OpenCdA’s post titled Planned Deterioration? published on February 17, 2012, included a video clip (with partial transcript) from the February 15, 2012, meeting of Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency, the Lake City Development Corporation (LCDC).  The video clip showed LCDC Commissioner Dave Patzer admitting that the City had not spent money intended to maintain the City’s 3rd Street boat launch ramps.  The same video clip and transcript shows City Parks Director Doug Eastwood saying the boat launch ramp, “… is breaking up.  That launch ramp is not in real good shape.”  Eastwood was at that LCDC meeting to tell the LCDC to cough up about $11 million for the McEuen renovation plan, which then included removal of the boat launch ramps altogether.

Just a few days after the OpenCdA post appeared, a City Street Department crew appeared at the boat launch ramp and made a few of the necessary repairs to the concrete, repairs that had been intentionally postponed for months if not years.

Then on February 27, 2012, at the City’s Parks & Recreation Committee meeting, after learning that the boat launch ramps would likely be remaining for another year or two or longer, Eastwood changed his tune about the condition of the boat ramps.  Here is a video clip of Eastwood at that meeting.  Here is a transcript of sections of it:

Parks & Rec Chairman Cranston:

Doug, with, uh, with the ramp repairs and routine maintenance on the 3rd Street, uh, boat ramp, is that facility good to go for this boating season?

Parks Director Eastwood responds:

Oh, without a doubt.  That ramp is in, uh,  pretty good shape.  If you’ve been out and, uh, looked at it, like, uh, anything that’s been there 40 or 50 years, you can see wear and tear.  But is it, uh, serve the purpose very well, without a doubt it’ll continue to do that, uh, through this boating season and the next one and, uh, it’s in, uh, pretty good useable condition.

So when Eastwood, Bloem, Kennedy, Goodlander, and McEvers thought they would get about $11 million to replace the ramps, it was necessary to convince the people that the ramps were on their last legs to make the $11 million project more palatable.

But when the public outcry forced Eastwood, Bloem, Kennedy, Goodlander, and McEvers to back off on relocating the boat launch for now, suddenly as if by magic a few concrete patches turned the 3rd Street boat launch ramps from “not in real good shape” in mid-February to being in “pretty good shape” just eleven days later.

Which Coeur d’Alene Parks Director Doug Eastwood are we supposed to believe?  LCDC Commissioner Dave Patzer sits as a Commissioner on the Parks & Recreation Commission as well.  Which Eastwood is he supposed to believe?

Here are a few photos of the 3rd Street boat launch ramps taken between 9:32 a.m. and 9:38 a.m. today.