In our opinion: City officials answered important questions

In late February, nearly 300 Oneonta residents attended a town hall meeting, hoping to voice their opinions and questions relating to the city’s downtown revitalization plans.

Instead, city officials gave a lengthy presentation which covered many different things, with perhaps the most controversial of them being the Rehabilitation Support Services Inc. proposal to purchase and develop 27 Market St.

Those who attended the meeting were given index cards and asked to write their questions down, with officials promising to answer each and every one. This week, we reported they ended up with 160 questions and comments.

Just about a month later, a group of the city’s leaders delivered on their promise and released a spreadsheet, addressing and answering every question and comment. City Administrator Greg Mattice, along with Mayor Mark Drnek and others, including RSS director of strategic partnerships Christine Nealon worked hard to do their best at clearing up any confusion and answering questions.

Credit is due to the officials who came together and took the time to address the concerns of our city’s residents. It shows that they are listening to and care about the various opinions and concerns that have been brewing, especially those related to things like the RSS proposal, housing and crime.

We encourage any of our readers who have concerns about similar issues to take a look at the 13-page spreadsheet on the city website. It can be found at www.oneonta.ny.us/market_st_transit_hub by clicking the “Q & A Responses” link.

Not only did officials answer every question, the majority of their responses were lengthy, direct and transparent. While some of the questions were more thoughtfully written than others, most of them were about valid concerns.

It’s clear that recent local developments have sparked a lot of debate. Things like the Dietz Street Lofts, 27 Market St. and the RSS proposal, parking and the transit hub have a widespread effect on our area. They are not to be taken lightly when being planned and worked on, and we’re glad to see that those in charge seem to agree.

With projects like these, it will be nearly impossible to find a solution that everyone will be completely pleased with. Based on the questions that were posed, we can see that there is a variety of opinions surrounding each topic and project the city is working on.

We’d like to think of the spreadsheet as a resource. It’s possible that reading through the responses might not only help those against certain projects understand their intent more, but perhaps even change their view on them. It contains a lot of valuable information. Even those without a specific opinion should take a look.

At the very least, we’re glad to see that local officials, especially elected officials, are displaying responsiveness. Rather than brushing off questions and continuing to push an agenda, they heard concerns.

It seems clear, both through the questions asked and responses given — there is more work to be done. We hope that rather than rushing to complete a project, taking this important step and listening to the community will pay off.