Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
The charade is over.
In a ploy to fool the voters of Mason City, elected leaders and their media outlets revealed last year that a Hilton Hotel would be built in downtown Mason City.
Shame on all those involved in this deception. Globe Gazette, KIMT, KGLO, elected leaders and the so-called elite who propagated it. Â You know who you are.
Sometimes, the truth forces its way out, like an overdue pregnancy, and this lie could no longer gestate. Â The truth – which most intelligent people knew all along – was born yesterday when the Globe’s slow-footed journalist John Skipper had to eat a turd sandwich and admit to the public that the Hilton wasn’t coming.
I never believed this developer and this mayor and council could get this deal done. Â They said ground would be broken in April; well, that parking lot is untouched. Â I said the developer was suspect just last week (read the March 16 story here). Â The guy never came to Mason City to see the council over his multi-million dollar deal. Â He didn’t even have a website until January of this year for his business.
Turns out, Hilton wanted nothing to do with Phillip Chodur. Â There’s just not enough business to go around, and we all knew that.
I am happy for the established hotels who don’t deserve to have government meddle in their affairs and sabotage their meager profits.
Let us now put to the side this latest diversion from moving Mason City forward and focus on the latest issue at hand: a $30 million development in the downtown.
There is a hotel attached to this deal, too, which appears to have been slapped together at the last moment, with no public input and little discussion from city council; an application submitted to the state of Iowa on deadline date asking for $6.5 million. Â I will be covering this more extensively soon. Â It is laughable to say the least.
This City Hall is back to its old tricks. Â No input from citizens, no thought behind what it is doing. Â They are now elected, so they apparently believe they can do anything they please. Â Remember, Mr. Kuhn, Mr. Lee and Mrs. Marinos, a year from now, we will be approaching another election season. Â You will have a lot to answer for, and some of us will not lay down and give you an easy ride back into office.
When I ran for council, I had a simple, basic platform to begin turning Mason City around. Â No charades, no back room deals, include the public in every thing. Â Sunshine. Â Oversee or fire the North Iowa Corridor for lack of producing results and decent jobs and sucking hundreds of thousands of tax dollars from the taxpayers. Â Focus on the basics like infrastructure, public safety, amenities to attract new families. Â Keep taxes low. Â Make sound decisions. Â Be accountable. Â Pay attention to all citizens of all classes.
Instead, we have a 10% tax hike, soaring water and sanitation rates, no new jobs and aloof elected leaders who met you once since the election, at a bar, and haven’t been back since.
It’s a shame that there is only one place – right here on NIT – where you are guaranteed to get the truth about things here in North Iowa, even if it’s not always pleasant. Â But I’ll keep delivering it even if some of you don’t want to hear it.
Did anyone really believe it. Hilton does not build in a city this small and like always people with money have ideas that they want other people to pay for.
Never said it was smart, just said it was an attempted scam and it was.
Your contention that the Hilton Hotel plan was a scam to get votes in the election has a major flaw. The hotel plan was not viewed as a universally positive thing, even among pro-establishment voters. It is a controversial idea that has both advocates and detractors in every faction. In the end, it was unlikely that the plan swayed anyone’s vote. Even if it did, it was equally likely to sway it away as it was toward the establishment.
In no way did I claim that the Hilton charade won the election. It first came out before I ever announced my intention to run. However, I would contend that it was first announced last spring to try to show the people of MC that Bookmeyer and this council were “doers” that were “getting things done” and “turning it around”. It was meant to have an affect on public opinion, create a buzz. No policy will be 100% liked or accepted, but the calculated move was that the hoteliers are a very small part of the public, and pissing them off was well worth the risk.
However, the big council vote in early October to “approve” a “deal” with Chodur and get it in the paper and radio and TV showed the timing that Bookmeyer and the media were aiming for. A deal that was never going anywhere, played up all year, but made to look like a major accomplishment, did have an affect. People mentioned it a lot when I knocked on doors, and I patiently explained that it was not true.
Matt the more I think about it the more I agree with you.
The announcement of the Hilton was akin to Bookmeyer and his list of backers he released, and his announcement of raising thousands of dollars. He wanted to discourage anyone from running against him and his pathetic team. This great news of a new downtown hotel would make many people think twice about running for office. Bookmeyr played the media, and they wanted to be played by him. You hit this spot-on, Matt, and we are not tricked any longer.
It’s no different than Dale Snyder’s letter to the editor saying the current administration “has tremendous momentum right now”. Big contractors and those sitting in power are always going to tout themselves as “the men with the plan”. Life is an open proposition. There are many different philosophies and variables. The public basically doesn’t know what the hell they want. They can’t think beyond a day or two. As long as the sky isn’t falling, people will vote to continue B.A.U.
I hope D. Snyder is talking about Clear Lake.
Yes, it was in the Mirror Reporter last election season. He was calling on the people to continue supporting the current Administration’s pick for At-Large because of what he claimed to be “tremendous momentum”, which leads me to believe more people knew about the secretive warehouse coming to town. His construction firm gets annual $35,000 check from the city. The “momentum” benefits fat cats like him who already have all the marbles and continue to want more.
That is a great point Todd. Keep up the good work. Love when you debate
Mason City sunk millions into the Park Inn. Now they want to build another motel that would kill it. Makes no sense to me. Mason City don’t have that much tourism anyway. There’s nothing there.
@Bobby G.-There is no tourism in Mason City. Once you have seen the old whore house there is no reason to come back and building a new hotel and auditorium will do nothing to change that. More retail will do nothing either and they probably will do nothing but kill off the mall and some of the existing hotels. It is nothing but a ego trip for the elite’s.
Matt I voted for you. I saw the Solberg signs in the vacant lots with the trash, i saw the signs at lary elwoods place. It ws easy to see wht was going on. I brought my neighbor Vicki to vote for you too. I hope you try again.
I never believed it for a moment. I recognized it for what it was, nothing but a scam to help get the elite’s re-elected. I sure hope the people who didn’t vote are the ones getting his with the biggest tax increases because they sure deserve it. I supported Matt during the last election and will do so again if he runs. Jodi Draper would make a good at large as well but they both got beat up during the last election by the mayor’s dirty tricks.
Everyone knew it was never going to be built. It was a ploy before the election. Just sayin. Like I said before, the voters voted them in, they got what they wanted. I hope they are all happy.
Maybe next time the voters will get off their duffs and vote in large numbers!!!! This did not have to happen. Now we are back to square one– actually we are way behind square one. All of their rhetoric is bulls_ _ _ !!! How can you tell if the Mayor and City Council are lying??? Their mouths are moving!!!
They are so full of themselves that they actually believe that people are buying what they have to sell. God, we didn’t even make the top 10 cities in Iowa poised for economic…
Nice. If I could have voted for you Matt…I would have. Hope you eye the At-Large position coming up next year. 🙂