A Toledo City councilman is trying to get the Keep the Jail Downtown Toledo team and the Lucas County Commissioners to sit down and meet. Meetings should have happened months ago. The commissioners did not meet with the team from the very beginning. They did not listen to the citizens. In public meetings the citizens could talk but no responses to their comments/questions were offered by the commissioners. In the Citizen Levy Review Committee meeting, led by Thomas Susor, citizens could not comment. A very weak proposal, at best, was approved by this committee to put the jail levy on the ballot. Commissioners have been shoving the new jail down the citizens’ throats from the very beginning. The jail levy signs simply said “Vote for Issue 10. A Better Way.” False advertising by omission that it’s for a jail? Issue 10 was not simply a Solution Center either. The Solution Center was 10 percent of the Levy request and would be in downtown Toledo, according to the commissioners.
The commissioners would like to put the $250,000 cost for a special election on the backs of the Keep the Jail Downtown Toledo team. This cost solely rests on the Lucas County Board of Elections and Toledo City Council. Had they put our issue on the ballot for Nov. 6, we would not require a special election. We had a petition with the required valid signatures and they failed to put it on the ballot.
If the Commissioners want to talk, put forth a new design for the jail in a Downtown Toledo location at a cost that is justified.
The citizens of Toledo spoke loudly by voting down Issue 10, the jail levy. The citizens will also voice their opinion in a special election when the Keep the Jail Downtown Issue is on the ballot.
JOYCE SLUSHER
West Toledo
Shootings are health crisis
Twenty-seven people have been murdered in rampage shootings in three weeks and our leaders sit silent in the pockets of the National Rifle Association. I have read two letters in this forum defending the ownership of high-capacity, high-power, large-caliber weapons as a benevolent hobby. Gun violence is a public health emergency. It is an epidemic! There is something gravely wrong about a country that has to have active shooter drills in our schools and military trauma kits in our public places to deal with the carnage we are expected to accept in the name of the Second Amendment.
SALLY J. KELLER
West Toledo
No rush need for jail vote
A NIMBY group obtained enough signatures to force a vote on where any new jail can be built. Because of obscure legalities the question didn't get on the November ballot. Now there is to be a special election costing several hundred thousand dollars. What's the hurry? Projects of this size take years to get started. Since Lucas County officials say they are not bound by the effort anyway we can expect more delays while courts decide the question. And that assumes it passes. Nothing is lost by waiting for the next scheduled election to save the money.
JOSEPH E. PFLAGER
Maumee
First Published November 13, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
