Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Friday, January 23, 2009

Foster County Commissioners Vote To Not Allow Carrington Residents on Planning and Zoning Board. Is That Legal?

Foster County Commissioners: LeRoy Hart - Jim Carr - Dwayne Erickson

The Foster County Independent finally published the official minutes for the November 4th and 18th, 2008, Foster County Commissioners meeting at the end of December.

One wonders why it takes so long for the county commissioners to publish their minutes for public perusal. Could it possibly be that they want to keep Carrington citizens in the dark as long as possible regarding some of their group's decisions?

For instance, how many Carrington citizens know that they will no longer be considered for appointments to the Foster County Planning and Zoning Commission? That's right! To quote from the commissioners' official minutes published in the Independent: "Future appointments to the Planning and Zoning Commission were considered. Chairman proposed that the county zoning commission should be made up of rural county residents. Hart moved to adopt the policy that Planning and Zoning Commissioners must be rural residents, and second by Carr. Upon roll call vote: Hart voted "yes," Carr voted "yes," and Erickson voted "yes. Motion carried and policy adopted."

These three men seemingly do not want any input from Carrington residents (the largest population in Foster County) when it comes to making decisions for the county. Doesn't it seem strange that they voted to not have ANY city or town's people on the Planning and Zoning Commission? Why aren't they interested in input from city residents - other than Mayor Fry?

Shouldn't the Foster County Commissioners be looking for a balanced group of members for their Planning and Zoning Commission - both city and rural county residents? Shouldn't they be listening to the county as a whole, not just one aspect of it?

Where is this policy leading? Does this mean that the current city and town residents on the Planning and Zoning Commission will be requested to give up their appointments? Perhaps our three county commissioners weren't happy with some P&Z members' vocal opposition to having the Van Bedaf mega-dairy locate so close to Carrington. Is this their way of getting rid of city members who didn't go along with their ideas?

It will be interesting to see where Mr. Hart, Mr. Carr, and Mr. Erickson lead us next, particularly if they don't want any city or town input from Carrington citizens in their decision making.