EDITOR:
I was amused by former Parkville Mayor Kathy Dusenbery’s comment in last week’s paper regarding train horn noise. It was 20 years ago this month that then-Alderman Dusenbery was actively promoting the 2004 levy ballot to allow the city to borrow $2,750,000 for numerous city improvements, one of which was $165,000 for automated train horns. Another $1,000,000 was allocated to rehabbing city hall.
The train horn matter then seemed to just disappear. However, within months after that levy increase was approved, the city took a different path under then newly- elected Mayor Dusenbery’s leadership by scrapping some of what she had sold to the public. By April 2006, the city had borrowed an additional $3,655,000 to build a new city hall, all without engaging the public and without approval to issue more debt. All in, the city spent $4 million on the new city hall.
Your article states that wayside horns for both downtown intersections would cost $540,000 in today’s dollars. How nice it would have been had Ms. Dusenbery done her job and stuck to the original plan instead of building a new city hall. She didn’t, and now wants to cast responsibility for the absence of wayside train horns on someone else.
Perhaps Ms. Dusenbery would be wise to take a sidelines seat on this matter.
--Gordon Cook
Parkville