I attended Commissioner Henry Mitchells meeting yesterday. Quick recap: There were 10 folks that attended. The primary topics included Foxhall, the animal shelter location and the Hwy 92 project. Foxhall: - Commissioner Mitchell said he is waiting for the underwriters financial report before making his decision on whether or not to support issuing $39M in taxpayer funded bonds to build a conference center there. He said they do not know when the report will be available. - He said that Tom Worthan would like the BOC to vote on issuing the bonds 1 day after the underwriters report is received. - I asked him if the BOC was aware that the assessed value of Foxhall had dropped almost 80% since 2007 and that the property taxes paid on the property had dropped from over $114,000 in 2007 to $30,000 in 2014. He said the BOC was not aware of that and that he would look into it first thing Monday morning. - One attendee asked if Foxhall was located in a floodplain and Mitchell said he believes some of Foxhall is but not the location of the hotel or other planned structures. - While some attendees stayed quiet on this topic, none voiced there support for issuing bonds and most were either against it or knew nothing about it. - I obviously voiced our strong opposition which he was already well aware of. He also confirmed they have been receiving the 150 opposition postcards via the mail that Douglas County residents filled out at our September Saturdays booth. Animal Shelter: - A few people were there to protest the Deer Lick Park location of the new animal shelter. They claim that the park is very popular and not a good location for the animal shelter - One attendee suggested that the county purchase undeveloped land somewhere for the shelter Hwy 92 Project: - A few citizens were concerned about the zoning around the new road. They wanted to ensure it was zoned for businesses that offer high wages and not more Burger Kings - Most attendees were concerned that it would completely change our way of life in Douglas County and generate a lot more traffic My thoughts after leaving the meeting: 1. We paid the underwriter to review Foxhalls financial projections so why dont we have a date of when the report will be available? Its not like they are doing this as a favor for us so the BOC should have established a deadline of when the report was due. 2. It appears that most of the commissioners are waiting on the underwriters report before making their decision as Mike Mulcare said the same thing to us. 3. Why is Tom Worthan pressuring the BOC to vote on this so quickly? Mulcare told me he is waiting on the report before hosting a town hall meeting for District 3 residents. If they agree to Toms request I guess Mulcare will hold his town hall after they vote? As a resident of District 3 I find this completely unacceptable. 4. How is it possible that the value of Foxhall has dropped 80% in 7 years reducing our county revenue by $84,000 and none of the BOC members know anything about it? Regarding the Animal Shelter, I told Mitchell we dont have a dog in the fight when he asked our position but I did tell him we would not support the county going out and buying more land. Regarding the Hwy 92 project, I think folks are a little late to the game with voicing their concerns now and making zoning requests.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 22:11:45 +0000
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