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PF: Keep your eye on overpass issue

| October 23, 2013 9:34 PM

I had an opportunity to attend a workshop between the Post Falls City Council and the Post Falls Urban Renewal on Oct. 16. At the workshop the URA presented a status report on the Greensferry overpass project. A major portion of the presentation was the need to expand the boundaries of the East Post Falls urban renewal district to include a number of large parcels west of Greensferry Road and north of Mullan to provide the design build contractors with greater “design flexibility.” You may recall that the life of this URA district was extended for 10 additional years to accommodate this project.

The next morning, the URA passed a resolution to expand the boundaries of the district, which will go to the City Council for approval. At the workshop with the City Council, the members of the URA went to great lengths to advise council that they had no idea what the cost of the project would be, what the design would look like, how much property and buildings currently owned and operated by small businesses in our community would need to be acquired, how long that acquisition process would take or when construction would start.

Despite this laundry list of uncertainties, at its meeting the morning after the workshop with City Council, the URA Board approved and signed loan documents obligating the Agency for a $15 million loan from Washington Trust Bank, and the deposit of more than a million dollars of taxpayer funds to Washington Trust as a debt service reserve fund.

Let me get this straight: You don’t know how much it will cost, who the contractor would be, how much you will need to acquire the needed right of way and displace existing small businesses or when you will be ready to start construction, but you ARE ready to move forward with the loan and deposit taxpayer funds in a debt service reserve. What happens if the costs far exceed expectations? What happens if a small business owner decides to fight the taking of his property, and the project is delayed by two or three years as the case makes its way through the court system?

We have two sitting council members running for mayor and three council seats that are available. The taxpayers of Post Falls would benefit from additional council oversight of this process.

LEN CROSBY

Post Falls