I’m tired of “Twin Falls being designated as a metropolis” being back-page news. This past week the news from Washington came in; Twin Falls county and Jerome county are now metropolises. This was after the standard was changed to the projections of population growth. Of course this news caught the city off guard. Lets all give a collective, “thanks Obama”.

The city has a lot of work to do not only in the planning and zoning but with the sentiment that exists among it’s longtime residents. That might be the hardest part. I’ve been telling you guys this is coming, it’s here now.

In an interview with KMVT Travis Rothweiler spoke of hearing the news,

Jan Roeser, the regional economist, saw the designation in a bulletin from the office posted this fall. As soon as she saw it she emailed Rothweiler.

“There was a level of surprise,” Rothweiler said.

The surprise wasn’t about the fact that Twin Falls is received the designation at all, but that it was happening now…

Rothweiler said they likely won’t have to be compliant until 2019 or 2020. While that’s two to three years earlier than they were banking on, he says it’s doable.

That was on the ten O’clock news. As the only news station in town they are protecting the city. The fact that we can’t hold our city officials accountable is the result of the Twin Falls government being able to control the media. This is the way it is going to be for a while since KMVT has a monopoly of the news content, after buying KXTF in 2012. Nothing else exists except for a two bit newspaper- that’s been bleeding readership since the early 2000s. Have you bought a newspaper recently? It’s so dang expensive.

Don’t get me started on the fact that Mr. Rothweiler said we won’t be compliant for a few years. That’s like saying it will be the wild west for a few years. It’s bigger than public transportation, it’s social programs and resources to ensure people are safe. I’m outraged that he would expect us to be ok with something they should have had a plan for.

In my opinion it’s just an excuse to make us all pay more taxes, thus giving the local government the opportunity to make out like bandits. Long gone are the days of Poleline being a two lane road. As we shift our attention to being a metropolitan haven, don’t forget the problems we currently have.

-armchairQB