Tyrone's "new and open government" at 6 months

In six months the new town council has accomplished much:
1. Held secret meetings before taking office where decisions effecting the Town were made
2. Fired the town manager and installed a puppet manager for Grace Caldwell to control
3. Fired the town attorney and hired the former county attorney at a much higher billing rate (another Grace Caldwell initiative)
4. Fired the town’s planning commission and appointed their supporters to the commission then gave them a 50% raise in salary.
5. Rewrote the town charter at great expense to the taxpayers in both staff time and legal fees, the new town attorney miss advertised the changes resulting in more legal fees, Grace Caldwell then blamed our local representative for delaying the charter changes.
6. Changed the town organization chart putting the police under the Mayors direct control. Crime statistics from the Town’s web site show over a 50% decrease in officer initiated calls, but a 100% increase in citations issued (less time patrolling the neighborhood = more time to write speeding tickets)
7. Evaluated Shamrock Park for use as a septic drain field (Caldwell/Furr initiative)
8. Evaluated Triangle Park for use as a septic drain field (Caldwell/Furr initiative)
9. Destroyed aquatic and wildlife habitat around Shamrock Lake (Caldwell/Furr initiative blessed by Dennis Chase)
10. Stopped all development in Tyrone including non-residential development that would provide tax relief to the taxpaying homeowners.
11. Abandoned all plans for continuing the revival of the downtown area that was started several years ago including eliminating any discussion of a sewer system to serve the downtown area.
12. Hastened the departure of the Fire Station from being located in Tyrone by having no master plan for the future of Tyrone including the downtown area.
13. Eliminated the Town’s quarterly newsletter “The Tyrone Express”. (apparently keeping the citizens informed is too troublesome or time consuming)
14. Eliminated the code enforcement position (to hard to find someone willing to do selective enforcement)

What the Council has not done
1. Kept the public informed about the costs the taxpayers are paying for these “accomplishments” (How much has been spent on legal fees in the past six months)
2. Kept the public informed about what will be discussed at Council meetings, the agenda’s include only items that are routine, important issues are added at the Council meetings (generally by Grace Caldwell or Tracy Young) with no notice to the public.
3. Posting minutes promptly (none posted since they fired the former clerk)
4. Made any progress on a second entrance into Shamrock Park
5. Made any progress on controlling air pollution in Shamrock Park (blame it on the lack of a code enforcement officer)
6. Addressed or even mentioned the Millbrook sewer issue
7. Issued variances for the “illegal” signs at Triangle Park or the Dollar Store
8. Repealed ordinance 454.

Next week before you go to the polls look at who is supporting which candidate and be careful who you vote for.