Thank You to everyone who attended last nights "working session" (about 60 people?) AND to the 20 people who spoke respectfully and eloquently at the end of the mtg. The comments were unanimous in their urging the commissioners to study and assess the impacts before approving this document. The quality of the comments was exceptional. Any reasonable commission would take them seriously.
The Water Contract Workshop was not really a workshop, but instead Tom Pack/Ted Owens had Jana Berg (the Commissioner attorney) read the ENTIRE contract out loud with multiple breaks for people to take the opportunity to leave - very few did and it went on past 11:00.
Most of the meaningful changes made by the expert water attorney Polk County hired were removed by the Inman-Campobello attorney.
During the citizens comment period people (many of them local lawyers and engineers) wanted to know WHY the majority commissioners are in such a hurry, WHY we are not considering all options (building our own water system, working with Tryon who has an over capacity of water production available, WHY we have not done an economic impact analysis on this agreement, WHY there are no (gallons per day) water withdrawal limits in the agreement, WHY Polk does not get percentage of wholesale water sales that ICWD will be able to make to outside parties, and on and on.
The Water Contract Workshop was not really a workshop, but instead Tom Pack/Ted Owens had Jana Berg (the Commissioner attorney) read the ENTIRE contract out loud with multiple breaks for people to take the opportunity to leave - very few did and it went on past 11:00.
Most of the meaningful changes made by the expert water attorney Polk County hired were removed by the Inman-Campobello attorney.
During the citizens comment period people (many of them local lawyers and engineers) wanted to know WHY the majority commissioners are in such a hurry, WHY we are not considering all options (building our own water system, working with Tryon who has an over capacity of water production available, WHY we have not done an economic impact analysis on this agreement, WHY there are no (gallons per day) water withdrawal limits in the agreement, WHY Polk does not get percentage of wholesale water sales that ICWD will be able to make to outside parties, and on and on.