Lakewood’s Village Trustee is the only municipal official I know that send regular reports of his take on village meetings to his constituents.  Here is his latest missive:

Greetings from another planet: January 31, 2011

Each year I resolve to become a better person. This was the year that I was going to be on top of things. I would return phone calls; no matter what time. I would return emails; no matter what year it was. And of course I would update you in a timely manner.

Well, here it is January 31st and I am sending you my first email of the year.

Maybe I can start on my resolutions for 2012.

The first board meeting of the year was held at Turnberry since Redtail experienced some severe plumbing problems and will be closed for awhile. (Since then things have been repaired but the clubhouse will remain closed until the season approaches).

The only real item on the agenda was another agreement to continue the expenditures for the Huntley Road Bike Lane. As you know I am all for bike paths, but not at this point in the village’s financial picture.

I once again made an attempt to hold off on spending more money for this project especially in light of the fact that there have been numerous articles in the newspapers lately as to the financial future of Redtail golf course.

Even though the money used from the bike path could not be used to run Redtail, it could be used to improve Redtail. Yes, the 80% payment of the project from the Federal government is great, but the $160+K the village has to contribute does not make sense to me in this financial climate.

I strongly believe that in the future there will be a climate in which to spend this amount of money but not when it does NOTHING to bring in revenue into Lakewood. I want bike paths, especially federally funded ones. But just because I can buy a Rolls Royce for $50,000.00 doesn’t mean I am going to buy it: no matter how great a deal it is.

The 2nd meeting for the month of January had nothing major to discuss.

As most of you can see the water tower replacement has begun in earnest with the structure starting to take shape. The new tower will be bigger and better, helping to make sure we have adequate water flow and fire protection for many years to come.

Both board meetings touched slightly on the all but dead Sportsplex issue. Without the sale of the non-taxable and taxable bonds I am afraid that the project will not get off the ground.

That is too bad because even though it appeared to have some major flaws, the concept itself seemed genuine and imaginative. Let’s hope that the Sportsplex team can find the money in their own pockets to resurrect this project.

We also talked about the future of the budget meetings, our new fire department, the upcoming election and cable/internet service.

The last two meetings have been spirited and lively, yet concise and entertaining. Hopefully this will be the same type of mood when the budgets are presented by the various departments throughout the village.

Hopefully I can get my act together sometime in February. I apologize to those who I did not return phone calls or emails to in 2010. Give me another chance to do the right thing. As our former President Bush said “Fool me once and shame on me, then fool me again and shame on someone” or something like that. Let’s start anew in 2011 and work together to make this a great year. I know I cannot do it alone.

Kenneth M Santowski