Osama bin Laden, unfortunately, has been very active in Massillon.
Our mayor has also blamed the 9/11 terrorist attacks for slowing the development on Massillon's never built hockey arena. (The Repository, November 3, 2002).
Terror cells, right here in our home town. Who would have ever guessed?
Maybe Alan Jackson could write a song about this tragedy;
"Where were you when the Hampton Inn couldn't pay its mortgage..."
9/11, one of the most tragic events to ever occur on American soil, was ten years ago.
To blame this tragedy, in any way, as to why you don't pay your bills is offensive.
We counter with several other possible theories as to why there just isn't enough money at the end of the day to pay the mortgage.
Perhaps instead of showing profit, the developers pay themselves a "management fee." They get paid, and it is part of the hotel's operating expense, so they don't show much of a profit, and don't have the money to pay on the loan so we, the taxpayers, have to cough up the cash.
It would be an accounting trick. Technically the movie Forrest Gump, major blockbuster that it was, lost money. Think Hollywood accounting.
Perhaps people don't want to pay $124 dollars plus tax to sleep over a bus garage on a Thursday night.
Hard to say.
What isn't hard to say is that the events of 9/11, tragic as they were, happened ten (10) years ago.
There was an impact on the travel industry.
Ten years ago.
The citizens of Massillon are tired of excuses.
They are tired of lies, lies such as Helline and Cicchinelli denying that Helline's appearance at City Council Monday was not prompted by the Extraordinary One.
It was.
They know it.
We are tired of paying for a hotel, a golf course, a restaurant, and a hockey arena that was never built.
Pretty soon we will find out that bin Laden forced the City to merge the Legends Golf Course with the parks department.
We obviously know where the buck stops on this one.
It stops with Al-Qaeda.
You can see their swath of destruction at the walking path in Reservoir Park.
