The city administration has some major PR work to do in itsefforts on two major community projects. A presentation last weekat a local civic club on annexation plans appeared to raise morequestions than it answered, and an Internet poll of our readersshowed that the mayor’s proposed Multi-Modal facility is veryunpopular.

Appearing before the Brookhaven Kiwanis Club, representatives ofthe city declined to answer specific questions on police and fireprotection and dodged other questions about the annexation plans –raising the ire of at least one club member.

Our weekly unscientific Internet readership poll found the 64percent of participating readers did not support the Multi-Modalfacility. While we will not pretend to say the poll is a completelyaccurate reflection of public opinion on the issue, we would haveto say with two-thirds of the respondents voicing opposition thatthe poll points to something.

The city fathers could solve a lot of this unrest by doing onesimple thing — being open, honest and aboveboard with thevoters.

Without a doubt, annexation is an important issue for Brookhavenand vital to its future growth, but even supporters of annexationhave to scratch their head when simple information is notforthcoming from city officials.

The Multi-Modal facility sounds like a great idea, but againvery little information is being released and simple questions arenot being answered. There is even a question as to whether theboard of aldermen has officially voted to commit city funds to theproject!

Major community projects will always have opposition, and ourelected officials’ job is to find ways to overcome that opposition.That is accomplished by providing the necessary leadership, byproviding answers and telling voters why the project isnecessary.

Unfortunately, we are seeing very little of that right now.