A sitting Kennedale council member this week smudged the name of Kennedale in ill-considered effort to make opponents look bad. It is part battle fight approaching two years at city hall that started over water rates and has now become about who controls the city and its future. {{more: continue …}}
There have been many charges of fraud, cover-ups, illegal election campaign donation reports, and misappropriation of taxpayer funds among others. It has been ugly but a new low was reached this week when the council member charged in a letter to the Star Telegram on published on Wednesday that the city was defrauding vet groups after the city accepted donations to fix the broken decorative water fountain in Town Center Park when there were funds available in the current budget. IS SOMETHING ROTTEN IN KENNEDALE? We have the funds to fix our 9-11 Memorial
Fountain and those funds would not have to be taken from our first responders?
budgets. I believe we have fraudulently accepted funds from veterans?
organizations. I was elected to the City Council in May of this year. I
honestly believe the city is corrupt. ? Sandra Lee, Kennedale}}
What the fuss is about ?
Cities of all sizes use donations for all kinds of non-essential programs that are outside the primary task of providing basic services such as water, streets, sewage, police and fire protection. With donations, cities have built parks and monuments and put on parades and festivals for citizens. Kennedale is no different and the people and businesses in this area have been generous over the years.
A group that has use the Kennedale 9/11 Memorial for a number of years as a way to remember the sacrifice of others, is an allied group of motorcycle clubs representing groups from all over the North Texas area. They get together each year early on a Saturday morning in September with groups starting from different points on the compass with the common destination of Kennedale. Other join up along way swelling their ranks so that by time they arrive in Kennedale several hundred cycles and other vehicles along with their passengers have converged on Town Center for a memorial service for the fallen on 9/11. It is uniquely Kennedale.
It was the members of this group, who appreciated what Kennedale provided, that wanted to do something in return. They were the ones that donated to the effort to restore the park?s fountain. This was their way of giving back and to honor the local veterans whose names surround the fountain.
When a city budgets, it has to prioritize items in the budget and things on the bottom of the list become what they want to do but, maybe, not this year. Fixing the fountain would not be the number one priority this year for the city given the current budget restraints. The gift provided an opportunity to restore the park as it was meant to be and to be enjoyed by all.
A heart felt thank you goes out to those who made it possible.
And here is a wish for those who been given the power to improve Kennedale and it reputation as a great place to live; it is to use this power wisely and judiciously and to remember that many before you in your place have struggled to do the right thing and have tried to what reflects well on the city.
Kennedale remains a good place to live.
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