[
[
[You will start seeing blue streamers on cars, pickups, trucks and boats.
[The streamer’s message is simple: Save Coeur d’Alene’s 3rd Street public boat launch.
Coeur d’Alene’s Mayor, its City Council, its obsequious Parks Director, and its urban renewal agency are intent on turning the boat launch and nearby McEuen Field into a downtown profit center. And who will profit personally from the taxpayer-funded renovations? The Mayor Sandi Bloem, two urban renewal agency commissioners Jim Elder and Charlie Nipp, and Nipp’s business partner Steve Meyer. They all own property or operate businesses in the city block bounded by Sherman Avenue on the north, 5th Street on the east, Front Avenue on the south, and 4th Street on the west.
But what will happen if the 3rd Street boat launch is removed? Where will people launch and retrieve their boats? The City plans to put the replacement on the Education Corridor land between North Idaho College and the City’s sewer plant. Take a deep breath before launching your boat in the hot summer months.
As the infomercial announcers say, “But wait! There’s more!”
Doesn’t North Idaho College own the land where the City wants to put the new boat launch? Yep. And didn’t the College pay over $500,000 per acre for that land? Yep again. And didn’t NIC and its shill, the NIC Foundation, promise that land would be used for “education.” Yep yet again. I suppose a boat launch on the river can be called “educational.” After all, our Mayor Bloem sees the City sewer plant as an educational opportunity.
So is the City now going to use taxpayer money to pay the College for the land the taxpayers have already paid for? Probably not. It is likely that the City and College will find a “friendly appraiser” who will imaginatively and cooperatively appraise some piece of City property somewhere to miraculously equal the College’s valuation of the proposed new boat launch land. Then the City and College will simply do a land swap.
What land might the City have that it would be willing to swap with the College? How about the City’s part of Person Field? And as the snookered taxpayers in Kootenai County are beginning to understand, once the College owns the property, it can do anything it wants with it. Do you think there are any developers salivating to get their hands on Person Field, developers who would be happy to pay the College’s price? Yeah, sure, you betcha! But didn’t the Mayor and Parks Director say the City had no plans to dispose of Person Field a few years ago? Mere words, nothing more.
So, when you see a blue streamer on a car, pickup, or boat, ask the driver what the streamer means. It’s a symbol, a line in the sand. In Coeur d’Alene, more and more people are willing to cross that line now.
Sorry, Bill, but NIC Trustee Wood already beat you to the punch. Over on HBO, regarding the boat ramp on the Education Corridor she said:
Comment by Dan — January 29, 2011 @ 9:47 am
Regarding the River launch, I heard a former tug operator speak at the Angler’s Association meeting this past Tuesday. He used to drag logs into the old mill, moving them from the lake to the river. According to this tug operator, who called himself “Bucky,” there is a bedrock shelf at the mouth of the river. You can see the shelf during the winter, at the point by NIC where the lake and the river meet. It’s very shallow. It took two tugs to get into the river in the winter because of the bedrock shelf. The second tug had to push the first into the river, and then the first tug would have to pull the second tug over the shelf.
Bucky also explained that the current could be very swift, meaning that it took great skill for him and the other tug drivers to place the logs by the mill. He also mentioned submerged stumps and deadheads. As an expert who had worked the river, he didn’t think it was a good idea to have a boat ramp there.
Comment by Dan — January 29, 2011 @ 9:54 am
That’s very good, real information from someone who knows. It needs to sent to city hall! Thanks Dan.
Comment by mary — January 29, 2011 @ 10:33 am
Dan,
The underwater topography at the lake’s various water levels would be important in any proposed siting of the boat launch.
I wonder if the Army Corps of Engineers would have charts of the river in that area.
Comment by Bill — January 29, 2011 @ 11:48 am
I just came from signing the petition at Fins & Feathers. There were 3-4 people in there who are really steamed at the City’s ignorance and arrogance. We had a nice discussion about the collusion between the City and the NIC Broad of Trustees on this deal.
Comment by Bill — January 29, 2011 @ 11:51 am
Petitions are available at Fins & Feathers, The Nickel’s Worth, and Calypsos.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — January 29, 2011 @ 2:01 pm
Susie,
What is the petition?
For the people to have a vote or
to recall the mayor?
Comment by concerned citizen — January 29, 2011 @ 4:16 pm
The petition reads:
Comment by Bill — January 29, 2011 @ 4:30 pm
Regarding tugboat difficulty…does anyone remember the problems that the people who used the docks below the ‘Osprey’ had with their boats?
Comment by Happy Trails — January 30, 2011 @ 10:53 am