I am writing to clarify some items reported in Tuesday’s article regarding the proposed water plaza. Mr. Maharry quoted Councilor Ladehoff correctly. However, what Councilor Ladehoff claims happened never transpired. The statement reported, “She told council not to accept the Destination Iowa grant… that’s $2,000,000 Marshalltown would’ve lost” is false and misleading.

My Oct. 24, 2022 letter to council began with “It is with a heavy heart and much regret that I must encourage council to vote NO on moving forward for the general obligation bond until such time the public has an opportunity to see and approve the vision and plans of all the projects being developed…”.

I then respectfully explained my “why” for this position which included safety concerns, lack of handicap accessibility, and no interactive play features that I had seen in the first water plaza proposal. This was a project that had never been shared with the public but was seeking funding on the proposed bond. I also spoke during the public hearing held that day regarding this general obligation bond. Council did approve this bond. You can view this meeting on the City’s website.

In my opinion, the public has the right to know the details on where our tax dollars are being spent through the bonding process. These are our parks and tax dollars thus my request for public viewing and approval before moving forward and creating more public debt. We don’t have an open checkbook and are facing significant infrastructure demands.

We (myself and Splash 4 Life) have never been included in the process to file for or been part of the decision making on who is or who is not awarded Destination Iowa grants. That is entirely handled by city staff, council and the State of Iowa. I learned and celebrated with the rest of the community about the $2,000,000 Destination Iowa grant when Jessica Kinser announced that Marshalltown applied for and was later awarded the grant.

We have had no part of the water plaza design team decisions on design or costs because I was dismissed from the design team last October by Councilor Ladehoff. This came immediately after I respectfully shared my concerns.

In closing, Councilor Ladehoff — Why would I say something like you claim I did after spending thousands of hours and dollars on Splash 4 Life (my passion project) over the past decade?