Community rec center ground breaking on hold

The ground breaking and even the signing of the contract should have never happened so close to what the incumbents knew would be a hotly contested election. They committed the taxpayers to pay for things for many months.

I think both the incumbents were dedicated to the idea of a local recreation place but they lost sight of what was best for the community a long time ago. I wish them well in any future endeavor.

As for Ms. Ruffing's resignation, not sure what changed in her living arrangement. She stated the reason for her resignation was that she has a place in Boise that she stays at Mon-Fri and the travel was difficult. Wasn't this traveling of her own creation and something she did all along? She pledged $15,000 to the project. I and many other citizens wonder if she will follow through with this pledge for the community she claimed to care so much about and in fact how many other pledges will actually occur now? Maybe Mt Home News could do some investigation and report on that without using anyone's name.

Here we go AGAIN!! The continuous political games of this tiny community completely amaze me. So what happens next...NO COMMUNITY CENTER??? A contractor has been given the contract, ALL the money raised, advertisements sent out and now NO COMMUNTIY CENTER. This community is without a doubt the MOST dysfunctional community I have ever seen.

After 15 years, we are within days of breaking ground and WHAM...political games are once again putting a hold on a desperately needed community service...unbelievable!

Is there any wonder why people move out of this place...It's time for the city, and our community leaders to put a end to this endless confrontation and bickering and put this project back on -line.

The first project for our newly elected Mayor is to intervene with this non-ending drama at the Western Elmore County Rec. District and set a mandate to get this project BACK ON COURSE! Then dissolve the WECRD. My god, never seen so much non-sense.

The MONEY is raised, CONTRACTOR identified, now its time to BUILD!!! Enough already!

Good people of Mountain Home and all of those in-favor of the completion of this project, LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD! Enough delay... "BUILD IT"

I am pleading with our newly elected city officials, especially our newly elected Mayor to please, please INTERVENE and put this project back on schedule.

Please, for the betterment of this community, enough politics...

I, for one, am glad we are having a cooling off period after this "hotly contested election." I do think we all wanted a community recreation center of some sort but the vision seems to have wavered over time.

More than a decade ago the vision was for an indoor pool. But the cost estimates kept increasing -- whether it was inflation or governmental requirements or vision creep needs to be investigated and shared with the public. Then we learned that this project would not only compete with our existing Parks and Recreation Department but also with several locally owned and operated gym facilities.

Some are saying that this project is "fully funded" but this paper reported not long ago that this was not the case and that considerable private funds needed to be solicited as well. If that issue has been overcome, I have not seen it reported anywhere.

A major reason for the division in our community on this whole project seems to be a lack of basic information in the community leading to a lack of trust which led to the backlash on election day. To request the Mayor to exert the power of his office to overrule the voice of the people would only make things worse.

I would encourage the new trustees to hold a town hall after they have had time to investigate our options and please keep the community informed. We need informed mutual consent to move forward and to heal the wounds of distrust that have been sown.

DUMBFOUNDED IN IDAHO you need to get the facts straight. 1st the money has not been raised. If they continued to build it we would have an empty building, they are counting cash that has not been received, and would need over 2 years more of taxes to just pay off the building. They cut things out of the current plan like water proofing the foundation (note the building is in a flood plan). 2nd the Mayor office can't do anything with the WECRD, the WECRD is a county group not a city group. 3rd, the contract should have never been place out for bid, it was a last- ditch effort to boost the current boards chance of re-election. I would suggest you read the following http://www.taylorlm.com/2015/11/03/ten-reasons-to-vote-against-a-ymca-in-mountai.... It provides a good insight on the issue.

I for one agree with putting everything on hold, including the ground breaking, so that the new Directors have an opportunity to review everything associated with the WECRD, try and track down all of the financials, review how the WECRD was setup and what it's authority extends to. Something that would be refreshing would be for all meetings and activities to be held in open meetings. Any "employees" or folks being paid for their services should be immediately terminated, as there appears to be serious conflict of interest, along with the replacement of the legal counsel. As there is no business being conducted the WECRD does not need to be renting office space. Public meetings can be held at currently available meeting places available to the public. If it is determined that there has been misuse of funds then those individuals responsible for it should be held legally accountable for it.

Just my 2 cents.

To bad Ms Marsh is still hanging around. How can she push to sign a contract start date one month then weeks later vote to postpone? What are the penalty clauses/costs on the contract? Have her come out of pocket to pay them.

Can't the directors vote to disband/dissolve the district?

Have they fired the 80K salaried fundraiser that was hired to raise 800k two years ago?

Albert and Old guy are spot on, investigations need to happen, why has 50% of tax revenue and interest income disappeared for 15 years?

The 85k figure came from the WECRD website posted budget for FY 13,14,15 YMCA contract labor. I don't know who else they were paying . All of the budget items are inflated compared to what an average business would pay. $1000 per month for website service as an example.