CNBNews

William E. Cleary Sr. | CNBNews

We received comments complaining about the Concerned Citizens seeking candidates to run in the November election. Instead of looking at the chance to elect a different group to the council, they are striking out at the person who is leading the movement.

Politicians have always broken their promises. The first one that comes to mind is George Bush,  "Read my lips I am not going to raise taxes."  Locally I can name several people who jumped over from the Republican Party to Democrat, such as Jim Devereaux, Jim Yerkes, John Lincoln. And yes, the James Gang played us all for fools. 

For the record, we are not defending any of them. 

But that is not the issue in our mind. The issue should be the future of our city and whether or not those who have been in power for decades have made improvements that have made our city a better place to live.

Most of us don't have to look any further than outside our window at the poor condition of our streets for that answer.  Our street hasn't been repaved in 25 years or more. Take a ride through the city and look at the trash blowing about especially on the main entrances to the community.  We learned recently that our city has no law to mandate commercial property owners to place their trash in a dumpster or trash can. But yet you the homeowner must do so or be fined. 

Ride down to the Southport area.  Do you remember the 2005-06 promise by some of these same politicians in office today about the Gloucester Vista?  Where did that promise go? The so-called compost plant for Southport was announced in 2010. Another broken promise by those in charge. Not too many people liked that idea anyway but that does prove how desperate the city is to have something, anything built on that ground.   

There are approximately 4200 residences in our city did you know almost half of those are rentals. 

Our recent tax bill increased by $800. We are now paying $8,000 annually! Does anyone remember the last time our taxes decreased? Believe it or not, there was a time when that would happen. Were you aware that the City of Gloucester City is listed in the top 30 communities with the highest taxes in the state? 

You can sit by and complain about the downfall of our City, and politicians who broke their promises but you'll never make a difference hiding behind a computer screen. No!  The only way to turn things around is for you to step up and run for a seat on council or the school board. The Gloucester City Young Republicans tried to start a movement to change the status quo but for some reason, their efforts never got off the ground. We give them credit for trying. 

This November there are two seats up for re-election. The vacant seat of Mayor Spencer and the at-large council seat of Patrick Keating. The Concerned Citizens had said there were four but that was wrong.

There are only a few days left for Independent candidates to gather the signatures on petitions so their names can be placed on the November ballot. The petitions must be filed by Monday, August 30. If you are interested in running for office or helping out contact the Concerned Citizens at 609-417-3786.