Once again Council President Kandes presided over a council meeting as Mayor Pro-Tem.

Once again Mayor Pro Tem Kandes let a meeting get out of hand. It wasn't until Mayor Brown returned that order was restored.

Mayor Brown proved you can allow people to have their say and be able to control the meeting.

Kandes cannot blame members of the council on this one. This time citizens were coming to the podium asking tough questions. Kandes crumbled.

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recordar la yocorazon

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I hate to disagree it did not get out of hand until brown showed up at 8:32. i feel that Kandes did a great job getting the meeting moving. jmo

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I agree with you Don. However, in all fairness Kandes hasn't had the long term experience in public speaking or dealing with controversial issues in public.

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"Sometimes we must serve in order to lead"
by Unknown

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We must have viewed two different meetings.

I watched Kandes twitch, sweat, shake and rattle as the questions got tough. I seen him try to dance around questions by giving answers that were off the subject. Fortunately the people at the podium knew such tricks and called him on such evasive answers.

From what I know, Kandes played a major role in the Condo project. He was the Mover of the Resolution.

When questions got tougher, Kandes and Hatley started asking people where they were 3 years ago. Sorry Mark, but you were elected to look out for the good of the city. I do not have time to attend DDA meetings and EDC meetings and Planning Commission meetings and Zoning Board of Appeals Meetings. You were elected to keep an eye on things. You are paid $8,500 a year to keep an eye on things. I am a citizen and do not receive a nickle for keeping my eye on you.

And let us not forget Vaslo jumping into the pool. He thought he would show these local yokels a thing or two. He got spanked but bad. He did not say a word the rest of the night.

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I was relieved to see Mayor Brown. There are plenty of times the Mayor and I do not agree. But I have to be fair and give him credit, he can run an orderly meeting. When we were approached by private companies to consider operating the community center, we had a very large and upset crowd. The Mayor handled it all very well.

I am not quite as confident that councilman Kandes has the same abilities our Mayor does with dealing with conflict and large crowd control. Maybe this comes with years of experience I am not so certain. Either which way I was pleased that the Mayor did end up in attendance.


The whole development is not something I would not have sponsored as a councilmember. Housing is something we have in abundance in Lincoln Park. We are from a developer and community planners determination a " Bedroom Community". Housing is not in shortage in LP.

But our business base is the area that is suffering horribly.

This is devestating to the business owners. Forcing them to sell. If they CAN sell. I can tell you quite openly that I personally do NOT support this whole project. So many things have occurred that should not have. The last being the lien on the property.

If this property reverts back and that lien is outstanding someone will be assuming the lien. NO TITLE COMPANY or LENDER will insure or disburse funds as long as that lien is on that property. If the developer is using the funding from the mortgage ( which I am sure is what is happening because there is a construction mortgage on the property ) That will have to be paid off.

It also concerns me because who knows how many more may appear on the property before this project comes to completion.

Councilman Vaslo told me last night " so what 12,000 is squat". But to a lender and a title company that is very much so NOT the case. All funding will halt until that lien is resolved.

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Nikita1966 (08-16-05)

The whole reason for the condos was to add people living downtown like the DDA Strategic Plan calls for as well as to get our downtown to have more pedestrian activity. Condos are just one way to add housing in downtown areas.

I was at every DDA meeting three years ago when Joyce Seitz worked hard to appease everyone. Perhaps the DDA's contract with Joe Daly should have had tighter restraints so that it could not been sold and we'd have control of the developer. It seems that it is highly critical when developing a project like this that you have control over who the developer is! And I would of insisted on control of who the architect is on the project.

The whole idea for the condos came from a developer with Crosswinds Communities who had viewed the site. He had told several of our council in 1999 or 2000 that we had enough land for condos. He did not bid on the project though. IF he had and Crosswinds was the successful bidder we would not be in the mess we are today. Crosswinds Communities is the developer who developed the condos in Wyandotte on Biddle and has developed very nice 100% brick condos in many downtowns!

