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Can someone answer this question for me. Does the
halting of the project (or the re-rerouting of the re-route) mean that the
sacred trees that were cut down on the parkway were cut down for no reason?
-Brandon Lacy Campos
-Powderhorn Park
9-4
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
W. Brandon Lacy Campos
Community
Liaison
Minnesota Men of Color
612-871-1788 x 13
"No odies a tu enemigo, porque si lo haces
eres de alguna manera su
esclavo;
tu odio nunca sera mejor que tu paz." Jorge Borges
--Jorge
Borges
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 3:39
PM
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Camp Coldwater
I would like to remind everyone that this debacle was created
by bull headed politicians, and MNDOT. It could have been avoided
by building the road on the current allignment. The cost would have been
5 million dollars. The same politicians that have lobbied for this
project fought spending an additional 5 million. Hundreds of neighborhood
acivists spoke in favor of the current allignment proposal because it
would have saved the majority of Minnehaha Park, protected additional urban
green space and saved several hundred old growth trees. Not to
mention protect Coldwater spring the birth place of Minnesota. The
current allignment proposal was also the most prudent use of tax payer
dollars.
While politicians were spending valuable time building a strategy to
defeat the neighborhood activist of Minneapolis, they could have
been vocal suppoters of the current allignment proposal. The
Star Tribune should investigate the overall cost connected with
trying to defeat neighborhood acitivist and push threw this poorly concieved
project; police costs, legal costs, consultants costs, PR
spin costs. I would guarantee the additional 5 million would
have been a better use of our tax dollars, while helping to protect
an environmentally treasure.
Ken Bradley
Corcoran Neighborhood
612-728-8962
BudTBum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
BudTBum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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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