To The Reader’s Forum:

This is in response to an op-ed that appeared in The Post-Journal on April 28, 2019. The editorial was written by a property-owning, taxpaying resident of the city of Jamestown.

The article consisted of raises for the mayor and City Council members. The article also addressed Jamestown’s fiscal/financial issues. This city resident got a 100-percent bullseye and hit the nail right on the head.

City development and city government needs to realize the city exists beyond the downtown limits.

It is the property-owning city taxpayers who live in the outlying neighborhoods who keep the city going.

In the not-too-distant past, didn’t the city offer amnesty on parking tickets? I think there was over $400,000 in outstanding parking violations. How or why did the amount come to be?

Recently two articles were in The Post-Journal stating 40 percent of Jamestown’s property is tax-exempt. How can a city the size of Jamestown have almost half the property be tax-exempt? We are also dealing with the issue of poverty.

Does all the tax-exempt property meet 100 percent of all the criteria? The issue of tax-exempt property should be re-assessed. There should be strict enforcement of parking violations.

Like my fellow resident, who wrote the original editorial, I, too, am a property-owning taxpayer.

Douglas C. Beardsley

Jamestown