Keep City Parks
Inside the City

9/12/07

We listened in disbelief as Novi City Council Member Andrew Mutch, with a straight face, suggested Novi purchase park land outside the
city limits to save money.

Council Member Lynne Paul agreed, stating "we should get parkland however we can get it."

What are they thinking?

Apparently, in their minds, Novi land is getting too expensive to use for parks, so they want the city to buy and maintain parks in other communities.

Folks, this just does not make sense. Why would we buy land outside of Novi for our parks? So people in other communities can have a park in their back yard, courtesy of Novi's taxpayers? Who would police these parks? How would Novi residents be given priority over non-residents?

Fortunately most of City Council was strongly against the idea of the City of Novi purchasing land outside the city, while at the same time recognizing our fine Parks Department's efforts to maintain our current parks while looking into alternatives.

We the People are also very much against the City of Novi spending money to buy and maintain park land outside the city limits. This just does not make sense. Our parks should be in our city, not another city. Period.

It is true that our active parks are heavily used, but we are not turning people away today. At the same time, we do need to plan for tomorrow. Let's keep an eye on property in our own back yards, let the Parks Department do what we pay them to do, and not second guess them.

p.s. - Toni Nagy sure misses a lot of Novi City
        Council meetings. That's too bad - there
        are a lot of people who would love to sit
        in that chair twice a month!