According to a letter to the Clare County Cleaver, (25 Nov 2010), Lindsay (Jolly-) Heber thinks I'm a bully. If shining the spotlight of truth on documented malfeasance and incompetence and calling out those responsible for it is being a bully, then I am guilty as charged. If trying to prevent those who are responsible for it and all that it has cost Hayes Township from ever having an opportunity to do it again is being a bully, then once again, I am guilty as charged.
In one sentence Lindsay calls Lyle Criscuolo "one of the strongest willed people on the board," and in another sentence she asks, "Why go for Lyle? Because you see him as a weaker victim..." [than David Dreyer]?
Which is he, Lindsay? "One of the strongest willed people on the board"? Or "weaker victim"? Because he can't be both.
I think he's one of the strongest willed people on the board, as Lindsay says. As such, he is the perfect whip to keep the weaker willed members of the board in line and vote the way they're supposed to vote. As chair, he has no problem wielding that power. I've seen it in action. And that's pretty much what I've already said about Lyle.
Lyle is hardly anyone's "weak(er) victim." If anything, he is the victim of his own misconduct, and the proof of that is well documented. I'm just the loud whistle blower. If that makes me a bully, then I'm guilty as charged.
What I want to see is for Lyle to man up and act upon the responsibility that he has taken upon himself and do the right thing and resign. He has said that he bears the full blame for not notifying the neighbors of Doug Longenecker's application for special use. The consequences of that oversight have cost Hayes Township plenty. It remains to be seen whether Lyle will do the right thing or if he will cause the Hayes Township Board of Trustees have to remove him from office. If I were a gambler, I know where I would put my money.
Hayes Township Attorney David Dreyer's day is coming for the light to shine on him, but not yet.
As for ZBA member Bob Johnson, he was the victim of a witch hunt and all kinds of accusations that came to nothing about his supposed connections to Ginnie Collins. All because of his vote at the first ZBA meeting. He didn't vote the "right" way, to uphold the Special Use on the Gamble-Longenecker property on Mostetler Road. He was the one who got bullied by Lyle. But he stood up to Lyle.
If standing up to bullies is misconduct and grounds for removal from the ZBA, then I really have to wonder about the values and priorities of the leaders and residents of Hayes Township who are so focused on a goal that has violated the rights of individuals every step of the way. What does it say about a community where they are so focused on their goal that the end justifies the means, and it makes no difference who they step on to get it or how crooked the means by which they acquired it? I question the ethics of such people. Yet that is exactly what I have seen demonstrated by the folks who want Moto Mania to happen so badly. It's OK to skirt the Ordinance and the intent of the Ordinance because in the end we get what we want? It's OK to screw over an entire group of taxpayers who have worked their butts of for their own slice of the American Dream because what we want conflicts with what they have worked so hard for? Really Lindsay?
The sad fact is, if Doug had gone about it the right way, if he had checked, really checked the zoning ordinance and then looked for property in the area properly zoned instead of trying to force a special use in an area where it doesn't belong, this could all have been avoided. And everyone could have had what they wanted. Doug could have had his Moto Mania, the ORV riders could have had a place to play and the Mostetler Road and Deer Lake neighbors could have had their peace and quiet and hunting. And the entire township would have gotten behind his business endeavor.
But no, instead, he found a township whose leaders had no regard for their own ordinance and had no problems with letting this slide and letting that slide, but it's OK - we'll take care of it. And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Not doing things on the up and up is also planning to fail.
And since Lindsay and Robin and others are so concerned that I hail from Virginia, know this: I may reside there temporarily because of my husband's military career, but his home of record is in Michigan and so is mine. I blog as the voice of the Laskowsky Trust which owns property in Hayes Township, as well as other members of my family who own property in Hayes Township. I have a family interest in Hayes Township. It is "our" township too.
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