Letter supporting Ambrosini was all wrong
Bonnie Irgang of Saltlick Township submitted a letter last week that was published in this newspaper.
For me it felt more like an “ode” to Mr. Ambrosini, rather than an expression of independent thought.
She claims we call ourselves “citizen soldiers” and “patriots.” That is not true. No one objecting to the questionable tactics of Mr Ambrosini have ever used those terms. Those words were used by a failed candiate for state senate last spring! We are merely very concerned citizens who are upset that former Chairman Ambrosini has wasted more than $2.5 million taxpayer dollars (and counting) for his failed and over-priced new jail in Dunbar.
Ms. Irgang criticized citizens who attended a commissioners meeting claiming that “we” are misguided on issues facing Fayette County. Most of us who go to the meetings are extremely well informed, especially about the jail issue. Many of us have been at several meetings asking questions of Commissioner Ambrosini but only to be at the receiving end of his insults, smirks and sly remarks.
He either does not answer a question or he goes round and round. The very few times he does answer we find out later that it was untrue. When we return the next month to question him he smirks while giving yet another roundabout answer, and he tends to question folks’ education or experience quite often. I think he intends to humiliate citizens in public.
We come prepared to each meeting and have for over two years with photos, documents and even the design plans for the failed jail, that Mr Ambrosini “claimed” he had not yet seen, and the plans for failed Iowa Street Women’s Annex!
We braved the “Polar Vortex” of 2014 just to attend and ask that we be heard, regarding Mr. Ambrosini’s Dreamland Jail. “We” have been called obstructionists, dissenters and anarchists, in print soley for exercising our constitutional right to free speech! “We” have been threatened with being physically removed from the room for merely asking him to tell the truth! It is extremely difficult to ask a fiscal question when we are loudly told we are members of someones “galley” by a former attorney for the County! Or when the former “chair” is laughing at you while reaching for his gavel so he can try to silence the room.. It’s almost as a communist cegime would do.
I must ask Ms. Irgang, were you at that meeting you so bitterly critique? I was. I also knew just about all who were. Did you even bother to watch any of the two videos? This newspaper urged readers to watch. Have you ever been to a meeting of the Fayette County commissioner? Do you have any firsthand experience with “us”? My opinion is that you wrote your politically motivated, pro-Al letter based solely on the extremely jaded editorial in this newspaper.
One should never do that because the truth is never found in those pages. You must be brave and attend a meeting to see what actually happens and why the citizens who have fought long and hard and won a year- long battle of mockery, obstinance, and rude comments by Commissioner Ambrosini are at last happy in their victory.
The voice of reason has spoken and there shall be no new Justice & Rehabiliation Center. More than a thousand citizens spoke when they signed the petitions and Judge Ober spoke loudly when he issued a court order saying the zoning hearing board and Ambrosini erred when selecting land in the Dunbar Township Business Park.
The citizens of the county have achieved a great victory in 2014. History was made. We stood up and our voices were at last heard and we made a difference. The legal system took over and ruled in the appropriate manner. And it was not the citizens who “name-called” at all. You have it all wrong Ms. Irgang. The immature and inappropriate behavior was that of your Commissioner Ambrosini.
If you want to write a pre-election letter about Ambrosini so be it, just don’t include the citizens who attend monthly meetings to stop the corruption in the former chairman’s Office,
I’m a firm believer in Alice Walker’s thought, “Activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet.”
Marybeth Homistek is a resident of Fairchance,