Questioning the bond vote

June 14, 2016

Washington, Iowa

To the Editor:

I would like to make three points about the upcoming YMCA Bond Issue vote.

First, it seems to me that the fundraising campaign has not been fully completed as it was originally proposed. To date I understand that there has been $2.5 million raised through supporters? donations. Of that total, $1 million has been from two generous donors. That means that just $1.5 million has been donated by community supporters. This indicates to me that maybe the support for this project is not as communitywide as we have been told.

Second, the feasibility study done a couple of years ago stated that the current YMCA building, which has 54,000 square feet, did not have enough space to accommodate all of the YMCA programs. However, the proposed new building has 34,000 square feet. This does not make sense to me. If the current building is not large enough, why will the new building be 36 percent smaller?

Third, as previous letters have stated, this is about increasing costs to the taxpayers in the City of Washington. If this bond issue were to pass, it would be combined with the school levy increase of $1.22 per $1,000 assessment, plus the city water bills are going to increase by 5 percent, and there is a significant increase coming for garbage pickup. You add these four increases together and it becomes burdensome, especially for anyone on a fixed income. At this point we have no control over the water or garbage increases or the school levy increase, but we do have a say on the bond vote on Aug. 2.

I believe the responsibility of the City is to make sure vital services (water, garbage, sewer) are provided, but I don?t think it is the City?s responsibility to provide a significant bond issue for a fee-based business.

As previous letters have stated, this bond issue of $3 for 20 years will carry an interest cost of $1, so it is actually a total cost of $4 million.

I ask you to vote ?No? on the proposed bond issue.

Gerald Franzen