated $500,000 / year to keep our streets in fair condition, now that budget has been absorbed and put into legacy costs.

We no longer have a side street sanding program. Why? Last year we spent over $200,000 on salt and sand. The city yard was left with a massive pile that seemed to begin to deplete about 3 weeks ago. We just purchased another 600 tons of salt. Why no side street sanding program? Where did all of the materials go? If there was extra material why weren't any of the side streets sanded last winter?

Community policing programs have all but disappeared. Why?? The monies for these programs are being sucked up by the giant vacuum which is formally titled Police /Fire 1 pension. Have you looked at the numbers of that pension system? $314 million in liabilities. Where is the money going to come from? Not to mention the $290 million in unfunded healthcare, and the program has ZERO dollars in it. There is more money between the seats of you furniture than there is in the health care plan that all of the taxpayers are on the hook for.

A previous poster stated that Warwick has a good taxpayer base. The problem is that residents are leaving because the writing is on the wall. All of these FACTS indicate urban decay and the fiscal death spiral. Taxes will continue to rise, tax base will continue to shrink.

To your point about the mayor getting re-elected with 80% of the vote. Bear in mind that only 45% of the registered voters voted in the last election. He also has given away the store to the unions, so as the debt builds and the bubble grows, he will leave before the bubble bursts and the next guy will deal with the issue. Look at Providence, Cicillini administration, same thing. We continue to elect charlatans and the urban decay continues to erode the city. You make great points. Hope you consider putting your name on the ballot for council next year.

From: Committee tables school plan

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