Endorsements, The Land of the Retarded

This election for Mayor and two city council seats is actually a tale of three buildings: The Family Dollar store in Wendover, Utah; the empty and bankrupt Rusty Palms off I-80; and the West Wendover City Hall known not so affectionately as the Taj Mahal.

The corporation which owns the Family Dollar Store originally first looked at locating in West Wendover, Nevada. However because of onerous red tape and delays in getting site plan approval the store owners chucked it all and moved to Wendover, Utah.

We shop at the Family Dollar Store at least two or three times a month, we drive past it at least once a week and we have no objection to the shape size or color of the building.

Its form follows its function and it is identical to the dozen or so Family Dollar stores in our region. Okay it is not going to win any architectural awards but it is a perfectly suitable convenience store and should have had no problem coming to West Wendover.

Yet it did.

It did because of the restrictions Councilwoman Emily Carter and Councilman Johnny Gorum approved often over Mayor Donnie Anderson’s objections and vetoes made to ensure the beauty of West Wendover.

Mrs. Carter and Mr. Gorum proposed and approved those restrictions on the grounds that this city needed some kind of control over who and what was built in Wendover.

It sounds nice but as the Family Dollar Store proves the regulations passed to ensure a beautiful Wendover are being used to chase perfectly respectable businesses out of town or never come here at all.

The Rusty Palms is a sadder tale because it became a personal tragedy to the man who built it, Steve Weinstein.

Weinstein’s error was not building a casino without the 150 hotel rooms, his mistake was trusting Gorum and Carter.

Before the first meeting Steve was very optimistic about his chances for a variance, he told us he had assurances that the council would go along with his compromise to pay the room taxes without actually having the rooms.

He was wrong, the behind closed door  promises he received turn out to worthless, but unlike the Family Dollar, Weinstein could not move across the border.

Eventually he was forced to declare bankruptcy and lost his building. As horrific his experience was it was after all only personal.

What should appall every West Wendover voter is that two years after the Rusty Palms ownership returned to the bank and the its price was slashed well below its appraised value, it still stands for sale. There are no takers in large part due to West Wendover’s horrific reputation as being unfriendly to business.

Rusty Palms is only the most visible example of that reputation, but for almost every vacant lot so ubiquitous in our fair city there is probably at least one developer who looked at it, perhaps even bought and gave up and fled, rather than be consumed by the mountain of red tape just for the privilege of doing business in West Wendover. Those would be the lucky ones, there are also a hand full who like Weinstein went bankrupt.

For Emily Carter and Johnny Gorum this mountain of red tape is necessary to keep the riff raff out, folks like Tony Peria who would rip off every one they came in contact with.

The lesson those two have never learned is that scoundrels not having any intention of following the law will agree with even the stupidest regulation, honest businessmen will leave.

Then there is the Taj Mahal, that paean to local government, millions of dollars over budget and built on revenue projections that were ludicrous. It is less of a building than an albatross around this city neck that we and our children will be paying for the next 30 years.

The cherry on top of that inedible Sundae is the new 200 yard four lane section of Wendover Boulevard the city borrowed $1.5 million to build.

Yes dear readers Emily Carter and Johnny Gorum were part of the majority that voted to borrow $1.5 million to pave 200 yards of road. That is $2,500 a foot for four lanes that don’t go anywhere.

We point out that neither Mrs. Carter’s or Mr. Gorum’s bad decisions have anything to do with their employer, the Peppermill which perhaps more than any other property has been adversely affected by the erstwhile councilmen incredibly bad judgment over the last six years in terms of property value, public debt, and a shrinking population.

Indeed were in not for Mayor Donnie Anderson the damage to the Peppermill could have much worse with the insane purchase of the Wendover Gas Company for well over $2 million when it could be had for well under $100,000.

Not to mention the bar cards Carter and Gorum so heartily endorsed until their higher ups realized that the added fees and background checks on every bartender and cocktail waitress would cost the company ten of thousands of dollars every year.

We also must add West Wendover’s jay walking stings that directly targeted the tourists supported again by both Carter and Gorum and opposed by Mayor Anderson.

But the past is but prelude to what this dynamic duo would do if Gorum is reelected and Carter wins the race for mayor.

In the candidates forum last week carter mentioned on of her goals was to build a dog park for Wendover’s canines.

Madam have you not noticed where you live? No location in Wendover is more than a five minute walk from hundreds of square miles of sage brush desert. It is a dog’s paradise and no one has clean up after them.

The Taj Mahal may have been ridiculous a dog park is in the land of the retarded.

We urge our readers to vote for Mayor Donnie Anderson.

And for Council vote for Casey Snyder and Gerado Rodriguez. Both have shown the simple common sense that just because one can get financing does not mean one should buy something.

In the race for Justice of the Peace we have made no secret that Reese Melville is our friend.

We have known him for over 20 years and if we ever had to pick someone to watch our back in a bar fight, it would be Reese.

That said if we ever found out that Reese wrote a letter asking for leniency for a confessed and convicted murderer of a young girl he would not only lose our endorsement, he would lose our friendship.

There are lines of common decency that men, let alone candidates for judge, do not cross, and Brian Boatman did.

Before anyone casts their vote for Mr. Boatman we ask them to do two things:

Look at this photo of Mickie Costanzo and then read or read again Toni Fratto’s lurid  tale of how she held Mickie down while Kody Patten cut her throat with a shovel.  Fratto – Proffer statement

If anyone who does this can justify Mr. Boatman winning anything but contempt please feel free to vote for him.

There is simply just one excuse for his letter and it is a fundamental flaw of character.

At the very least Mr. Boatman is not fit to be Judge.