Watching our elected representatives at work is an interesting experience, and worth remembering when it comes time to vote. Perhaps if more of us did so, via tv, computer or in person, election results would be different.
I thought of this tonight as I watched the RPV City Council act on item three of the agenda, a grant application for a Nature Education Facility to be built at Abalone Cove. If you missed the details, check yesterday's blog. as well as the actual grant proposal.
I don't know how many emails the council members received on this topic, but I listened to 10 area residents who took the time to GO to the council meeting and address this topic. All 10, including at least three from Portuguese Bend--Betty Strauss, Vicky Pinkham and Sunshine-- opposed the project. The objections included these points:
- The proposed 8,000 to 10,000 square foot building ruins one of the last natural areas on the coastline.
- Educational exhibits could be put up in a far less intrusive manner.
- People spent hours working on an assortment of city plans that call for placing an Educational Center at Gateway Park. Why did participants spend all that time if it was going to be ignored?
- There are educational exhibits at the PV Interpretive Center. The educational material planned for Abalone Cove could easily be joined to what is already at PVIC.
- There was little or no advance notice of this plan so citizens were unable to gather information about it. Why? (This complaint seemed universal among those who spoke, which was interesting inasmuch as Tom Long insisted in an email last week that "...the city certainly has given proper notice of this as an agenda item. The nearby HOA has already contacted us with its views and city staff have been in communication with a number of organizations with interest in the issue." Evidently the city didn't reach everyone who was interested, given the input from those at the meeting.
Councilmen debated the issue and listened politely to all audience comments. Then Tom Long moved that the council approve the staff recommendation to submit the grant application as it stands. The motion was seconded, and all five members of the City Council approved the motion.
So much for citizen objections.
Council members noted that if the city receives the grant, the project still will have to go through a variety of approval steps, including input from the community. Mayor Stefan Wolowicz noted that he is "not a fan of the big building" and that he would have a lot to say on the matter if the plan for the building is approved. This raises questions, inasmuch as the grant is specifically for "brick and mortar" facilities, not landscaping, parking lot renovation and improved access, all of which were things that everyone agreed were needed at Abalone Cove.
We'll be watching the progress of this project.
Follow the money, Look around you, your neighbors must have voted these people in. Did they vote the party line, with the false promise of lower taxes or less government. Who is paying off your politicians. They are not going to listen to you when a profit is to be had. They are not going do the right thing when they have been bought. I remember driving down to Newport, Laguna and La Jolla as a child, down streets lined with open countryside, Eucalyptus trees and fruit stands, it’s all paved over now. There was the person complaining about the Oil leak in the gulf. Not about the damage it was doing to the world, but because it was going raise gas prices due to the increased regulation. The people in this country do not share. Self-interest and greed will only create more destruction. We can only fight harder.
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