Originally posted on Medium by Joyce Vondrasek
On Tuesday, March 25th, the Cass County Board of Commissioners met and voted to suspend the completion of a bike trail between Omaha and Lincoln. The newly elected Board reversed two previous votes by their predecessors to complete the trail. Pausing construction will slow down Nebraska and Cass County’s economic growth and possibly cost the taxpayers of Cass County unnecessary legal expenses to cancel contracts to build the trail.
The meeting was silly. One man suggested that if the trail was built, that his dog could bite someone on the trail and then the dog’s head would have to be cut off to perform a rabies test, and how was he supposed to explain that to his children? Another woman claimed she had never been told about the economic impact of the project, and she demanded it be halted until she knew more. A pro-trail activist placed a sheet of paper with the economic impact study details directly in front of her while she spoke; she responded by saying that “people make things up”. Another person complained that they had moved to a location directly between Nebraska’s two most populous cities in order to get away from people.
The examples I mentioned above were the most memorable; there were no serious or reasonable objections to the trail. There wasn’t a single objection to the trail that anyone needs to take seriously, and the Board had already heard public comments before this on several occasions. Opponents of the trail contrived a circus of public opinion out of thin air, and others were unable or unwilling to find words to fight back at the McCarthy-esque mob demanding the trail be stopped, and flipped the vote to stop the trail. It was a stunning victory for Negative Nancys and naysayers and not-in-my-backyard enthusiasts everywhere.
But the climax of this episode of Parks and Recreation was a comment by newly elected Cass County Commissioner Daniel Stohlman. As a County Commissioner, he is directly responsible for things getting built in Cass County: roads, bridges, telephone poles, sidewalks, sewers — it’s their job. So imagine my surprise when Mr. Stohlman said that if the trail was built, and then part of it washed out in a storm, that “I don’t want to be responsible for that”.
“I don’t want to be responsible for that”. For what, sir? The job you were elected to do?
There are already miles of bike trails in Cass County and Mr. Stohlman is responsible for all of them. If they wash out, he will vote on whether to repair them or whether to leave dangerous washed out roads and trails for his constituents to try and drive or bike over without injuring themselves or damaging their personal property. Maybe if Mr. Stohlman doesn’t want to be responsible for bike trails, he can abstain from voting (and commenting) the next time he is asked to vote on the MOPAC connection? I’m not a Cass County voter, so I won’t ask him to resign. But if I was one of his constituents, I would be asking myself what other issues and policies that are important to me does Commissioner Stohlman think aren’t his responsibility?
What is going on in Cass County? People don’t think they should be personally responsible if their dogs bite other people. Others pretend to be uninformed but when they are presented with information that contradicts their feelings, they choose their feelings over the facts. The problem is so bad even public servants are acting like they can pick and choose which problems they are responsible for, instead of doing the jobs they were elected to do. Golly gee, I hope these aren’t symptoms of a larger problem!
There is a simple fix for this. Simply send these people to the local office of the Nebraska Republican Party. I’m told they understand the values of personal responsibility and honorable public service there. If that doesn’t work, they can come and talk to me, an Eagle Scout, and I can tell them about my sworn duty to “help other people at all times” and “do a good turn daily”. Maybe I can better help Commissioner Stohlman understand what exactly his responsibilities to other people and to his constituents are.
There will be another meeting of the Cass County Commissioners on whether to continue the project, on April 22nd. Cass County Commissioner Daniel Stohlmann lists his personal cell phone on the Board’s website. Contact the Commissioner and encourage him to do his job and vote to approve the trail connection on April 22nd:
402–949–0232 <- Cass County Commissioner Daniel Stohlmann
Joyce Vondrasek Co-Chair, Omaha Chapter, Democratic Socialists of America person who likes to ride bicycles
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