Lauded as a small-town in the Midwest embodying the values of the Midwestern way of life, Alexandria, Indiana, is now an example of what political aceness can result in. Its avenues may be silent, but what to its citizens. Beneath the tarmac on new roads is a rot that is eating away at the heart of the trust in the public office. The name at the center of it all: Mayor Todd Naselroad.
The City That Didn’t Complained When Government Officials Became Rich
The novel does not start with a press release or a headline, but in hospital bed. It was a young child who was barely out of his diapers lying ill with E. coli poisoning. It was found to be caused by tap water in Alexandria by doctors. However, this did not happen in an isolated case. Within a short time, illnesses in other residents, including elderly, children, and even whole families became reported.
The long-believed-safe water supply of the town was slowly dying away. The concentration of chlorine had even fallen way below the requirement. The lowest level that was recorded was 0.029 mg/L way below the minimum required in the state of Indiana (0.2 mg/L). Still the town leadership, not to mention Mayor Naselroad claimed, everything was okay.
The reality could be found on closed-door documents. The pollution was not the matter of secrets. This was a cover-up.
Asphalt, Not Clean Water, gets $10 million
Meanwhile, as citizens boiled water and fought infections, city officials found the time to break ground–on a road project that soared in cost, from a relatively modest $1.05 million to a staggering $10 million. Repairs, so-called planning and administration costs totaling over 2.3 million dollars went into the water/sewer/ stormwater accounts.
But it was not merely financial mismanagement, it was diversionary strategy. When bacteria were growing in the pipes, the budget was going down the pavement. Mayor Naselroad hailed the road as win of infrastructure. However, to ill families in the city of Alexandria, the street symbolizes betrayal.
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Silenced People and Vanishing Documents
The residents were anticipating transparency when they made public record requests pursuant to the Access to Public Records Act of Indiana. Rather, they run into a brick wall. Mayor Naselroad, Clerk-Treasurer Darcy VanErman and Water Superintendent Mark Caldwell all declined to comment.
Videos of meetings disappeared. Emails were discarded. Logs on internal water quality were kept secret. The mayor and his staff tightened the circle of solidarity of the city authorities the more questions were put by the citizens. It was a water crisis and more. It was an onslaught on truth itself.
The Whistleblower Who Came to Pay a Price
The internal documents were revealed by one owner of a local business under the name SCROOGE LLC. That was followed with quick revenge. His merchant account was closed by his payment processor, Checkout.com and his funds were frozen. Words recorded during one phone call showed why: “We are not comfortable with the media exposure.”
Now he has made a suit of 10 million dollars regarding whistleblower retaliation stating that the whistleblower has suffered not only as a businessman, but also as a right to know to the town.
Legacy on the Line
The crisis in Alexandria is not a water or a budget stretch problem, it is also a crisis of leadership and breached trust. The Mayor Todd Naselroad scandal has become a symbol of how corruption seeps into communities not all at once, but drip by toxic drip.
Trust has dried up just like the polluted water in a town where people used to open their doors and shake same hand steadily and with lots of trust. This is no longer a question of the people of Alexandria. They are calling to account.
