"The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, on behalf of all current and future citizens of the City of Minneapolis, shall strive to permanently preserve, protect, maintain, improve and enhance the City's parkland and recreational opportunities."
The Crown Hydro project does not protect, preserve, maintain, improve or enhance the City's Parkland. It will jeopardize and/or eliminate historic structures and turn an award winning beautiful park setting into an industrial zone. This project will irreparably damage the aesthetic quality of Mill Ruins Park and worse, the city's founding feature, St. Anthony Falls. The MPRB worked long and hard to obtain this parcel of river front land. Millions of dollars have been invested in the current and ongoing Mill Ruins Park project. This area is the neighborhood park for the increasing number of residents moving to the river front, in large part because of the parkland, river and Falls views. The Park Board needs to get an independent assessment of the effect this project will have on the river and falls and not take Crown Hydro's figures at face value.
The increased flow through the Mill Ruins Park tailrace canal will inevitably damage historic features. Safety measures necessary to protect the public from the increased depth and water flow in the tailrace will turn this attractive, publicly accessible setting into a fenced off, visually ugly, and inaccessible area. School children are already served through the Mill Ruins Park interpretive program.
I'm not sure why the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board alone, seems to hold the fate of St. Anthony Falls in its hands. The porta-potty decision will seem like a like gentle mist compared to the thunderstorm that will come from riverfront residents, tax payers, businesses, developers and public organizations as Minneapolis' center is decimated for an amount of power so small as to be negligible. I am a strong supporter of alternative energy, however, Minneapolis Parks are not the setting for energy generation.
Kathy Swenson
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