{"id":3904,"date":"2013-11-06T14:00:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2013-11-06T14:00:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T14:00:18","slug":"arc-sinks-under-under-voter-displeasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3904","title":{"rendered":"ARC sinks under voter displeasure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I awoke this morning to some distressing news.<\/p>\n

Amarillo voters rejected a worthy bond issue that would have enhanced greatly the quality of life in their fair city.<\/p>\n

The Amarillo Recreational Complex failed by a 54-46 percent margin. It would have cost around $31 million to build this complex, which would have comprised a comprehensive array of amenities for citizens young and old to enjoy. It would have included outdoor ball fields, indoor swimming, basketball, tennis and swimming centers … heck, I can’t even think of all the things it would have entailed.<\/p>\n

A citizens committee had been beating the bushes raising money to offset the public tax burden, hoping to raise about $6 million from private donations. Spokesmen for the committee had made the case — or so I thought — that the ARC would be a good investment for residents to make.<\/p>\n

What’s more, it’s not as if the city has been spending money like mad on parks. The last municipal parks bond issue was approved in 1972. That’s 41 years ago<\/em>, for crying out loud.<\/p>\n

Silly me. I didn’t realize small-mindedness still had such a grip on Amarillo voters.<\/p>\n

Speaking of voters, I hasten to note that of the nearly 100,000 residents who were eligible to vote, only about 15 percent of them actually cast ballots … which means that a tiny majority of the voting public decided this important ballot measure.<\/p>\n

I am a sad man this morning.<\/p>\n\n

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I awoke this morning to some distressing news. Amarillo voters rejected a worthy bond issue that would have enhanced greatly the quality of life in their fair city. The Amarillo Recreational Complex failed by a 54-46 percent margin. It would have cost around $31 million to build this complex, which would have comprised a comprehensive … Continue reading ARC sinks under voter displeasure<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[348,434],"class_list":["post-3904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amarllo-recreational-center","tag-arc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}