First of all great job by the Daily Standard’s William Kincaid on his story - Eminent domain threat upsets building owner (July 25) - http://www.dailystandard.com/archive/story_single.php?rec_id=9372 . We encourage everyone to read this article.

I am not in favor of eminent domain and especially this time the way it is being approached by the City of Celina. You as a resident of Celina will have to determine how you see this purchase. Purchasing the old Versa Pak building is a bad idea.

Let’s look at some items…

No matter what the city will pay for this building where will the money come from?

How much money will be sent on this legal action for the city?

How is the building to be used and for what purpose or will it be torn down for park expansion. If it is to be torn down how much will that cost and what will they find when they dig it up. Ahhh, maybe the EPA can help us with that study. At one time the plant was a stearic acid facility, it might even have an underground storage problem no one is aware of. We could also make a pier out of it on West Bank Road, next to all of the Mersman plant material.

Is the boardwalk completed yet and do we have all of the funds in place to pay for the final construction? We do have two workers from the City Rec Department who have “Goose Patrol” each day to clean up that part of the walk that is completed. Yccck wouldn’t want that job!

Do we need more park area to take care of in the future? We should try and take care of the parks we have now, like paving the back road in Eastview Park. Weed the batting cage they have at Eastview. How do the tennis courts look at Westview Park, just a couple of simple projects.

The Hefner property was purchased in the past five years? How has that worked out for the city, it is an overpriced storage building as of today. (here’s our editorial on that - http://www.mercercountyoutlook.com/editorial/heffner.htm ).

What will the city buy next, maybe the old Bob Evans Restaurant building , it’s on the lake. Where will all of this stop?

With the city purchasing this building how much will be lost in property tax, all of it.

It seems to me that the City of Celina needs to take some time to study this issue in depth. It almost appears that the City is taking lessons from our friends in Washington on how to do business. If the city really feels this property is worth the time and money, buy it the “old-fashion” way don’t try and take it away from the owner. Eminent Domain - No Way!

I encourage you to ask your city leaders why they feel this property needs to be purchased. The Outlook sent emails to City Officials and council members to ask for there statements, as of this writing no returned emails from them.