The engineering firm conducting a reservoir site selection process for Jackson County will forge ahead in spite of public opposition that prevents access to 58 percent of the property being considered.
While the authority’s “town hall meeting” with the owners of land adjoining three proposed sites drew more than 100 people and was well received, it resulted in virtually no more access to the 134 parcels that could be affected than the authority already had.
“What’s the next milestone?” asked member Dave Ehrhardt at the March 12 authority meeting.
Rob MacPherson, Prime Engineering, replied that his firm is “going through the permissions” and “calling others” to try to get into the field to map the wetlands areas and do some geotechnical borings at possible dam sites.
“We hope to wrap up this summer,” he said.
“We’re figuring how to work around the properties we’ve been denied access to,” MacPherson told the authority. “If we can’t, we’ll come back to the authority.”
As of last week, the authority had permission to survey some of the dam sites, but did not have permission to do test bores on any.
Member Andy Goodman blamed the Department of Transportation for the resistance of property owners to the project.
“When 441 was (widened), I saw the DOT do some terrible things. I think that’s hurting us,” Goodman said.
Manager Eric Klerk said one of the concerns he heard repeatedly at the Feb. 19 town hall meeting was that the county needs to select one site so as to reduce the number of people “on pins and needles” about the future of their property.
The unstated irony is that as long as residents deny access to the sites, the engineers and the county can’t make a selection - leaving property owners around all three sites in a state of limbo.
Speaking of unstated...it was unstated that if the authority would actually decide on one particular site, it would greatly reduce the number of people that they would have issues with, and might make it easier to manage those "work arounds".
If the first site selected did not work out, then they could make other arrangements at that point.
Pick a place and concentrate your energy and focus on that one site, see if it works, and if not, then move on.
It is so typical of government to have so many "balls in the air" that it basically paralyzes itself.
More "government at its worst".
Typical.