I sent this email to the City Council and Mayor Ness last night. Its early so I haven’t heard anything from any of them yet.
Friends,
I don’t blame you for wanting to let the School Board suffocate in its own mess but the stink is headed your way and you have some responsibility to make sure the School District doesn’t foul up your end of local government.
I just posted this comment on my blog about the Planning Commission’s ordering an EAW on three city dog trails but not on the Red Plan. Hell, we shouldn’t be taking you to court over this. You should have overridden the Planning Commission. You do not have to defer to any of your commissions. You are the City Council. The more passively you act where the Red Plan is concerned the more……ineffectual you look. People don’t want buck passing from their elected leaders. They want some leadership.
As it is the School Administration has stonewalled you. That by itself is reason enough for you to demand an analysis of the Ordean site. You can’t control the School District but you can call a few shots in the City’s Departments. I think I know why no traffic study was done on the Ordean High School site. It would have looked really bad. Its funny how JCI managed during its so called extensive study of the District to have skipped so many important investigations. Where was their desegregation/integration report? Where was their transportation study? Geez, JCI is an energy company. They don’t sell motor fuel but surely they know its getting more expensive. Dave Korhonen, who just quit as the Red Plan manager, told me that the fewer schools there are the more transportation costs will rise. You have to bus more kids and bus them farther. Why did no one calculate this cost? Again, I think its obvious why no one analyzed this. A study would have showed that it would have cost money and undercut some of JCI’s much touted energy savings. Hell, when I was on the Board we sprung for some very expensive GIS software to plot all our students on a transportation grid. It would have cost nothing to figure out those costs. Someone didn’t want to have those figures known.
The School Board is composed of mutes who won’t ask questions. Don’t let them be your role model. Demand that the City Traffic people analyze the Ordean site’s plusses and minuses. Hell, MNDOT has been working on a big study of London Road at 40th Ave. East. If they haven’t sized up the Ordean site as well they are fools.
You know that the School Board will play hardball with you over permits and variances. Well, turnabout is fair play. Check out the traffic situation at Ordean. If the School Board doesn’t give a damn about our children’s safety screw them. You make sure this study is undertaken.
Feeling a little vinegar,
Harry Welty
