There are times I just shake my head regarding items that get decided at the Saco City Council meetings, and this time a letter is in order. I see there is enough money just sitting around that $26,000 can be earmarked to pay “a firm to create a vision statement for the city.”
I must also conclude that it will not be a Saco firm, since that was not implied. Interesting that we go out of the city to get a statement about the city. I, as a life-long citizen of Saco, helped elect this mayor and council, other competent people were hired and are paid good money to run the city and head key departments. Am I to believe this group of individuals cannot meet collectively and come up with a vision statement? As elected or interviewed and hired officials, did they not have a personal vision that helped motivate them to seek their positions to work for the betterment of Saco?
A Saturday or evening brainstorming session could easily provide a list of what each individual from the council and beyond thinks. This list can be taken and formed into a variety of statements and reviewed for content, rewritten as needed and eventually accepted by all. For a fee or tax break, I would do it.
For that amount of money, at least have it done in a nice calligraphy, laminated, framed and hung in the council chambers for all to see.
If permitted, maybe it could be that any Saco citizen could submit a statement with a $5,000 cash award to the winner. Balance of money proposed to go to local charities.
Kudos to Councilor Arthur Tardif for voting no on this and the other previously unaccepted measures passed at this meeting. Maybe he had a vision.
Bill Chenard, Saco
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