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A behemoth in our midst: Putting boundaries on the Silver Cos.

City Council's work should be unhindered by business interests.

Date published: 9/12/2003

ACCORDING TO A RECENT article in The Free Lance-Star, Clyde Matthews has started an umbrella organization called Fredericksburg Area Citizens for Truth and a campaign to oust Mayor Bill Beck from office. Also in the news, the Silver Cos. is fighting the city, and Beck in particular, over a deal involving the silt from the removal of the Embrey Dam? But does any of this surprise anyone anymore?

So often the stories that dominate the headlines come as out of nowhere--utter truths without a past. But the Embrey Dam issue, for instance, and the ugliness that suffuses the whole matter, was predictable.

Is the Silver Cos. simply a company, like any other, trying to do business in the city? No. Its size and its infusion into so many elements of both public and private business with the city puts it more often than not in the position of partner. It has also recently employed both our former city manager and city planner--the two principal architects and deal-makers of much of the business that transpired between the two entities. The Silver Cos. has long enjoyed the fruits of a gracious City Hall.

Let's take Snowden Park, for instance. The Silver Cos. needed better dirt to complete Central Park. It entered into a dirt swap with the city using undeveloped city property across from Bragg Hill subdivision. The Silver Cos. got the good hard dirt it needed and an award for good citizenship from the city brass for building what it said were ready-to-go ball fields. The city got its ball field, all right--one whose topsoil is a combination of stones, concrete debris, and some grass. It sits closed, empty and literally sinking. And if the city had ever wanted to develop the property, there are serious doubts the tract would now be stable enough. Some good investment!

Let's turn our attention to Clyde Matthews and FACT. Complaints of little progress by the new City Council majority have been systematically appearing since the last election. There has been a discernible pattern of harassment and attempts to hinder observable progress.

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Date published: 9/12/2003