Will the Wheaton Property Ever Be Redeveloped?


The Wheaton property has been in disrepair for years, an eyesore sitting at the entrance to the City. The City owns the property as a result of Team Santiago’s ill advised settlement with GGI. In that settlement, Team Santiago forgave hundred of thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes. For reasons never explained the City looked the other way when taxes were not paid during Parent’s previous stint as Director of Revenue and Finance.

So the obvious questions are: What has Team Santiago done to clean up the property, and what is the “Team’s” plan for the future of this eyesore at Second and G streets? Same answer for both questions: Nothing.

Ms. Udalovas has stated over and over again that all redevelopment must go through the city’s redevelopment attorney. So who is that? None other than Doug Long’s law firm. The firm that has had and presently has ethics charges brought against them. Out of town attorneys and the Cumberland County Improvement Authority along with Don Ayres and Kim Warker Ayres are making the redevelopment decisions for the city. How has that been working out for the last twenty years that the Aryes team has been in charge of redevelopment? The citizens of Millville elected Team Santiago. Team Santiago should be looking into to all redevelopment opportunities and listening. The city needs businesses for jobs and ratables. So far businesses have been turned away (LKQ, Roguvati, Anthony DeSantis).

At the last meeting, Mr. Pepitone stated that Team Santiago is doing a disservice to the citizens of Millville by spending and not finding ways to increase the money coming into the city. He is correct but what is being done to fix that? How long are the citizens expecting to shoulder this tax burden with no new industries in sight and property values going down? The city financially cannot carry on this way. 



Comments

Anonymous said…
This is just so sad to read. This commission has done nothing to improve the city financially or even consider its blight. What surprises me, though, is what Pepitone said. He is part of the spending problem. He is the one that is pushing for 2 North High to become a court house. Is that spending beneficial?
December 16, 2019 at 5:17 PM
Anonymous said…
Tuesday's meeting will see an INCREASE of $90,000 to one single Law Firm. Interesting. I suppose they saved the citizens much more than the increase with their professionalism. Team Santiago will surely give us all the statistics before the vote. What were the other bids for these jobs? Were they bid?

The City is going to give a property to the CCIA (one dollar). The CCIA is going to rehab it and then try to rent it to private parties, directly competing with private people doing the same thing. Great to have the government take our money to use it to compete with us. Lovely concept. Interesting that their building was worth ONE MILLION DOLLARS and Millville's building is only worth one dollar. Wonder what it will be worth when they try to sell it back to the City???

So we save around $50,000 in trash collection contract, spend around ONE MILLION for a bunch of cans and get reduced items and amounts collected from the residents. That should really clean up the city and make the taxpayers happy. But hey the matching cans will look good on the side of the road.

Good thing we have transparency. Good thing we have informed, thoughtful Commissioners. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to make sense of these decisions that have been made for the spending of my money. Maybe I missed something???!
December 17, 2019 at 1:12 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANOTHER LAWSUIT AGAINST THE CITY

 Chief Farabella was just reappointed for another 3 years even though a lawsuit was filed against  Farabella and Pepitone by a city employee.The lawsuit is worth reading.  The allegations, if true, are startling. These allegations also raise the question should Farabella have been reappointed at this time? Did the commissioners look into the allegations prior to voting? The lawsuit involves the departments of Parent and Pepitone who both voted to reappoint Farabella. Did they do their due diligence? Of interest is line 55 in the lawsuit. It clearly states that Doug Long was performing legal duties for the city in 2019. Didn't the commissioners claim that Mr. Long was not involved in the city, only Marmero and Grace. Remember at election time the lack of transparency, the lies, the lack of due diligence and the waste of your tax payers money. Millville needs commissioners who are transparent, who do their due diligence and have the interests of the citizens of Millville at...
Read more

Team Santiago Raises Your Taxes Again!!!

It is no surprise that Team Santiago raised Millville’s taxes again. Last year it was by 4.5% and this year it is 5%.   The county and the school board also raised their taxes so the taxpayer in Millville is looking at a 10% increase in their property taxes. This comes at a time when many individuals are out of work due to COVID-19 and there is no end in sight. This affects not only the taxpayers but every citizen in Millville as landlords will have to increase rents and businesses will have to charge more to meet expenses. So what did Team Santiago have to say for themselves when they voted for the tax increase –nothing. As usual they did not answer the public’s questions and did not explain their votes. Mr. Pepitone once again voted for the tax increase even though he is behind on paying his own taxes. He should understand the burden of taxes as it seems to be a burden to him. In his ending comments Mr. Parent said this was the toughest budget he had to work with (wh...
Read more

WHO WILL FILL QUINN'S VACANT SEAT?

Now that Quinn has resigned for the second time, what happens to his empty seat? The commission has the option to appoint someone until the next election which is November 2022. Who do the new commissioners think that person should be? The last time Quinn resigned, Commissioner Sooy held fast to the belief that the person who came in 6th in the election should fill the seat. This time the 6th place person is Robert McQuade.  This is the only fair  scenario as the present commission has not even been sworn in yet. Hopefully Commissioner Sooy and the new commissioners will agree that Mr. McQuade should be appointed. Robert Mcquade put the time in to run for the office. The voters had enough faith in Mr. McQuade that he came in 6th with over 2000 votes. It seems fair that he takes the seat.  In November 2022 anyone can run for this open seat and then the voters will decide who the commissioner will be for the remaining three years.   Comment and post who you believ...
Read more