[Winona Online Democracy] Good Day.
Last night an informational meeting was held by the City of Winona to offer information to residents of Wilson and Homer township regarding annexation. They spoke for about 45 minutes regarding the process of annexation, the necessity of annexation and the benefits of annexation. It was then opened up to questions and expression of concern by the attendees. I was very discouraged and continued to be concerned by our city officials lack of concern over annexation. Here are a few examples of questions and responses that concern me. 1. The city can annex an area without knowing for sure if the developer will be able to develop. They may very well have completed an annexation process, spend nearly 3 million dollars of taxpayers money to run sewer and water and the developer may not get approval to develop due to environmental concerns by other government agencies. It came across very clearly last night by our city officials that they intend to move forward with this whether Phillips gets the approval to develop or not. WHAT!!! Does this even make sense, is this good planning, is this good use of our taxpayers dollars??? ( I know I am setting up for some great responses from Phil Carlson). They support this by saying they know that once they run these utilities out, other developers will get on board and that many people already living out there will want hook-ups. It seems to me that their decisions are based strictly on assumptions and not facts. They support their decision because they believe millions of dollars are to be made by the city with hook-ups. How can they assume that other developers will not be turned down and that development will occur? It seems to me that they are once again putting the cart before the horse. Good planning demands facts and not assumptions. It was quite an earful to hear that a city can annex before a go-ahead is actually given by the powers that be to a developer. It was quite an earful to hear our city planners say they are planning on annexing whether the development that started this ball rolling occurs or not. I just have to wonder if there is decisions being made beyond the professional level and it doesn't get into more personal venues. Of course this we will never know, I can only assume. 2. A environmental specialist/professor from Winona State University talked at length about the disruption of the land, streams, fauna and wildlife and the affects that will have not only on the immediate boundaries of annexation, but for miles. She addressed that dense building in this area will disrupt the ecological system for miles outside of this area. She is concerned because she believes this area in all of SE Minnesota should have been deemed a protected area and she knows that there is some investigation going on regarding this right now. Possibly another strike against the possibility of this land being developed yet our city officials will annex what a "protected area"!!! At this point they do not know which way this will fall, but they are moving ahead with the annexation. Taxpayers do you want to spend 2.5 million dollars to run pipes to a undevelopable area if it goes this way?!!! It seems to me smart planning by our city is to wait and see what comes down the pike with this. I trust what this professor was reporting. She believes it is only a short amount of time before guidelines are passed regarding building in areas such as this and in valleys all together. I am wondering what the rush is for our city officials to get this going? Personal or Professional decision making??? Will it matter to anyone except the developer if this is waited on for another 6 months or a year? Should the taxpayers pay for the dreams of one developer especially if it is a good possibility that his dreams may not come true? The city officers reply to this is that the Government Environmental Committees and Pollution control committees will have to be in charge of this. Is this passing the buck? Is this our city officers not being proactive in seeking the right information regarding the development before they upset the people who live out that way, spend dollars and pit City against Township? Also, is there no ethics or environmental concerns that govern the conscious of these decision makers. Is the dollar sign more important than the earth we live on and what we are creating for generations to come? Can not one of them come forward and say "hey we really need to take a second look at what we are intending on doing here, grow a city at the expense of what, the future of our environment". Where is their sense of responsibility? And Phill if your comeback is this type of decision making has been going on for generations, where does it all end??? Where will the responsibility begin??? 3. The traffic concerns were brought up. I had to laugh at the response to this one. The city responded with, County Road 17 is a County Hwy and with all the extra money this development will bring the County, the County could look at redeveloping the road. If the County asked the city to assist in any way the city would see what they could do. Okay, boys let's pass the buck again. They make the decision to annex, but all the problems fall on someone else. Again, I ask is this responsible planning. Is this showing concern for people already living in this area and future residents. I am sorry but I just do not get this. How can one government body make the decision to do something without being responsible for the infrastructures and problems created by their decisions. FYI. On June 29th at 7PM, Wilson Township will have experts discussing some of the discussion that has been gong on regarding septic systems. The city had a very strong opinion against septic systems last night. Let's see what the experts say. Our city officials are not experts in the septic systems built today. Their experience is on septic systems built 20 and 30 years ago, since this is generally what they find when people are requesting sewer from them. Unfortunately, another thing I did see happen last night was "Township Bashing" by our city officers. Shame on them. At least our Township officers that attended were respectful and responsible enough not to respond . They took the higher road. I thought the meeting was to calm the fires..... tsk, tsk tsk. Janice Turek _______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
