Flack: Car-wash owners behind anti-rail campaign
By DAVID MARTIN
A couple building a car wash on Main Street is bankrolling the campaign to defeat the light-rail initiative, according to a spokesman.
Citizens for Sensible Transit has raised approximately $58,000, the committee's spokesman, Patrick Tuohey, says. Michael and Donna Messina, described by Touhey as Main Street "shop owners," have contributed $50,000 to the cause.
Tuohey says the Messinas are concerned that the light-rail line will disrupt their business. Vehicles traveling north on Main will likely lose the ability to make left turns if the proposed route goes into construction. "They're worried about the street being dug up," Tuohey says.
Michael Messina is a lawyer with an office in Waldo. Property records indicate that his family purchased the land for the car wash, the former home of Main Street Chevrolet, in 2007 for $1.2 million. Sensible Transit campaign signs dot the work site.
Touhey this morning laid out the arguments against light rail: The plan is too vague (of course, Clay Chastain's was too specific); the schools and the sewers need more urgent attention; companies and Olathe families won't rush to the urban core if Kansas City builds a rail line.
Touhey also faults the City Council for insisting on getting a plan on the November ballot. "I don't understand why they're rushing this," he says. "I don't understand why it's now or never."
Messina did not immediately return a phone call to his office.
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