Of course Jim Lemon won the last election he had 4 years to trash Dan Olson and the other Counsel Member in the Old Town News. He takes credit for things he has nothing to do with in it, tells half truths, and disseminates false information using the City’s Newspaper. He tells the staff what to write in the Old Town News and twists everything in it to make himself look good. Most of Union Gap only knows what the Old Town News says, which is mostly lies and half truths. This is what Jim Lemon has been doing to Mr. Olson and anyone else he thinks might be a threat to him keeping his post. If Mr. Lemon had that same kind of propaganda constantly aimed at him, like Mr. Olson has, he wouldn’t have stood a chance either. How could anyone stand a chance against 4 years of unofficial campaigning?

Of course Jim Lemon won the last election he had 4 years to trash Dan Olson and the other Counsel Member in the Old Town News. He takes credit for things he has nothing to do with in it, tells half truths, and disseminates false information using the City’s Newspaper. He tells the staff what to write in the Old Town News and twists everything in it to make himself look good. Most of Union Gap only knows what the Old Town News says, which is mostly lies and half truths. This is what Jim Lemon has been doing to Mr. Olson and anyone else he thinks might be a threat to him keeping his post. If Mr. Lemon had that same kind of propaganda constantly aimed at him, like Mr. Olson has, he wouldn’t have stood a chance either. How could anyone stand a chance against 4 years of unofficial campaigning?

By the way Jim Lemon is one of Union Gap’s biggest problems of waste, fraud, and abuse, because he has the attitude of “I’m the Mayor, I can do whatever I want!” It’s proven in how he treats his staff, runs the Council Meetings, and flagrantly ignores policies.

I understand that Mayor Lemon keeps all the employees in utter fear. I’ve heard stories of people being in City Hall, for business, getting called into the Mayor’s office and Lemon showing off how he makes the poor staff quake in their boots. Yelling and screaming at them and telling them he’ll fire them. It’s my understanding that this has become standard procedure in that office. My heart bleeds for his employees.

You are correct, but I've heard that different land owners have talked to several different companies and organizations about bringing their business and groups to Union Gap. Once they talked to Mayor Jim Lemon they pulled out. He seems to actually be working against what is best for Union Gap and causing it to loose money instead of helping it to grow.

I'm sure anyone reading my posts can tell that I research things before I comment, especially since I post website addresses so they can go find out for themselves and not just take my word.

This being said, I must ask the question, where do you get your information from "goingalong"? I see nothing that even begins to hint that the Regional Fire Authority would be a "new RFA a big tax on property." nor does anything indicate it would be "100 times bigger than the 1% on the city's portion....the advalorem tax." In all actuality the suggestion of creating the Regional Fire Authority is to reduce costs not to increase them, obviously if the study were to come back showing that it would likely increase the costs, then the counsel members would not vote to be part of it.

I will be expecting a speedy response to this post "goingalong" showing your information resource supporting your comments. Although I suspect it won't come since I believe your statements are unfounded.

If there was a way to reduce your bills and to keep the your life style the same or to even improve it you would want to know about it, wouldn't you? I think most people would. I even think they would become upset they were not informed of it, don't you?

Now, what if you were told there was a possibility that your bills could be reduced and still keep your current life style or even raise it, but they wouldn't be able to tell you for sure until you brought in your paperwork and went over things with them. What if they continued by saying you'd have to pay that person minimum wage for that hour of their time, but they thought they could get your favorite uncle to pay it as a gift to you for your birthday? You would want to look into the possibility of making changes wouldn't you?

Once again, I believe people would want to know about it, to look into the possibilities of saving money while life in general didn't change or if it did it might improve. I still believe they would be upset if they were not told about it especially if someone else is paying the fee to find out.

Basically what a feasibility study is, is someone studying all the information and determining the likelihood that the goals you are setting are reasonable and will work. Until you have the information studied by an expert no one knows the answer.

Why do so many young people have roommates when they first move out of their parents homes? Because they can't afford all the costs of living alone or because their lifestyle is much better by sharing their living costs. Older people are also doing something similar by moving into retirement communities, they get more amenities and are responsible for less, but still keep the lifestyle they want to have.

If you go to the website and read about the Regional Fire Authority that is being proposed it appears the intent is to keep the tax where it is or to even reduce it while still maintaining or even raising the level of service to the residents. http://yakimauniongapfireauthority.com/page14.php...

It is also my understanding that one of Union Gap's prominent citizens paid the cities portion of the feasibility study so there is absolutely no additional cost to the residents to find out if the Regional Fire Authority would be in the best interests of the residents.

A slightly different topic, but along the same lines. Do you remember what happened to the city of Tieton a while back? They kept choosing not to replace pipes because of money issues and not wanting to raise taxes. What happened? Catastrophic failures and the entire town ended up not having any water. You know it ended up costing the town and residents much more money than it would have if the town wasn't in a state of emergency. I believe they lucked out and didn't loose anything due to fires.

