This issue with the old civic center rec project will show the true colors of both of our local newspapers. Will they truly investigate it, and report their findings? Will they ask hard questions and put our city officials on the hot seat? Will their Editors let them, will Hanson and Estep let them truly investigate this issue? Will Estep recuse himself, as he is the tourism chairman and he could be in on the inner workings of this as he pushed to give them the money to start this project?
Personally, I DON"T THINK SO. But, they can, and I hope they will, prove me wrong. The state attorney general needs in on this. Bob Hammons, city attorney, should just make copies of everything and hand them over to the state.
It will be an issue of who knew what, and when.
This needs serious investigation, as this is what makes local politics stink.
Some heads need to roll, and some resignations need to follow if this really happened.
I feel Sams was just the one at the bottom of the ladder, and was doing what he was told. If he and the man named in the other posts were in cahoots, and the city officials knew it, then those officials have misled the public and committed fraud.
I've been trying to keep up with this since it came out. This is one big mess, and it could, and should, end up with some fines or even jail time. They wilfully violated the spirit of the bidding process, and even stated so in the paper. And as I recall, when this project first came about, all the players involved, including Dennis Lynch, was at the meeting when it was discussed, and loved the fact that it would be free, except for fuel.
Don Estep liked it so much he pledged a pack of money, wasnt' it $75k, to get it done.
As far as reporting it, I really don't see it happening.
I think Samantha Swindler would have a field day with it, but she wouldn't get anything from our elected officials, unless it was as an "unnamed source". She could pour over the city commission, tourism, and recreation meeting minutes, but, from what I've seen, they're so paraphrased, you wouldn't find nothing. And remember, most of this type of thing is discussed before the meetings, so they're not on the record. But, Samantha could dig deep enough to find out the truth.
The News Journal. Knuckles and White have the ability to look into this, but I don't see them going against their boss, Estep. They've dug a little bit on other stories, but none where their boss could be implicated in "who knew what and when did you know it".
If someone had a source at the Lexington Herald, now they could come in and do some digging. They have no ties here, and once the word got out they were looking into it, I think they'd get a ton of calls, emails, or notes as to who knew what and when.
Add to the fact that Mr. Carr is really ticked off, and you'd have a good article.
The company that did the work and then presented the bill, would be the one to pressure for info. He knows who said what, and when. He had to. Who told him to move his equipment up there? Who told him to start work? Who gave him the plans for what to do? How many times did city officials visit the site to view their pet project? Which ones came the most often?
The big SNAFU with the tax bills showed the incompetence of some of our city leaders, and not this. I believe the mayor himself even advocated some "vacancies at city hall" if this type of thing happened again. Well, in my opinion, it's happened.
So lets see how this plays out.
Personally, it'll probably all get swept under the rug, and and forgotten about in a matter of weeks. And that's a shame. And politicians wonder why they're the less trusted vocation of all in this country.