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The only Ones that benefited from the whole mess were the property owners that worked with the original developer and had their buildings demolished. The first developer wanted all the property to the Post Office. The remaining businesses were given offers and help with relocation if they wanted it. 2 holdouts ruined it for all the remaining properties. now they're all stuck.

The owner of the Park was very well organized in his concerns about the project . I was surprised he would bring his complaints to the wrong group he should have gone to the DDA . People who frequent his business know whats going on in this city . Makes you wonder if someone didn't do it on purpose .

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If pro is the opposite of con? would CONgress be the oppositeof PROgress?

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Who were the 2 holdouts that held up progress?

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Believe half of what you hear and none of what you read, especially in the News Herald!

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I enjoyed seeing Vaslo "get spanked" and Kandes sweat in the hot seat. What I didn't enjoy seeing was the rude and conscending manner in which they spoke to the citizens of this city. I for one did notice that when Mayor Brown arrived, a sense of respect was restored.

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The 2 holdouts were the Paint & Wallpaper store and the Park restaurant . There was a big front page article in the NH at the time.

They planned their speakers well the Real Estate Rep. was halfway to the podium when he had to sit down because Ms Mondon was recognized as the next person to speak. After Ms Brady announced her financial investigation of the developer it seemed a little odd . I wonder if she has any investigations of the finances of Big Boy project ,the Oil Change project, has the project at Johny's nursery had their finances investigated yet.

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The Guy Next Door (08-09-05)

Wait the same Park restaurant guy taht was complaining? He was offered a fair price for his property and refused and now complains about it? If so that is BS!

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The rumor is that Park Restaurant back then wasn't even offered the appraised amount for their property.

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cfarrell_3 (08-10-05)

Seems as though the Park Resturant got nothing positive with this development. This is just another incident that begs the question, Is LP business unfriendly?

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"I'm sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short sighted, narrow minded hypocrites. All I want is the truth, Just gimme some truth"

- John Lennon

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In this case, I don't think it's business unfriendly, I think it's a case of not investigating all the facts and rushing into something foolhearted.

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Arctic Cat Thundercat Test Pilot

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Selling the property for $1 and then leaving LP business owners out to hang... ... you'd almost think there were kickbacks in this for someone...

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City Council:
• Thomas A. Murphy
• Valerie Brady
• Michael Lemuel
• Thomas McPartlin
• John R. Nelligan
• James E. Rutherford

City Treasurer: Craig Sochocki

Proposal R: NO

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Robbie (08-12-05)

There is something or somethings really wrong with this whole deal.

Hopefully those council members that are digging deep to get to the bottom of this will be able to clear it up.

I do know this: I have been in the real estate industry for over 23 years and I don't recall ever seeing a construction begin with the buildings...usually when developing raw land, you first work on the infastructure and roads THEN the buildings.

This development to me started backwards and if the rumors are true about the standing water in the basements that were left to freeze over could have been avoided if the infastructure was done first.

Additionally, if the businesses parking is jeapordized we would have known about this at the time construction broke ground and our city leaders could have made moves to protect the businesses then.

From what I have read and been told, we cannot be angry with the developer.

It was and has been the City Leaders and DDA responsibility to protect our community and the businesess in that area.

Why we would sell that amount of land for $1.00 is simply ignorant. Our City Leaders gave away thousands of dollars for the land AND at the same time turned their back on the businesses.

I also would like to know just how the recent JJM Consturction vs City of LP and LP DDA played a role in all of this.

I FOIA'd the info on that lawsuit but it was declined.

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Can they decline a FOIA request?

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what does all of this have to do with the topic should'nt we start a new toipc about that? jmo

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Yes, we should have, but right now there is an issue with the splitting topics function on the boards so if we try now, we might lose the whole post. Oh, ya, I know, it's a conspiracy right.

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And it's still there...do you see the duplicate topic about Where are you Mr. Magoo? One works..the other doesn't...

I am going to have to work on this this weekend....it's a pain in the butt trying to move posts and merge topics, etc. right now.

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