To the editor, WE WHO LIVE in the North Kentucky/East Buchanan neighborhood came here for a reason. We like peace and quiet and a relationship with nature that is impossible in a more intensely settled area. These would be destroyed by this project.
Whether they are Iolans or persons from very far away, the motives of the promoters of the proposed new nursing home are clear. They each have a financial stake, whether large or small, in the project.
We who oppose it also have a financial stake. Our life savings have been invested in our homes, and we do not want them to be devalued.
However, beyond that we also have major concerns with ways in which the project would affect the quality of our lives. These range from general increased traffic and the introduction of regular semi deliveries into a no-through-truck area, to noise and light spillage concerns, to serious drainage issues, which caused the developer’s representative at the planning commission meeting to turn his back and stomp to the back of the meeting hall instead of answering in a responsible manner.
Those whose yards border the site will have the dubious pleasure of sampling cigarette smoke from employees on break and watching (and listening to) the dementia patients in their outdoor recreation area enclosed by wrought iron fencing, kind of a human zoo.
Some say this is for the good of the community, but this is questionable. Last week a survey of the local nursing homes found 35 assisted living vacancies, all of them priced below the high dollar rent that would be asked by these developers. We don’t need 22, 26, or 28 (the numbers keep changing) more accommodations.
The local employment envisioned is 22 full-time equivalent positions. This strongly implies most of the positions will be part-time, no-benefit, jobs. Are these the jobs our community needs?
The existing lots generate some tax income, but a 10-year tax abatement has been proposed for the project so the tax gain would be negative.
Finally, and most importantly, one does not build a community by destroying its neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Dvorachek,
Iola, Kan.
Letter to the editor — July 22, 2013
