Smart Community Decisions

Dear Editor,

Since the city council has committed to agree to purchase a steep hillside from Robert and Edith Goodweiler for a half million dollars for a building development I am concerned as well as many are, or should be. This area will require extensive work and expense to make it available for housing. 

The Goodweilers have better land for sale plus the housing market is slowing as interest rates are staying  up and buyer interest is declining.

There needs to be high wage earners to purchase and build on these lots and based on the employment opportunities in the areas I am not sure where those buyers are.

The area of Piety Ridge went through the same process for years until an individual came from out of town and came within a few days of building 14 self-help houses until I stopped the process.

I can see the same type of thing happening down the road with this development, but it may become more of a location for mini homes or mobile homes. Why I say this is because eight years ago tariffs were placed on materials that raised the costs of building and with covid coming during that, greed kicked in and it never subsided, which put out of reach home ownership for so many.

We are now heading into the unknown for at least another four years.

The people who are from the area who grew up here and either inherit or have a fair amount of equity may be a prospect for this area, but I would say they have multiple options in their situation.

Communities continue to try to sustain growth and in many cases it has been due to decisions by individuals who were influenced by community members or not for the best value of the taxpayer.Employees and representatives of city governments always need to be fully committed to do what is best for the citizens first. 

An example of that was the former street foreman was never held accountable, so I spent hundreds of hours trying to improve the looks, the safety, and the desire for the residents and tourists to enjoy the beauty of Shake Rag Street, because the lack of an individual drove me to show people in the community that if you couldn't get results from what you payed for, I would donate all that time to show you how proud I was to live in Mineral Point.

As a side note when I see Delta 3 getting high recognition from the concrete manufacturers of America based on all the comments since the street has been redone (don't get me wrong concrete is great I've leveled more than I ever wished to). I guess it just means that the standards are much much lower.

Tom McGuire

Mineral Point