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.
Quizás sería prudente que la Sra. Dusenbery se mantuviera al margen de este asunto.
--Gordon Cook Parkville