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?
I have decided for several reasons not to continue posting. And that decision remains…except I do have one thing to say. Sitting at my computer this morning I suddenly had enough. Enough of being wary of stakeholder intimidation. They thrive on that. Implied and threats carried through to keep the public in line. There is nothing they can do to me so Mayor Bloem and bobble heads, bring it on!!!! I can play hard ball better than you can. You want to come up against me, here I am! I filled out your McEuen survey along with comments and proudly signed my name and gave personal information.
These out of state letters are ridiculous. That being said, there are many locals (Post Falls, Hayden etc.) who use McEuen field and the boat launch. And we certainly didn’t vote for the CDA “thugs”. But we certainly have a right to vote on this.
Here I am…..come and get me, if you dare!
Comment by rochereau — January 25, 2011 @ 9:43 am
We received the letter, and there was nothing wrong with it at all. It was informative but it did not advocate one position over another. I have family members who live in Washington State but own a house and lakefront property on Clelland Bay. They pay the Tribe’s dock fee and Kootenai County taxes. They spend more time at their lake place in the summer than we do at ours. They have every right to know about and comment on matters pertaining to the Lake. It’s as much their lake as the Seattle d’Alene residents’.
Let’s face it. The City is upset that information about its highly questionable expenditures and official misconduct are getting out beyond the control of the City. It is no surprise that John “Lap Dog” Goedde wants to retaliate against the state official who was doing her job. Goedde does what his City handlers tell him to do, not what is best for all his constituents.
Comment by Bill — January 25, 2011 @ 9:55 am
Bill, you are absolutely correct. If someone has bought a boat license here, they deserve to be informed. We fall into that catagory. I suspect that many of those in states across the country were only here once. None the less, pay the fee and deserve input. While I was on a toot, if you will, I was incorrect about the letters being ridiculous. Mea culpa.
Comment by rochereau — January 25, 2011 @ 10:20 am
I don’t mind anyone who registers their boat in Idaho being informed of potential changes. It’s no big deal in fact it’s good customer service.
But as far as having anything to say about it, well, tuff. If that one ramp is closed and your informed then ya know what? Now you know and now you’ll also know to go to another ramp. That’s simple.
But pay a fee and deserve input? wow that’s a stretch. However if input means opinion well no problem there as everyone has one of those and we are free to voice it.
Comment by Eric — January 25, 2011 @ 12:19 pm
Eric, how do you feel about a public vote on McEuen?
Comment by mary — January 25, 2011 @ 1:11 pm
I would love for there to be one.
Just like I would have loved to there to had been one on the closing of Sherman with the big DH thing. Too bad he pulled it out because I believe not only would he have lost but so too would have the Bond to fund a library that we weren’t supposed to use tax dollars on.
I fear the same thing will happen here in that they will start this project outside of puplic touch, so to speak, so far that it gets approved, and then started to the point where they would need more money a lot more money to finish whatever they want because well, lets just get it done.
Comment by Eric — January 25, 2011 @ 1:22 pm
Since the proposed park has a nice “bridge” between the Resort and the park, it is essentially just an additional amenity to the Resort. Also guests at the Resort won’t have to continue to have to up with ‘riff raft’ loading and unloading their boats and the accompanying yelling, arguing etc. in the process. Perhaps a lesson was learned about how to proceed from the failure of the flower garden, which no doubt would have been nice and first class but would also have been just an additional amenity to the Resort, and it was determined ‘no vote’ was better than a ‘no’ result on the vote?
Comment by Happy Trails — January 26, 2011 @ 12:07 pm
One other thought. Where the ‘replacement’ is put could have an impact on the emergency response time necessary to transport people, injured on the lake or transported by boat, from the launch to the hospital. Has that issue been considered?
Comment by Happy Trails — January 26, 2011 @ 12:09 pm
HT: I would expect such information part of the process that an honest city would have undertaken, information that would have been provided by the town before the first public meeting.
Comment by Dan — January 26, 2011 @ 12:23 pm