It has recently come out at the very first public hearing for the proposed Norton Bicentennial Park that a registered sex offender intends to reside next to it in a property that he is renovating. All this proves is how reckless and non-transparent that the last 3 years of this park planning has been done by the City and Randy and Fred Fischer. If this quasi-public park would have been planned in a public and transparent way from its inception over 3 years ago this situation with the registered sex offender would have become known well in advance before hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations and grants were secured by this community.

The truth is the public was NEVER asked for their input regarding another park before the August 1st zoning hearing or at any other any public hearings as it should have been. It was instead back doored by city leaders through a “private entity” called the Bicentennial Commission which therefore shielded all of its functions from public meetings or any public scrutiny whatsoever. This allowed the “park pushers” to operate under the guise of being a “private entity” even though everyone affiliated with it including the Mayors Administrative Assistant (who worked on Bicentennial Projects during city time on the taxpayer’s dime) had deep ties to the city administration.

Randy Fischer is complaining about an explosive news headline but he had no problems when damaging articles were being written about the former Freddie’s Property when I was the current owner and was never asked for my side of the story about that property. The city knew about the situation with this sex offender because this very issue came up when the Mayor proposed a “pocket park” at the former Clark Gas Station site on Mansfield and Iron St. as that same individual was residing directly adjacent to that property at that time. Bucyrus does not need another park. Do something far more useful with the grant money and donations and fix up the parks we already have.

-Sincerely,

Kurt Fankhauser

Former Bucyrus Council President