As a Leesburg resident and former downtown Leesburg small business owner, I'm sure I'll feel the immediate negative effect of any of our small businesses leaving town or just going out of business all together. Our small contingent, who live on the west side of the tracks and the east side of Ind. 15, always seems to be getting the short end of the stick.
We're already losing the close proximity of the Leesburg Elementary School, which was a substantial part of our decision to move here in the first place: to have a school within "walking" distance for our child. Now with the prospect of losing some of our more beloved businesses, I'm finding it harder and harder to find any reason to stay here myself.
The disproportionate sewage rate that restaurants will have to pay is an abomination. John Julian's statement that the rate structure is designed to be defensible in court is nothing more than an admission that it isn't fair, only defensible. Anything wrong, ridiculous or just plain stupid is defensible court. Just look at the comparison to the rates being charged to churches or schools. I'm sure the 700+ kids at the school will be flushing their potties a lot more than Stacy's clientele.
Mr. Julian's statement that "there are not too many empty towns in Indiana" is equally wrong, ridiculous and just plain stupid. Perhaps he should try driving a few of the two-lane state roads to get to where he's going and see what happens to small towns when the downtown business are driven out. Sure, some of the residents will stay, but you usually wind up with a lot of old, empty boarded-up buildings that wind up falling in upon themselves.
The sewer should eventually mean a rise in property values, maybe enough to justify the rates we will have to pay as residents. But if businesses have to leave town and the downtown area starts falling apart like our streets and curbs have, in today's housing market, you may as well kiss those property values goodbye.
I, for one, would be willing to take a little pressure off of these Leesburg businesses with some sort of rate structure adjustment, but as the article reads, it seems to have been voted on and passed. Yet another brilliant Leesburg town board management decision.
