Corbett: low voter participation to blame for Noblesville mayor’s misplaced priorities

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Dear Editor:

I applaud the residents around Cherry Tree Road for their effort to take their fight against the gravel pit to the courts, but I’d like to remind all that there is a much more efficient and cost-effective way to change things.

The BZA (which voted for the gravel pit) is an appointed board and the mayor has three of those appointments – a majority. The board reflects the policies of the current administration, so hold your elected official accountable.

If you don’t like the current policy the remedy is to elect someone with a better one. As it turns out, there’s a municipal election in just a few weeks. Alas, no one is running against the mayor. What a blown opportunity! You can bet if the mayor had an opponent in this election it is unlikely he would have risked such an unpopular decision. Officials lose elections over decisions like this, but there has to be an opponent.

Four years ago, I ran to prevent this kind of thing from happening but there was no crisis like this at the time and total turnout was just 14 percent of registered voters. The mayor won with less than 7 percent of registered voters, a minority of those who voted.

Unfortunately, that’s what happens when you stop paying attention.

People get elected with very few votes, (in that case, fewer than 3,000 in a city with nearly 45,000 registered) and those who have a vested interest in the outcome have an outsized impact. It’s been that way in Noblesville for a long time.

We might as well get used to it. We’re stuck with these policies for at least another four years, so the courts are probably your best bet. Good luck with it.

This election is a lost cause but maybe this episode will inspire someone else to step up in the future who prioritizes established neighborhoods over new development or so-called “progress.”

Mike Corbett
Noblesville