AN EDITORIAL by John Estridge
The old idioms and adages we all know and are familiar with exist for a reason. That reason, they are correct.
And they withstand the test of time, over and over.
The one that comes to mind for me lately is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I have always enjoyed living in Brookville. It is a really nice small town. People seemed to get along fine. Then, for whatever reason, because I really cannot fathom an endgame with all this, Curtis Ward became the president of Brookville Town Council, Brooke Leffingwell and Chuck Campbell were elected to council and Eric Johnson and Cathy Pelsor remained from previous councils.
And as the saying goes: the (fill word in here) hit the fan.
First, they severely limited public participation at their meetings. Then, they announced they had secretly met and all of us suddenly needed a new town hall, and they did not give a tinker’s (fill word in here) what anyone paying the bills thought. Not only did we need a new town hall that as far as I know no one asked for, we needed it exceedingly quickly.
More recently, council members wanted to put trackers on all of the town’s vehicles for really ill defined reasons, maybe even nefarious reasons, until Brookville Police Chief Terry Mitchum explained how ludicrous that was. And then, the council members did a 180 and decided that was a bad idea.
And looming in the background is the annexation so the town, which is all of us who pay the town tax rate around here, can own a golf course. Think of that anyway you want, but towns and cities are stampeding to get out of the municipal golf business. There may not be another community in the nation thinking about purchasing a golf course.
But just a few days ago, Curtis Ward and the other town council members took a step that is beyond belief. They either ordered it or knew it was going to happen and did nothing about it or both. Any of those scenarios are repugnant and pitiful on each of the five people on council.
Brookville Town Police Department officers went around town writing $20 tickets for people parked the wrong way on the town’s many side streets.
An aside here, I know of people who called Curtis after being ticketed and Curtis stating this is all on Terry Mitchum, and then the same people calling Terry only to have him tell the same people, council directed him and his department to do it. No one would take responsibility for the situation. That means there are not many people in charge of Brookville who have the (place word here) to take responsibility for something they did that was so stupid and useless.
Every now and then I read Brookville Chatter just for the fun of it. I used to do the same with Topix when it was around. It was and is very entertaining. Brookville Chatter was flooded with comments after the ticket writing took place.
There were some that said “It is a law, and everyone should abide by the law. If you abide by the law, you would not get a ticket.”
I don’t know about everyone else but I do not drive the speed limit. I do not fly, but on straight state highways like U.S. 27 between Liberty and Richmond, I set the cruise control on 60 and go. On interstates, I set the cruise on 78. However, when I am going 78 and holding up traffic on interstates and really being more dangerous than the vehicles around me, I will go the speed of the traffic, as long as that speed does not get ridiculous.
Several times I have gone past police officers with their radar guns out and if I am going 60 on U.S. 27 or 78 on the interstates, they have never pulled me over. They could. The speed limit is 55 on state highways and 70 on interstates. To extrapolate what those people preaching about not breaking the law by parking on the wrong side of the street, we should get tickets for 56 and 71, respectively. Really, can one imagine going the posted speed limit on I-465 around Indianapolis or 1-275 around Cincinnati? By following the letter of the law, a person might get shot, maybe shot several times or at the very least cause a serious accident by impeding traffic.
In living here 30-plus years and being the editor of the local paper for most of that time – before I became the Fired Editor — I heard many people gripe and complain about a myriad of subjects. But at no time, let me emphasize that, at no time did anyone call me, email me, message me or walk into the paper office and say: “We have got to do something about people parking on the wrong side of the street in Brookville! We are all going to die because of it! The police have to get out there right now and write $20 tickets on practically every vehicle in town!”
I understand doing something about derelict vehicles in people’s yards, noxious weeds and trash in lawns and grass resembling jungles instead of yards. I get that. But with the exception of the 12th Street problem last summer when the complaints of many 12th Street residents went unheard about trash, weeds and the unmowed yard at one property, the old system worked well. The 12th Street experience was the exception to the rule, the outlier if you will. The former town council reacted by taking the responsibility of enforcing those type of ordinances away from the town administrator and giving it to the police.
Up until this last week, the enforcement of statutes of that type occurred after a complaint was officially filed. Tim Ripperger, the town administrator, did not walk the streets looking for problems. It was working well, except for that one time on 12th Street.
