Will It Never End
Team Santiago paid back another contributor at the March 6th
commission meeting. The Field of Dreams contributed $1000.00 to the campaign of
Michael Santiago, James Parent, Ashleigh Udalovas, Joseph Pepitone, and Bruce
Cooper. What did the $1000.00 contribution get the Field of Dreams? A reduction of
over $10,000.00 in their past due sewer bill. Here is the background information.
The Field of Dreams is a motocross track by the Millville
Airport. The Field of Dreams purchased land from the Motorsports Park in the
Sport and Entertainment District of the Airport. Why this is important will be
brought up later. The Field of Dreams has been operating for over three years
without a certificate of occupancy. Why? Because the Field of Dreams has never
met the requirements for its operation ordered by the Millville Planning Board
and the Judge in the lawsuit with Citizens United. The last commission
concluded that the Field of Dreams would not be able to open for business in
2018 unless they met the requirements. Time will tell what the new commission
led by Mayor Santiago will do.
Part of the requirement of the planning board was that the
Field of Dreams connected to city sewer within 5 years. That the Field of
Dreams did but without telling the city.
So the city never inspected the sewer hookup, never received the sewer
connection fees, and never paid a sewer bill.
The previous commission found out and discussed the
situation at a public work session. It was decided that the bill calculated by
the city engineer would be the one charged to the Field of Dreams. The bill was
$14,505.80. Bills were sent and ignored;
the Field of Dreams never paid the city its money. However the Field of Dreams
did manage to scrape together a $1000.00 contribution to Mayor Santiago’s Team.
The sewer bill was still not paid and at this last commission meeting Michael
Santiago, James Parent, Ashleigh Udalovas, Joseph Pepitone, and Bruce Cooper
voted to reduce the bill to $3619.20.
Why is the Field of Dreams entitled to a discount when the
citizens of Millville are not? Everyone should be treated the same. The good
old boys club is alive and well in Millville.
The other interesting aspect of this is the Field of Dreams
is in the Sports and Entertainment district of the city of Millville. That
means an additional 2% tax is supposed to be collected there. This tax is
supposed to be used for projects in that district. For example: The city could
use those funds to pay the bond for the water and sewer that was run to that
area at great expense to the city. The Field of Dreams has not been collecting
this. This commission is aware of this. Let’s see what they do.
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