WOODY “BITCHIN” MCEVERS
The lovely lull between Christmas and New Years has been shattered today by reports of lunacy from Team McEuen. Parks Director Doug Eastwood seems to have suddenly discovered the McEuen project was “too scaled back”, in his almighty opinion. According to this morning’s Press, “Eastwood said he noticed the park was getting too scaled back. Planning was focusing too much on the estimated $14.2 million budget at the time, he said, and items like the playground and splash pad, which should have been the park’s focus, started to get chopped away. I think we have to get back to what this project was all about at the beginning,” he said. “This puts it back and recaptures the vision.”
How silly!–gosh, they were focusing on the budget, but Doug thinks they should focus on the “vision”. Now they need an extra $6.5 million.
Councilman Mike Kennedy, who promised a few months ago that the project “would not go over budget”, has been silent. The Mayor, who promised that no taxpayer money would be used on the park, even though we all know that LCDC money is taxpayer money, now advocates using the city’s Rainy Day Fund, which is unarguably tax money. But Councilman Woody McEvers takes the prize for absurdity. The Press reports that Woody said “Five million bucks to make it bitchin’,…Bite the bullet and go big.” (Miss the Recall yet?)
Drop the idea of the parking garage on Front and forget about the LID. Plant grass and trees in McEuen Park that once had grass and trees.
Comment by Bill — December 28, 2012 @ 11:45 am
Maybe Woody should “Bite the bullet” and pony up the balance.
Wake up taxpayers. The city is going to hold each one of you financially responsible in one way or another and you will have to forgo more of your hard earned money and “Bite the Bullet”. They will keep upping city utilities/service fees etc. until you can’t pinch another penny. You see only the citizens have to live by a budget that is quickly shrinking.
Comment by Jullee — December 28, 2012 @ 12:02 pm
This whole debacle is short of “payback is bitchin’ – they know they are toast and now they just revel in their shorts and panties while they slug more crap on the taxpayers. The more they can dish out, the merrier they are. They play the part so well and laugh in our faces with bold faced lies. How dare they be recalled! They actually enjoy being a$$holes.
Amazing what a couple of bought and paid for “bitchin” baffoons will do for $750.00 bucks a month.
How long must we wait for that 65K Facebook page that is really just an independent vessel for the city buffoons to spread misinformation without liability.
… everyone is still MUM on that 365K embezzlement information that is being held as secret information until after the sentencing. Must be work to be done before that is unloaded on us. At least we get a mug shot of Mike Crapo … the city just buries this crime.
Debauchery at it’s finest. They might as well just pile up on each other with a bottle of crisco – and have a fry fest. Woody can do the eggs.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 28, 2012 @ 12:26 pm
Unbelievable, this is exactly how the library went. We’ve come this far, lets just git’er done.
Rip up the ground to the point of no return without a vote to spend then come back for more money and we still get no say.
Library, no taxes, we buy land from a council “friend” at a high price, OK to tax dollars all is well. Design a over priced building, ok no problem do what you want no taxes. Start building, run out of money come to us with a bond to finish a job we had no input on so the spoiled bratt get what it wants again.
This is so awesome.
Comment by Eric — December 28, 2012 @ 12:32 pm
Well said Eric, but I think you meant to end with, “This is totally awesome, Dude!”
Comment by mary — December 28, 2012 @ 12:39 pm
The sad, forgotten group in all this are the folks who live around Person Field. They’ve been asking the city to buy half of the existing field from the school district. It’s a plain, flat, no-frills grassy field. But it’s the only park in that low to middle income area and it’s been a public open space for generations. Now the school district needs money and is going to sell their half. If the city doesn’t buy it for about $600,000 it will go out to bid to developers.
The kids in that neighborhood can’t often get to the Kroc Center after school because many are in single parent working families or homes where both parents work. Their plain Person Field is their only play area.
But no one in the Mayor’s political power group lives near Person or has real estate that they want to develop into big fancy condos there. So the regular people who live near that humble little park do not have much influence with City Hall.
The Mayor promised that no taxpayer money would go into McEuen, even though we all know that LCDC money comes from taxes, but now she says the city should take $1.2 million in taxpayer money out of the Rainy Day Fund to pay for extras like splash pads and pickle ball courts at McEuen.
Before one more cent is promised to McEuen, the city should buy the rest of Person Field for the struggling neighborhood that really needs help. That would be “bitchin”, Woody.
Comment by mary — December 28, 2012 @ 12:40 pm
I hope Person Field is not a tool or dangling carrot to get what they want for McEuen. Person Field should have been bought many moons ago and the city administrator et.al. needs to stop running the city behind the backs of the council.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 28, 2012 @ 1:13 pm
well said, Stebbijo in comment #7. let’s just hope she doesn’t decide to run for mayor next…oh wait, that would be a huge paycut for her…LOL…but the perks may make up for the lower salary. 😉
Comment by chouli — December 28, 2012 @ 1:47 pm
@chouli If she runs for Mayor and wins, I swear, I will be out of this town. I am not quite sure how it will be done, but I will find a way. Every time she smiles I see a turd in her dimples. 🙂 I will never forget her words of authority when she got a scolding at one of the council meetings when she interjected and asked the Mayor to hold any berating comments to be issued in private. How dare she be reprimanded in public!
