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Speak Out Now on Sewer Project |
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Written by By Scott Kominiak
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 |
The citizens of Corrales have spoken loudly and clearly that their
number one priority is for us to navigate the future in a manner
designed to maintain the current character of, and lifestyle offered by
the village. Trendy commercialism and public wastewater
infrastructure score very low on our list.
Those directly impacted by the current wastewater management plan
object overwhelmingly, and continuously. And yet, our government pushes
on, with a solution targeted and ill-suited to economic development,
while ignoring obvious threats.
Over the past two years, the mayor and his supporters have flip-flopped
back and forth between the environment and the economy to justify their
wastewater project for the commercial core.
When challenged about environmental assumptions, it’s about economic
development. When challenged about economic assumptions, it is
about the environment. The fact is, this project will do very
little to improve either. What it will do is cause a good deal of
short-term economic pain to many, and saddle the Village with a
high-cost operations, maintenance, and tax burden for the future.
The unspoken chant is, “We don’t need facts; we have a grant to spend!”
Recently, 78 out of just over 100 people who live and work in this area
along Corrales Road submitted a petition urging the Village Council to
stop pursuing the proposed Septic Tank Effluent Pressurized (STEP)
system. Curiously, although it was on the meeting agenda, the
petition and its associated materials were left out of the public
information available on the website prior to the meeting.
It appears that where this project is concerned, citizens are being
deliberately kept out of the debate where possible, and ignored when
not. Decision-making groundwork has been largely developed at
sparsely publicized work-study sessions during the work week. The
few people who can actually attend these sessions are not allowed to
participate in the discussion and published minutes are deficient at
best.
The last of these meetings was held on November 17 to develop a scope
of work for the project, albeit again without any public input.
In this case, the meeting was standing room only, with some seated on
the floor, as the room was packed with villagers there to
overwhelmingly express their opposition to the STEP. It seems that
there was a misunderstanding; these people thought they were attending
the final decision–making meeting and wanted their voices on the record
yet again.
Unfortunately, they could only listen as the group debated the pros and
cons of expanding the proposed system into high-density areas other
than the commercial core. Souder, Miller and Associates
representative Jerry May slipped further from his role as an
independent advisor and continued his sales pitch, Councilors discussed
borrowing large sums of money and simply agreeing to pay for all costs
of the project in exchange for easements onto your property. The
underlying assumption being that nothing at all will go wrong.
Huh?
Well, comments at some recent meetings indicate that perhaps some of
our leaders are starting to see the light and don’t want this to be a
grant-driven process with rules dictated by others. They seem
more interested in making this about using available funding to do some
real good for the village as a whole. We may actually begin to
see common sense prevail.
However, this decision is being made for you, not by you. Since
you will not get a chance to vote, it is imperative that the
decision-makers hear from you. Right now more than ever,
especially in this economy, it is important to communicate with our
Village leaders.
I strongly urge anyone living in Corrales, especially those to be
directly affected, to communicate directly and clearly with your
councillor and the mayor. Make your feelings or concerns about
the project known. Do it before December 9. Also do it on
December 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Village Council meeting.
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