Nehls angered after special meeting is held without him
Fayette County Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls was offended and upset Monday after finding out that his two colleagues held a special meeting without him. Although Nehls had reservations about voting on an issue related to the South Union Township Widewaters development, he didn’t have the opportunity to voice his concerns.
“That just stinks,” he said after learning that the meeting was held in his absence.
The sole action taken at the meeting was approval of a resolution dealing with Matthew Drive improvements related to the Fayette County Business Park and the Widewaters development in South Union Township. An allocation of $400,000 from the bond issue was also part of the resolution. The Widewaters development will include a Home Depot store and other businesses.
As a part of the agreement, Widewaters will convey a portion of the property to the county and the county redevelopment authority will construction the extension of Matthew Drive to Wayland Smith Drive in the business park.
Nehls said that following a Dec. 26 meeting with Widewaters regarding the development, he still had reservations about certain issues. He said he didn’t want to put liquid fuel funds in jeopardy.
Nehls said he was upset that he didn’t have a chance to air his concerns at a public meeting.
“I’m a little bit offended by it. They both knew where I was,” Nehls said.
The resolution calls for construction of an extension of Matthew Drive by Aug. 1, 2004 that includes a guaranteed completion date to the state Department of Transportation and Widewaters with liquid fuel funds as well as a resolution to spend $400,000 in bond funds for improvements to Matthew Drive. Both Cavanagh and Vicites said the action was vital to continued economic development in the area. Vicites said the meeting had to be held before Jan. 10 to meet a deadline for a spring groundbreaking for the 200-job Home Depot.
“All of these meetings are called all of a sudden,” Nehls said. “It just says that they feel that Nehls is insignificant.”
Nehls said the decision may come back to haunt the other commissioners.
Commission chairman Vincent A. Vicites and Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh attended the meeting and unanimously approved the resolution. The meeting came in the midst of a criminal court case in which all three commissioners were witnesses.
Prior to the start of the meeting, both Nehls and Cavanagh were in an upstairs courtroom. However, Cavanagh came downstairs and joined Vicites in holding the meeting without Nehls. Cavanagh explained that Nehls was upstairs and court and would not attend.
Later, Vicites said he only held the meeting because Cavanagh told him it was OK with Nehls. Vicites said he asked Cavanagh three times about Nehls absence, and was assured that they should hold the meeting. Vicites said that the information he was given later was that Nehls had asked that the meeting be opened and then recessed until he could attend.
Cavanagh could not be reached for comment.