GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Why does City Hall demand financials from the county parks department when it eternally refuses to divulge its own River Run Gahan Water Dome numbers?

Hypocrisy much?

The Green Mouse reports that City Hall's "corporate" attorney Tom Hagen ...

 ... wait, make that Shane Gibson -- has filed a “Freedom of Information Act” request with the Floyd County Park Department asking for an accounting of all monies spent for Kevin Hammersmith Park.

Actually, hypocrisy may be too mild a word.

For those readers with impossibly long memories, the River Run Family Water Park (colloquially known as the Gahan Dome) opened on June 26, 2015 -- just in time to serve as a centerpiece of the mayoral re-election effort. Daniel Suddeath covered the debut for the local chain newspaper.

Water slides, splash pads and a lazy river await inside the park, which was completed as part of Mayor Jeff Gahan’s $19.6 million quality-of-life improvement plan ...

 ... The $19.6 million bond floated by the city footed the construction of the aquatic center, Silver Street Park and upgrades to Binford Park. In April 2014, the redevelopment commission accepted Krempp Construction’s base bid of $6.89 million to construct the aquatic center.

The commission approved an alternate provision for the construction in a build-out of the concessions area, which was expected to be added by officials. The project saw just one more change order, which brought total construction to about $7.5 million.

Mamas, don't let your grandchildren grow up to be saddled with Jeff Gahan's debts.

From this day forward, we've been eager to see the financials of the aquatic center, which after all is open for business only 2-3 months a year and has been noteworthy for providing gainful summertime employment for some members of the mayor's immediate family.

To the Green Mouse's knowledge, the city has steadfastly resisted releasing the financials of the water slide for four years, almost surely because they're not pretty, or contain buried land mines; for instance, how is the aquatic acreage connected with the new fire station's monthly disbursements?

Following is the closest thing we've seen to a spread sheet in four years. It's the parks director Alicia Meredith's comments to the Board of Works on December 26, 2018.

Warren grills her good and hard, just like Sam Waterston on that television show.

The Green Mouse ruminates.

Now the question is, did this come up because City Hall thinks they didn’t get enough hospital money? Interestingly enough, the paperwork for the FOIA request was filed by Hagen Gibson the day after Mark Seabrook held his fundraiser/mayoral announcement at Covered Bridge -- and one thing Seabrook mentioned at the fundraiser was his hope of putting the parks system back together.

NA Confidential says: Let's compromise!

Howzabout every governmental entity shows us the financials pertaining to projects like Hammersmith Park and River Run Family Gahan Dome, without making their release tantamount to raiding the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh?

Isn't 100% transparency the best for everyone ... even outside the immediate family?