Remember: our rules allow pointed disagreement, but require respectful discussion.
--
MnDOT simply decided that they didn't want to spend the money to
construct the solution that was presented to both MnDOT and MCWD by a
mutually agreed to third party consultant.
Never mind the fact that they had to pay mucho bucks to the construction
company that they had a signed contract with to build the intersection, and
now broke that contract to stop all construction. (I was told 2 million, but I
have no way of verifying that, but I do know they had to pay something).
Last night at a Lower Mn Watershed meeting the engineer who had worked
on designs, said it's out. He was told construction is on hold, and a tempory
bypass will be put in for winter.
Some people on this list criticized me when I said before, had they bucked
up and built a 14.5 million bridge, the reroute through Minnehaha Park could
have been avoided. All the protests would not have happened. And we
wouldn't have a curvy road with blind corners through the park. Maybe we
could have even had a bicycle trail that went through the park without
needlessly crossing the road five times (sorry different issue).
But my point is, here we go again. Before they thought they would save 14.5
million, and build the reroute. Add the cost of all the protests, all the lawyers
fees for all the lawsuits, all the police pay, etc. Way more than 14.5 million
was spent.
Now they want to save 4 to 8 million. How much has the two watersheds
spent on this? How much has MnDOT spent on this? How many hours has
citizens spent on this? And to think, the testing on waterflows that would
answer a lot of questions still has never been done.
MnDOT sucks at picking their battles. I think they should just do proper
water management, given they never did proper testing, build the road and be
done with it. But no. Welcome to the world of MnDOT. We're going back to
the legislature. Why? Because despite years of saying "we'll protect the
spring", when called on it, MnDOT said no, actually we wont.
They say the law is to blame. The law says, you may not diminish the flow
to the spring. This isn't hard. What's hard is riding MnDOT for years on end
trying to get them to do it. Now that it looks like they would have to, Stehr
the division engineer said no. So like a small child who lost a board game
and flipped the pieces all up in the air, Stehr said I'm not playing any more.
Construction has stopped.
How much has the legislators spent on this, if you add their hours in? Add
the watershed, the people, MnDOT, lawyers fees, court costs, breech of
contracts. We aren't saving anything.
Tom Holtzleiter
Kingfield Ward 10
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