Remember military beyond July 4
TO THE EDITOR,
I am glad your June 29 issue focused on the debt we all owe the men and women in uniform who protect our country. Our veterans are the ones who make it possible for us to live in a free society and we should never forget the sacrifices they and their families make. Let’s remember them, not just on July 4, but every day of the year. Freedom is not free — it comes at a cost, one which is borne by the heroes in uniform.
State Sen . Edna Brown
District 11
Hensville proposal is ‘mission creep’
TO THE EDITOR,
I have followed with interest the Toledo Mud Hens organization plans regarding its announced Hensville development. As a taxpayer, as well as both a resident and business owner in the Warehouse District, I must object.
While I welcome, and in fact encourage new development in our neighborhood, I find this particular plan unsettling, to say the least. The Mud Hens organization exists to provide an entity to operate the county-owned ballpark. Taxpayers paid for construction of the current park based on a proposal by county officials to relocate the team Downtown as a catalyst for redevelopment in the Warehouse District. More recently, the Huntington Center was built and its operation was added to the Mud Hens’ responsibility.
It seems to be a rather straightforward mission: Provide a baseball field, convince a Major League team to play its Triple-A minor league games here, and the organization sells tickets, food and beverages to cover its expenses, while the community gets an asset that it enjoys, and which draws others to the community to spend their entertainment dollars.
This formula has, so far, worked famously. In addition, and as county leaders envisioned, the influx of fans, coupled with the expanding resident base, has encouraged people like me to invest in building businesses in the neighborhood. Some have prospered and some have not, but overall the neighborhood is thriving and growing.
However, in what may be the most egregious case of mission creep I have ever witnessed, the Mud Hens now want to be in the bar, restaurant and arcade businesses. There is absolutely no justification for them to be involved in any of those businesses, nor anything else not directly involved in operating Fifth Third Field and the Huntington Center.
There is no guarantee that these ventures will succeed, and the odds are greatly diminished when the owner lacks necessary experience. If unsuccessful, taxpayers will be on the hook for the losses. Further complicating things is talk of the project receiving millions in tax dollars for construction via the state capital improvement budget. How on earth could anyone not see this as the inappropriate and ill-advised scheme that it is?
Many individuals, like me, have taken great financial risk in their efforts to start a business here. Those that failed suffered devastating losses. We did not get tax dollars meant for roads, bridges, public buildings and improvements to the physical infrastructure of the state to pay for our construction. But now it seems that some believe it appropriate to risk tax dollars on what should be private sector ventures. Adding insult to injury, all of us who have assumed great financial risk in starting our businesses would then be faced with tax-subsidized competition.
The Mud Hens board needs to understand why it exists, realize that it should stick to its mission and get a grasp of the most basic of business principles: if your revenue does not cover your expenses, it is a bad idea. It appears that, absent tax subsidy, Hensville is exactly that — a bad idea. As a side note, about the Hensville name, the Warehouse District already has a name, and we wear it proudly.
JIM METTLER
Owner, Ye Olde Cock n’ Bull
