Neiman Sports Complex
This particular taxpayer is not happy:
Regarding the Jan. 17 article "Skateboard project falls flat": Have Minneapolis parks commissioners collectively lost their minds? In the real world there would be consequences for losing $900,000 on the job. The entire board should be fired! I'm sure the public will accept any resignations with pleasure.
Robert Naegele III's state-of-the-art facility wasn't built; instead, the Park Board got sued. Star Tribune reporter Rochelle Olson writes in a story published January 17:
On Wednesday, December 7, the Park Board voted to approve the negotiated settlement of a $1.8 million lawsuit filed against the Park Board by contractors who did work at the 201 Building at Ft. Snelling. The settlement requires the Park Board pay $900,000 to the plaintiffs. The lawsuit arose out of work performed but not paid for in a failed attempt to build a skatepark at Ft. Snelling.
In an October 28 Star Tribune Commentary, Charles A. Birnbaum, founder and president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C., writes about how the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is considering privatizing, selling off and even giving away precious Minneapolis public park property:
The Fourth Judicial District Court trial for the $1.8 million lawsuit by McCrossan et al versus the Park Board et al has been postponed / rescheduled. It is currently on the docket to be heard by Judge Isabel Gomez in February of 2006.
« A group of contractors is suing the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to recover $1.8 million in unpaid work they did on a proposed indoor/outdoor skateboard park at Ft. Snelling, a private facility on Park Board land. A settlement could come soon.
