In the latest issue of the Joplin Regional Business Journal, Publisher Larry Warren offers the old "mistakes were made," comment without, of course, saying what those mistakes are ,who made them, and how we can prevent them from ever happening again.
But Warren followed that, by blaming all of the city's woes on master developer David Wallace. "We were taken, not by our friends and neighbors, but by someone who preyed upon a tired and vulnerable community."
Warren was not pleased with the audit's comments on some of Joplin's biggest names. "One of the issues I have with the findings is in regards to Mike Woolston. I have known Mike for several years now, again it is my opinion, but Mike has served our country and our city with honor and integrity and no one will change my opinion on that. My opinion would also not be changed on the character or contributions of Charlie Kuehn, Rob O'Brian, or Jane Cage, who worked tirelessly during that time."
It appears with Michael Beatty at the Globe and Larry Warren at the Business Journal, there is no print source in Joplin willing to truthfully examine just what happened to bring Joplin to this point.
5 comments:
Larry's Joplin Regional Business Journal probably won't be around much longer. It is losing thousands of dollars and has a revolving door of staff coming and going. And just how long can the JRBJ be allowed to reside in the Joplin business incubator?
WE were not taken! The idiots that were in power (and drunk on that power) were either taken are were in on the taking. The public outcry prior to the hiring of WB should have been enough for a caring person to respond to - but Rohr and Woolston and company told us to sit down and shut up - they knew what was best! So either they were stupid or on the take - but we will pay - either way.
How long until those funding the "business incubator" figure out it's just an overpriced office building?
Would love to know how many chamber members have jumped ship since the audit.
Warren also has a relative employed in the R8 administration building in a position that I have high hopes will be cut effective January 2016.
These guys are really grabbing at straws aren't they? I read a claim by Four States Homes guy that they really didn't realize much selling properties to the city many times more than they just paid because of all the hard paper work they performed to ready the land for there own development plans, at city cost by the way. I read the Joplin Redevelopment Corp. guy claim that they really didn't over pay because the land was to used for commercial development and as such was that much more valuable. Kind of like that ocean front property in Arizona. That statement alone leads to the conclusion that all those involved had prior knowledge of plans beforehand, which included certain councilmen and a certain developer. It is obvious that when the few independent appraisals performed came in way below the asking price, they just decided to forget about that pesky process and skip having appraisals done. An appraisal is performed to give an opinion of current value, not future value. It all tells me that those involved must have known what they thought the future was to be. They might be better served from now on to just say nothing, because every time they speak they incriminate themselves even more.
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