To the editor:
I have been a business owner in Ortonville for almost 25 years now. I have been here with the same businesses and the same location during all of that time. I have also been very successful due to being professional and honest. Since the late 1980s I have taken hundreds and hundreds of hours of training in small towns. How to be successful, how to make small towns successful, how to put on successful events, and many, many more classes and seminars.
In the past few years, I have gotten involved with the Ortonville DDA hoping to bring this knowledge to the community, to help make this community what it should be. In the past two years there have been conflicts within the DDA. One of those is with the Ortonville United Methodist Church and BB&E at the park on Friday. BB&E was supposed to be started for the purpose of raising money for the DDA and having a professional event for the whole community to attend.
During this time the Ortonville United Methodist Church was advertising all the events for free, and none of the other vendors received advertisement. Also, the church received their vending spot cheaper per square foot than the other vendors. Tim Dibble, who is chair of putting the event on, is also the pastor of the church. He hired Pam Balding and two other members on the DDA who approved the church to get free advertising.
This is all a conflict of interest, and is done in a very unprofessional and dishonest manner; not a church event the DDA pays for, it would enhance and be a benefit to this community. There were other things I could go on with, but this gives you the good facts that are going on inside. This is the true and honest version without any manipulations or stories turned around. This is why I resigned, too much all for me, unprofessionalism from this board. I will not be a part of this greed.
For any board to be successful and strong they all need to be honest and work hard together for the community, not for the benefits of themselves.
David Bonner, D.L Bonner Jewelers