Do they not get it? That there are thousands of people in CDA that do not like them, have no respect for them, and think they are waste of hot air and money? Oh, and a good replacement for ET on Tuesday nights.
Cut me some slack, I am not happy today – my ankle hurts. I have two plates in the destruction zone – to hold the mess together.
They must all eat at Pita Pit.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 28, 2012 @ 2:24 pm
I am really BAD today – I can’t help myself.
But, when I came over to check out the comments, the blog post photo of Woody and then the post underneath of this one of that Jerry Duane Brown guy just popped out at me – like a before and after makeover look. Bitchin’ man,just bitchin’.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 28, 2012 @ 3:24 pm
Stebbijo
You’re not the only one to see that. I saw it shortly after Mary put the post up, but I chose not to comment so not to offend Jerry Duane Brown.
Comment by Bill — December 28, 2012 @ 3:30 pm
@Bill – Thanks for the laugh – too funny.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 28, 2012 @ 3:52 pm
The lead reads, “The McEuen Park designers want the city to add previously cut amenities to the park design, saying the scaled-down version has lost the project’s original focus: Creating a one-of-a-kind public destination.”
A one-of-a-kind public destination. The McEuen Park designers don’t have a clue what a one-of-a-kind public destination is.
Manito Park and Gardens in Spokane is a one-of-a-kind destination.
The Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada is a one-of-a-kind destination.
The McEuen Park design is a one-of-a-kind Timothy Leary flashback to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
McEuen Park will not make Coeur d’Alene a one-of-a-kind destination; it will make the City a laughingstock. And we get to pay for it!
Comment by Bill — December 28, 2012 @ 4:35 pm
Stebbijo,
Between Wendy and her hubby they have a pretty sweet paycheck coming from the taxpayers of CDA. I’d guess nearly a quarter million a year from us. She’s in it to win it and there’s no way she’d leave here…my guess is she just wants to climb higher. hold on…
Comment by chouli — December 28, 2012 @ 5:33 pm
Funny, Bill “Timothy Leary flashback”. And Stebbijo, I laughed out loud at your makeover comment–OMG!
Not funny is the idea posed by Chouli, that Wendy might want the top spot as Mayor. Yikes! But I doubt she’d like the pay…quite a drop from Wendy’s very high pay for a less than full time position.
Comment by mary — December 28, 2012 @ 5:59 pm
This is crazy! Is it me or does anyone else think the last two photos posted almost look the same. LOL Is Bill and Mary messing with us? Oh, I am so glad I can still laugh!
Comment by LTR — December 28, 2012 @ 6:20 pm
Oh My! Someone emailed me that John Austin (our former commenter “JohnA” who ran away when the questions got tough) is saying about this whole McEuen mess, over on another blog, that “The facts are that the residents of CDA are getting a great park and they didn’t have to pay for it.”
Are you kidding me? Actually, it’s the residents of Hayden, Post Falls, Rathdrum and Spokane who are getting something they didn’t pay for.
Comment by mary — December 28, 2012 @ 6:50 pm
Chouli and Mary,
Remember, this is Idaho. Pay off the right officials and anything is possible. Just click those ruby slippers together three times and …
Comment by Bill — December 28, 2012 @ 7:21 pm
the Mayor gets a case of pickle balls.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 28, 2012 @ 8:09 pm
Let us not forget the 300% overture of the Kroc pit melody. An extra 2+/- million from the rainy day fund that the mayor felt compelled to just cut the check for without question to her preferred contractor without a bid. jonny doesn’t have the piclkedballs to even try and explain his twisted BS here.
Comment by concerned citizen — December 28, 2012 @ 9:18 pm
There’s a Barbara Streisand song from the early 70’s that reminds me of many of our local officials in this McEuen fiasco. It’s called “The Flim Flam Man”. Here are some of the lyrics, see if you think they fit:
“Hands off the man
Flim flam man
His mind is up his sleeve
And his talk is make believe
Oh, Lord, the man’s a fraud
He’s a flim flam man
He’s so cagey
He’s a flim flam man
Hands off the man
Flim flam man
He’s the one in the Trojan Horse
Making out like he’s Santa Claus
Oh, don’t worry
He’s dishonest
So don’t believe him
He’s a flim flam man”
Comment by mary — December 29, 2012 @ 10:37 am
i did chuckle at the two pictures, however I didn’t see it as before and after. To me it is more the Dorian Gray syndrome. The aged, development arrested hippy that seems to remain on the inside of the addled inappropriate Woody.
Comment by rochereau — December 30, 2012 @ 9:06 am