Park grant? What park grant?
By Charles Sercombe
Last July, Wayne County Commissioner Moe Blackwell came to town offering a $75,000 county grant to fix up a city park.
The timing of the offer was suspect to some, since it was just a month before the Primary Election – an election that he ended up losing.
The city filed its proposal with the county to build a basketball court in Veterans Memorial Park.
The only problem, though, is that there is no such grant, said Beverley Watts, the director of the county’s parks department. Watts said that this year’s park improvement budget was set a year ago. At best, she said, the city may qualify for a grant next year, but she stressed there are no guarantees.
Blackwell did not return calls for comment.
This isn’t the first time Blackwell has come bearing gifts but failed to deliver. Hamtramck Recreation Commission member Leonard Sobota said that three years ago Blackwell presented a similar offer.
“He never came through with it,” Sobota said.
City Manager Bill Cooper could not be reached for comment on this latest development.
One Response to Park grant? What park grant?
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Cathie Gordon
October 25, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Let’s talk about the issue before us!!!! First of all, Mr. Sobota is very mistaken….the money that Commissioner Blackwell attempted to give to Pulaski Park was NOT ALLOWED by Wayne county BECAUSE THE COUNTY CANNOT DONATE $$$$ TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS! Soooooo, that money was offered to THE BIKE TRAIL group. Mr Gileski, Mr. Quick and company planned on using that money as MATCH money for a bike trail grant they had applied for…..BUT there lied the problem……WAYNE COUNTY MONIES MUST BE USED FOR A CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT,,,NOT MATCHING FUNDS……Soooooo the money sat and was never used (as we all well know…i.e. NO BIKE TRAIL). Moving forward, I WAS personally involved in the facilitation of this $75,000 allocation for Veterans Memorial Park. I personally spoke with Ms. Beverly Watts TWICE and Once to her secretary……Mr. Ladd personally delivered the “PACKET” to Ms. Watts’ office AND e-mailed a confirmation of that delivery on September 24th…..sooo before you guys point fingers and tarnish our relationship with the county, we all need to find out EXACTLY what happened………maybe you need to look to Mr. Ficano to find out the truth……