Over time pipes need to get replaced sometimes because they are degrading sometimes because the size is insufficient to supply the needed area or the size won't allow for enough water pressure when fighting fires.

Let me think which will cost more, additional fees because water pipes fail and loss of a structure because the water pressure is not sufficient for the fire department to use it to put out the fire or applying for grants to get up to half the costs paid for and raising the water and sewage rates for all businesses and residents a small amount (for most it would amount to a couple of dimes a month) to cover the other half of the costs?

I bet those residents of Tieton wish they would have applied for those grants and raised the rates a little instead of having to pay the entire amount and to raise the rates a lot.

It makes me wonder about people that aren't even interested in exploring possible options, especially if it won't cost the city anything because it was gifted to its people. What other opportunities might the city be missing out on with this type of mentality?

It seems to me that Union Gap should count itself very lucky to have people serving on their committees, commissions, etc advising their counsel members on such matters. Union Gap should also be happy and proud of those counsel members that keep their minds open to options and are forward thinking enough to try to fix things before huge problems can happen.

There isn't much to say about, "Mr Carney appears to be upset he lost his election." except to say that I see nothing that indicates Mr. Carney is upset that he didn't win and that I believe most people would be upset over the treatment he received at the counsel meeting if they were treated in such a way. You go on to say, "His opponent is strongly for the youth council and the children; he's a much better choice than Mr Carney.", these are basically your opinions, but the way you state it makes it seem like you think Mr. Carney is anti-children. Mr. Carney has children of his own, so do you really think he'd be anti-children?

Did you know that the youth counsel has been mostly functioning as a children's group/club instead of a true youth counsel and has been advised by multiple people that it would actually be better for the group to become a non-profit organization? If they were to become a non-profit they could still utilize the space they are now using and would be eligible to collect money from other sources thus allowing them to do even more of the wonderful activities they enjoy holding for the city's children. These kids do a terrific job putting on their activities and I doubt anyone wants them to stop doing the great service they are doing the children of the community.

The topic of this article is the Mayor's harsh words towards people at the counsel meeting, so the comments by "goingalong" indicate to me either he didn't watch the meeting or he thinks if someone disagrees with you or wants to suggest other ideas than what you want it gives you the right to treat those people badly. Then again, I just looked at all of the comments posted by "goingalong"'s, a total of six comments and five of those are bashing Mr. Carney. A little telling isn't it?

Mayors and counsel members need to listen to their citizens and consider their suggestions, then ultimately they must weigh all the options and do what they feel is in the best interest of the community. How can the Mayor or Counsel Members do their job and make decisions in the best interest of their residents if they don't listen to those people?

Do their towns people not deserve to be heard or be allowed to give their input just because they chose to run in an election and didn't win? If so "goingalong" make sure you never run for office because if you don't win, that would mean you could be treated poorly if you ever choose to voice an opinion again.

A city counsel meeting is a meeting to discuss the city's business and ALL who attend should show respect, be polite, and be taken seriously; it doesn't matter if you are the Mayor, a Counsel Member, or John Q. Public.

Finally, I want to show my gratitude to Mr. Carney for thanking us for showing an interest in Union Gap's Counsel meetings and for filling us in on some of the things that happened during the break that was not filmed as well as for sharing with us what he had intended to say during Monday's meeting.

I'm looking forward to the next meeting in hopes of finding out what Mr. Carney wanted to say at the last meeting. He had hardly said anything when he was cut off.

I wonder what "nickga" means when he says, "The interview with the citizen in the overalls was very telling about that man's personality."?

I recall there was a story about Abraham Lincoln wearing overalls. And Lincoln is thought to be very intelligent, insightful, wise, was respected by many, and still honored to this day (almost 150 years later) for everything he did. History has shown that some of the people that have made the largest contributions to our society were looked down upon for their attire at some point or another.

As for "nickga"'s remark, "Mr. Carney has a low opinion of the mayor and thinks he doesn't know what he's doing." Do you think Mr. Carney might have a valid reason after seeing what happened at the meeting? Everyone knows those meetings are filmed and shown on YPAC, if that happens on camera what happens when they aren't on?

At different times in the past, Union Gap's citizens were very active in their government drawing a lot of attention and people to their meetings. During those times it becomes difficult to find a seat at the meetings, reporters compete to get the story first, and there is an influx of people not only attending the meetings, but also running in elections causing the best people to be working in the towns best interests.

I hope the people that are talking about getting involved on these different sites actually do start getting involved.

Did you watch or attend the meeting? I have attended or watch many times over the years. Monday night after the meeting was over I was told by multiple people that I needed to see what went on at the meeting that night. I made sure I watched YPAC as soon as possible.

At different times in the past Union Gap has had very active citizens causing difficulty finding seats at the meetings, many reporters to attend and report the meetings, and YPAC's viewer ratings to sky rocket.

I think the people and reporters need to start paying closer attention again. See for themselves who the most intelligent members are, who is bringing ideas and possible solutions to the table, see which behaviors are normal and abnormal, and decide if they are happy with the way things are going or if they want things to change.