Reader: ‘I am Anita’

Dear Editor,

Regarding your article about the Nickel Plate yesterday, referencing an email with my name.

“Email: “As for Anita – I’d rather not waste time on her. She’s probably a typical anti-City person.”

Reporter: Who is Anita? Please define “anti-City person.”

Cooke: This e-mail with another employee within the city was not part of any communication regarding the Nickel Plate, but was in response to a complaint that the mayor was not personally sponsoring a Noblesville Preservation Alliance event, which led to a criticism of our city government”

I am the Anita that was referenced here. At first I thought it was kind of funny & random that my name made it into this article about the train, although I am a strong supporter of keeping the trains running North AND South, I resent being called a “Typical Anti-City Person”. I may be “Anti-Politics” or “Anti-Politicians”, but since moving to Noblesville, I don’t think that I could ever be called typical or “Anti-City”. I have never supported, been involved in, or loved any city so much in my life!

I have only been here about 3 years, but in that short time I have served on the board of the Noblesville Preservation Alliance for 2 1/2 years, Co-Chaired the Historic Home Tour for 2 years with record revenue, participated in the Holiday Parade, the Bed Race, the 4th of July Parade, was involved in getting the Interurban building in Forest Park restored and completed, Served Hot Chocolate & Homemade Cookies on the Square during the holiday celebrations, planned a successful community picnic, supported the Save the Train campaign & spoke up to make sure that when the NPA was deciding on whether to support the SWQ position, that we did not do it if the city was not neutral on our involvement (i.e. we did not want to oppose the city). I didn’t even mention the time, effort & money we have invested in our home to turn it from a business into an amazing single family home again. I want this city to be beautiful, prosperous & preserved for future generations to also enjoy. To call me Anti-City is just hurtful.

Granted, last year I did write, what I thought was a private FB message, to the City of Noblesville expressing my personal disappointment with the Mayor’s decision not to sponsor the Historic Home Tour (not as a representative of any organization). I pointed out that the NPA supports the preservation and beautification of his city and that if this city looks good, it makes him look good. I don’t know what Mr. Cooke meant about my message leading to criticism of the city government. I never received any response or feedback, and have never seen the email in question, probably because they didn’t want to waste any time with this “Anti-City Person”. The Deputy Mayor was correct about one thing, this had nothing to do with the Nickel Plate.

I must say that Mayor Ditslear has chosen to become a sponsor of the Home Tour this year and I am very proud and thankful to him for that. Probably nothing to do with my venting message though.

Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke also reached out to me last evening with an apology email for what he had said about me in the article, which I am also thankful for, but as far as I’m concerned the damage was already done to my character when all of your readers read about me as the Anti-City Anita that wasn’t worth wasting time on. My friends called me to see if I had seen the article. After all of the things I have done here in Noblesville, it broke my heart & spirit to read this excerpt in this article.

I’m not sure whether this will cause me to discontinue my efforts to preserve our city or if it will spark me to become more involved and to make sure that we keep a better eye on our officials and their decisions. Either way, Look Out Noblesville!!! (Maybe I’ll just run for Mayor 😉 HA!)

The Who is Anita