Why change? Why not wait until someone complains about something, and then go out and investigate it, find out if there is a problem and then take steps to rectify the problem, if there is an actual problem. That worked without getting the majority of the people riled up.
My life and the lives of those reading this are not going to be any safer or enriched in any way by the police of this town writing $20 tickets on vehicles parked the wrong way on the town’s side streets. Note to Curtis and the rest: We living here in the second decade of the 21st Century have enough to upset us every day; we don’t need you to pile on something stupid like this.
Just think about the money that is being added to the town’s coffers. It there are 100 tickets written at $20 a pop, that is $2,000. Thus, what is the money brought in by those tickets being used for: Is it for paying for the new town hall we all suddenly need? Is it to pay for the golf course we are soon going to own? Is it to pay for all the costs that come with annexation such as: installing water, sewage and storm sewers, taking over the road repair and snow removal and hiring more police officers to provide policing up on Snob Hill?
Saturday, May 8, on the way back from Richmond, my Long Suffering Wife Ruth and I stopped off in Liberty, the town of my birth, and rode around the town’s side streets. Many, many vehicles were parked the wrong way on the side streets. When I lived there for the first 20 years or so of my life, no one complained about people parking the wrong way on side streets. I’m going out on a limb here, but I would hazard a guess – like Brookville – no one has ever complained about it in Liberty.
Last summer, a person overdosed in the alley between 11th Street and the post office. There was an ambulance, police officers, first responders and the neighborhood residents all out on that summer night gathered around the prone figure. My kids at one time played in that alley and other alleys around here. Now, there is a new group of children who play in that alley and the other alleys around here. People find needles in the alleys and even on the Main Street sidewalks more often than they should. One time is too much but when it becomes relatively normal to find them, there is a problem.
Let the police work on that. All of us would be safer and our lives enriched if heroin and methamphetamine were not in this community.
And let me say this: I am probably the most pro-police person you will ever find. I believe what is currently going on in America related to the anti-police and/or defund police movement is ludicrous. I will donate funds, I will write editorials, I will do anything in my power to make a police officer’s life better and his or her job safer.
But to accuse someone of not being pro-police because they are against police officers writing $20 tickets on cars parked the wrong way on Brookville’s side streets is the proverbial apples and oranges saying.
Curtis, Eric, Cathy, Chuck and Brooke, it ain’t broke. Please don’t try to fix it.
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Fantastic! So on point.
On which point? The point on his head? Lol
To put it as you did John….grow a set and come to the town meetings. Quit hiding behind a keyboard. Maybe you will learn a thing or two. You can sure stir the pot, can you eat what you fix? I thought you were different. I had hope for you. But you just disappointed me like the rest of them. Keyboard warriors.
Hey Chuck, if you believe you are serving the people who pay taxes in Brookville, by limiting their input at meetings, building a new town hall no one has asked for on property the town and specifically the taxpayers do not need and to do it all in secret, want to buy a golf course for more than $1 million that maybe 10 percent of Brookville’s population would use but 100 percent will have to continue to pour money into year after year through their taxes to subsidize something that has proven to be a money pit, put tracking devices on town vehicles for no apparent reason, give residents and visitors $20 tickets for parking on the other side of the street, when every community around us does it also, and last but not least annex property when the very narrow majority vote is coming from just a few rich people who own multiple lots while the majority of those in the affected area are against it not to mention the rest of the people in Brookville who will have to pay higher taxes to give those few rich people water, sewage, street maintenance and police protection, then hey, Chuck, be proud of yourself and embrace it, don’t be defensive about it.
I am very proud to be a resident of this wonderful town. You must have a crystal ball by the way you predict things that are going to happen in the future, in your mind. Recently you submitted questions for the town council to answer. The questions did not pertain to anything we were discussing. You were “assuming “ many things. Then to top it off, you couldn’t attend that meeting. I encourage all people to attend their town council meetings. I encourage participation. I do not encourage people to get the biased, agenda based information that you spin out. And yes, you do spin it. A dog sniffing another dog’s butt gets more information than from anything you spit out.
I guess this is an example of what Curtis was talking about at the end of the last meeting, where we do not say mean things to each other and we all get along. I am just guessing what Curtis was reading and what you are apparently living is just a one-way street where the populace is just not to criticize town council members and their actions, but those in power can dish out anything they want. Thank you for clarifying that.