600 Block of West Cone St, service alley

As many who follow our blog are well aware, there is much data and facts to show the negative impact that the rescue mission has had on our downtown from the perspective of dealing with a pronounced vagrant and transient problem. What our blog has spent little time focusing on has been some of the impacts that the mission has had in regards to trash, public health and environmental impact. As some will remember during the height of the “green movement”, Billy Fox jumped on the recycle bandwagon seeing an opportunity to create an additional revenue channel for their organization. As usual, the program was ill planned and just prior to the program being shut down, the mission had accumulated large mounds of unprocessed blue recycled bags on the mission property on sixth street. This area was neither zoned for nor able to handle the large volumes of  materials that attracted rodents and mosquitoes. After some pressure from the community and a declining market for recycled materials the mission management  made the decision to close their recycling operation. But with the closing did not come a mindset that part of the responsibility of the rescue mission is to keep the areas neighboring the mission and its varies operations clean of litter and trash. Recently, a complaint was registered with the city code enforcement that trash from the rescue mission’s thrift store location was being dumped on a public right-of-way. (see photo above). City workers investigated the complaint and determined that the debris came from the thrift store and designated it as a public health hazard requiring immediate clean up by city crews. The cost of the clean up will be placed on either city works department or  community redevelopment both of which are budgeted by tax payer dollars. Is this really the best use of our tax dollars cleaning up behind the mission? Is this what we should expect from businesses operating as a “community service organization” to litter our community? More nonsense from the Rescue Mission management that the community should tolerate no longer.

Comments by a local citizen when asked his opinion of Mr. Washburns comments about the rescue mission

On a recent morning morning edition of the “Doc Washburn show” on 94.5, Doc went on a rant attacking anyone that felt the rescue mission should be moved. He went on the claim that they were an organization operating off of private funds (more on this in a future posting) and the community should let them be.  After the show, Doc was sent an email with with multiple pieces of data that showed just how toxic the rescue mission was on downtown and how they were not quite as “privately funded” as he would like to think. When pushed, Doc came up with all kinds of excuses as to why “he didnt have time” . Is this another case of our local media being unwilling to even entertain the idea that all is not as picture on the packaging shows it is?  When an organization attempts to do social engineering there are always secondary effects that are not always so pretty. Why does our local media stick their head in the ground and not report the details of the issue in their entirity??  Could it be that they are afraid of losing advertising dollars? Here is a bolt of reality, If downtown is continued to be burdened by a vagrancy problem created by the rescue mission, there will be no downtown businesses to sell advertising to. I am a Christian. I believe in helping those who are willing to help themseleves. I volunteer and donate to organizations that I know are doing the right thing by the people they serve and the volunteers who donate their time. I support organizations that have made positive impact on our community as a whole without creating a nuisance. The rescue mission does not fit that bill.