The Ordean neighbors have been concerned about the report from the City that the School District sent the City an EAW on the Ordean site. This is unusual. An EAW is an Environmental Assessment Worksheet. Its a preliminary three month long long review of a site planned for development. It is rarely if ever done by the entity considering development and usually is ordered by the governmental unit with oversight. In the case of Ordean this oversight is exercised by the City but the School District completed the EAW or may have completed it.
The School District may have wanted a friendly consultant to do the work and who would be reluctant to anger the paymaster with a critical report. A critical EAW report could result in the ordering of a much more in depth study called an EIS or an Environmental Impact Statement. An EIS can take a year to complete. This would not have been a problem for the School District because the Ordean construction was originally planned a few years hence.
However, when Dr. Dixon realized a new school board might not approve the Ordean site he pushed this construction up by a couple years making it critical that no EIS be ordered. By hiring friendly consultants who would not notice Eagles the drainage to the lake or the incredibly small footprint he may have found a way to “prove” that no environmental damage would result from his revved up construction schedule at Ordean.
But what did the District do? The City Planning office told Ordean neighbors that the District sent them an EAW. But when Gary Glass asked Kerry Leider if the District had turned in an EAW Leider told him that the District just gave the City “a bunch of data.”
Is Kerry lying? I like Kerry and he once gave me credit for saving his job from some angry new school board members. But Kerry has a new paymaster now too. Dr. Dixon. Keeping Gary Glass in the dark now seems to be one of the requirements for working in ISD 709’s administration.
