Kathy Snavely and moral and financial bankruptcy

With great humor I read this email conversation that I had earlier this year with Kathy Snavely.
Her comments are in black, and my responses to her comments are in blue.

Even she, as far back as March of this year, can't shake the Mt. Gretna Myopia and see the reality of what kind of community the Chautauqua Board and the Borough Council have created for us and for themselves.

The best line from her is the p.s. (having the smallest Boro in the state). EXACTLY--listen, I am making these bumber stickers that say "3/87/170" That means: 3.2 miles of paved road, 87 acres of land, and 170 registered voters. Yet we have a public works crew, a fleet of public works machinery, vehicles, and equipment, pension plans and obligations that our grandchildren will be paying on, police service contracts that add no policing value to the community and automatically increase at 6% a year, 2 administrative boards, and a summer programs schedule that often attracts more of the coordinator's groupies than real audience members.

I met a guy the other day who said he was on the board in a neighboring town, where he dropped two staff, lowered taxes, and still closed his budget while also giving out raises. He was quick to say "just file bankruptcy." While I was laughing at the impossibility of our boro council thoroughly considering ALL possibilities, let alone this one, he jumped right in and said "I bet you even have a police contract. Bankruptcy will get you out of that contract, too." I said, "well, I don't see how it can hurt our credit rating." To which he replied, "Well, at least you ought to let two staff go and dump the police contract. That oughtta about make up for your $50,000 deficit, right?" Right. Who does the boro serve, anyway? Me or our employees...?

Anyway, the conversation between Snavely and I is posted at this link:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZATkbVJQ0FiZGZzMnd4Y2tfNGNoODd2NGhn&hl=en


And, for those of you who have been following the inside scoop, where Snavely has recently admitted to me, in writing, that she has been reporting my conversations to police, politicians, etc, note my explicit request to keep our conversation confidential, to which she agreed later in the conversation. Please also note who, of the two of us keeps trying to divert from my real concern--which is the deteriorating quality of life here, by mischaracterizing my concerns as much more specific than they really are.

Somebody's gonna be doin' some 'splainin'.... I only hope that we get back to part where some of the humor comes back into the dialogue...