Mayor Drops Ball (Again)

I see Paradise Mayor "Recycling Bin Ralph" Wiseman is at it again. Will this guy ever learn? Humility is not his strong suit. It’s hard to take anything this guy says seriously. I mean really, he “wins” an election by the luck of a draw, (his name was selected from a recycling bin of all things), he received about 20% support of the town residents, and claims that “I’m still in charge” even though the vote intially ended in a tie. (Shades of Alexander Haig).

If Wiseman had any balls, he would have requested a runoff election, but that’s something he wouldn’t do.

Not our Ralphie boy.

Sentiment was against him and in all likelihood he would have been toast. He really comes off as an arrogant you know what. I always find it ironic, that the town’s most despised citizen is its mayor.

Ralph made news yesterday by rejecting parts of a traffic study that recommends public transportation and a pedestrian overpass by one of the elementary schools in town. The school is located on Karwood Drive, a very high traffic area – which will get busier as it’s going to be expanded to four lanes from two – at a cost of $5 to $7 million. The expansion of Karwood Drive, a road that connects Topsail and Kenmouth Roads, is the highest priority of the consultations traffic report. A question I always had was why wasn’t this originally built as a four-lane road when plans were first drawn up. Now, sidewalks which were constructed last fall, have to be torn up, land expropriated, water and sewer lines reinstalled, etc; seems like the town could have saved millions if it had better planning.

Wiseman also rejected the idea of public transportation - easy for him to say as he has a vehicle. Many in town don’t have that luxury. Post secondary students in particular. Before dismissing public transportation, why not try a scaled down pilot project beginning in the fall where buses run to major centres in St. John’s such as the university and Avalon Mall to see it the service is viable.

But no, not our Ralphie. That makes too much sense.

And where are the other councillors on this? If Wiseman is speaking for them, they aren’t much better. And come election time, they’ll have to fight to keep their jobs. They haven’t really endeared themselves to the electorate over that past two years.