Heads Up For The December 19, 2007, Park Board Meeting
Here are a couple of highlights:
4:00 P.M. STUDY SESSION. There will be a one hour presentation on fund raising initiatives.
5:00 P.M. REGULAR MEETING. Crown Hydro is back to the full Board again. Its supporters are attempting to keep it moving forward. At the December 5 meeting of the Planning Committee, Commissioners Bob Fine, Carol Kummer and Tracy Nordstrom voted in support of a motion to authorize staff to negotiate a reimbursement agreement with Crown Hydro to finance all staff time and consultant services needed to move forward with this project. This would include reimbursement for all next steps including lease negotiations, an environmental assessment and citizen advisory process. Commissioners Walt Dziedzic and Annie Young voted against it.
The full Board will be voting on this motion. The meeting will be broadcast live on cable channel 14 beginning at 5:00 P.M.
Park Watch has been following the Crown Hydro project ever since it came forward to the previous Board which voted it down in 2004. Park Watch has had, and continues to have, serious concerns about the viability of a power plant on MPRB land, about the MPRB being in the utility business (see proposed lease terms), about the negative effect of the diversion of water from historic St. Anthony Falls, about the potential for yet another law suit (see proposed lease terms), and about a number of other issues.
This is a project that the Park Board should not be wasting any more Park Board resources on--and certainly not the projected 500 hours of staff time. It's been studied ad nauseam. As Commissioner Dziedzic has aptly stated, "The risks outweigh the benefits."
It's time for the Park Board to make the decision to terminate any further consideration of this questionable project. It's time to vote no.