As The Park Board Turns
This past Wednesday the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) was in fine form. They have pretty much agreed to spend $2.25 million to add to their properties. There were 2 items that came up. First added to the agenda at the last minute was the possible purchase of the Holcim Cement property on the upper river. The negotiations are proceeding and currently the price is as $1.5 million and Holcim would like full indemnity from any pollution found on the site. Staff is hoping to get a better deal... let's hope so.
Second was a study report item on purchasing the Edison Hockey Arena in Northeast. The Edison Youth Hockey Association (EYHA) built this arena in 1996 with their gambling dollars from pull tabs, donated land from the city, a grant from the Mighty Ducks Fund, matching money from the city and a loan backed by the city. At the time this was shepherded through the city council by then Councilman now Park Commissioner Walt Dziedzic. In the 90's they could not get the Park Board interested but the MPRB has been since 2002 after EYHA missed their first mortgage payment. The city would like the park board to take this off of their hands and it looks like it will go through at $750,000.
The drama of the evening was the presentation by Bacon and Associates regarding the possibility of forming a development corp. to move along the redo of the upper river. In their report were comments collected during discussion with the various groups connected with the river. The comments about the MPRB were less than flattering and Commissioner Dziedzic was vocal about how he did not care for the comments of the MPRB being described as massively dysfunctional. This vocal comment session lasted for too long. During the second half of the presentation Commissioners Olson, and Dziedzic as well as Counsel Rice and Superintendent Gurban all removed themselves from the board room. They returned in unison a few moments later. At the end of the presentation Commissioner Dziedzic started in again, then Commissioner Olson said something to the fact that they would not point fingers at other units of government that operate poorly and then proceeded to give examples which was then followed up by a lengthy monologue by Mr. Rice about how much the Park Board has done along the central riverfront. After the presentation was over Commissioner Dziedzic, Commissioner Olson and Mr. Rice followed the ladies from Bacon Associates into the hallway and continued to bombard them with their opinions. Could anyone call this highly coordinated browbeating dysfunctional? You be the judge. Want to know more? Go to the city web site and read this document at page 27 is where you can read about the MPRB.
Comments
A correspondent, who shall remain anonymous, wrote to us and said:
Even those remarks show restraint. What really happened was incredibly offensive, as Walt Dziedzic, Jon Olson, Brian Rice, Jon Gurban and Bob Fine turned what should have been a run of the mill 20 minute report by 3 representatives from CPED and the consulting firm they hired into an hour-long ordeal for the women making the presentation and a perfect example of shooting the messenger. It illustrated just how dysfunctional the Park Board is.
We hope to have a video clip of this brow-beating circus for the reader to judge for themselves in the near future. Come back in a few days.
Posted by webmaster | Tue, 04/11/2006 - 10:34am | Login to post comments