Spring Time Beach

While we wait for Spring, there’s a lot to focus on.  Money, money, money.  And now that we don’t have enough, all kinds of things are coming to light.

Here’s the link to an interesting My Turn column in today’s Press.  There are also several Letters to the Editor today about McEuen and the ball fields.

What’s on YOUR mind today?

Does LCDC drive you crazy?

Want to do something about it? Call your legislators down in Boise! See below to find their email address and phone # and CONTACT THEM.  Tell them you want urban renewal to be reigned in.

There are seven bills to do just that. They are being discussed in the house legislative committee right now, as I write this. Call NOW!

Here are the bill numbers with a quick description:   (more…)



In a surprise move, the City has announced, in an article in today’s Press, that tonight’s FIRST meeting allowing open questions about the McEuen Plan, will be the ONLY meeting to allow questions and will, in fact, be the LAST public meeting on this important issue. (more…)

Susie Snedaker alerted me to the strange coincidence that exactly One Year Ago Today, this was the topic on OpenCdA.com:

Susie S: “There are plans…”

“Of course there are plans for McEuen Field.  Does the city plan to hold yet more meetings on the development plans now that a number of years have passed since the Walker Macy plan adoption by the city?  Best the people keep an eye on the former decrepit tennis court area.  I find it curious that the courts are suddenly demolished as they certainly have been sitting there unused for months and months and months.  They certainly were not an example of the city’s attention to detail for citizens and visitors.”  (posted by Susie Snedaker, 1/27/10)

If you want to see the comments from that topic one year ago, just click here: 10 Comments from 1/27/10

Today’s Press has yet another headline story about McEuen field.  This time it’s the boat launch.  The State Parks & Rec dept. (not the city’s) sent out 32,000 letters to all the people who’ve registered their boats in Kootenai County. The letter alerts  boaters to possible removal of the 3rd street launch.  The twist here is that the Spokesman ran an article about this yesterday, and the tone and information in their version is surprisingly different.

According to the Spokesman, city officials are not happy about the letters.  They are so upset that it seems they pushed State Sen. John Geodde to call for a Senate hearing.  So the lady in charge of the State Parks & Rec, who authorized the letters, was dragged in front of the Senate Resources Committee yesterday to explain why she sent them!  Talk about intimidation!  The state spent $11,000 to send the letters and now these boaters will get to fill out the questionnaire at www.mceuenpark.com also.

Your thoughts?

This morning’s Press has a front page article featuring the Mayor actually apologizing to the American Legion Baseball group for not including a proper representative on the McEuen Field steering committee.  The committee person who was picked by the city to represent the Legion’s views, Dennis Spencer, apparently was “not communicating” with the baseball group…oops!

So, why do you think the city chose Dennis Spencer instead of asking the Legion to name a person?  Could it be that the city was more “comfortable” with Dennis because he was paid a chunk of money for a short amount of work on the city’s 4th Street renovation project last year?

Any thoughts?

McEuen plan 2011

An alert reader told me that our urban renewal thread of conversation has turned into a McEuen discussion, so I copied the errant posts and put them here.  Feel free to respond to the issues about the park, or start your own topic on any thought you might have …it’s an Open Session.

Doug Eastwood

Do you plan on standing up and publicly voicing  your opinion tomorrow at the McEuen Field meeting?  Think again.

I emailed CdA Parks Director Doug Eastwood, asking him if there will be a time for public comments tomorrow.  Here is his (very carefully worded) response:

“We will want to get comments from everyone in attendance.  After the presentation everyone will have a questionnaire on the various elements of the park project and they will have the opportunity to meet with and/or discuss the elements with the design team during the open house.  Anyone that has a question or a comment will be able to provide that to the design team so they can get an answer to them.  All of the comments and questions will be posted on the web site soon after the meeting.”

Your comments reminded me of this Jimmy Barona Cartoon from a couple of years ago.  Today’s list of “Stakeholders” would be different, but the idea remains the same.  Let’s hope Thursday’s meeting about McEuen Field is not like this.   Who do you think the main Stakeholders are for the park project?

McEuen Field

The City has announced that it will have an Open House discussion about the plans for McEuen Field’s renovation at 6 p.m. Thursday in Lake Coeur d’Alene Room of North Idaho College Student Union Building.  I hear that the Tubbs Hill Foundation members will be there, en masse, to interject their concerns.  Why?  Because the plans for McEuen Field now include Tubb’s Hill too!

The current plan is to build a handicapped accessible (ADA) pathway on the McEuen side of Tubbs.  They are also talking about installing a Zip Line there too (!..not for the physically challenged I’m guessing?)  and a viewing tower at the top of Tubbs.  There’s also some indication they may want to make the West entry trail on Tubbs, near the Resort, into a wide, smooth ADA pathway as well.  Many of us thought they were just going to mess with McEuen.  Nope, it looks like they want to have their way with Tubbs at the same time.  What do you think of these ideas?  Will you go to the meeting?