Todays Bulletin holds yet another nugget on how fastidiously the City looks after our tax dollars (if the City Bus fiasco just wasn't enough). Entitled, Bend golf course sees greener days ahead - Mountain High is being restored after several years without water, the story paints a tale of woe... or it it WHOA!
Seems Mountain High developer Jan Ward could no longer water the gold courses on the North side of his China Hat road development when the City condemned his water facilities. Welp, it only took a few years before courses went to pot and homeowners sued to have the course restored. Judge Titkin also has a little surprise for the City:
Tiktin ordered the city to pay Ward nearly $6.7 million last year for the water system, plus interest and attorneys' fees, ruling that it acted in bad faith when it condemned his water system in 2002 and offered too little to compensate him for it. The two sides are still wrestling over the amount of attorneys' fees, but the final bill is expected to total around $12 million, including the city's own legal expenses to fight the case.
So we, the lucky taxpayers, have the privledge of paying a developer almost $19 MILLION plus interest to rebuild a gold course that the developer states was losing "around $150,000 a year".
That's probably well North of $20,000,000 going to build a money losing golf course. It could have gone to building a homeless shelter. Nay, a homeless palace. Maybe gussied up a road or two. Or just about anything. Just about anything would be better than paying the legal fees to compensate some developer to rebuild a white elephant golf course so a few homeowners can bask in it's property raising munificence.
What a load of crap.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I think the $12 million is inclusive of the $6.7 million, so the $19/20 million remark might be off base.
Seems ambiguous... It says $6.7MM plus legal fees plus interest. Then it says both sides are wrangling over legal fees, "but the final bill is expected to toal $12MM", which sounds like they are referring only to the legal fees. The sentence structure seems to indicate the first part of the paragraph is soley talking about damages, while the second is only legal fees. Hard to tell.
I would put to you that even $12MM + interest is TOO MUCH to rebuild a stupid golf course, though. Even 1/10th that. Ridiculous that citizens of Bend are paying for this. Naturally, the biggest beneficiary are lawyers.
Uh ... I know this is only the blogosphere, but please try to get some facts right. The total expected bill is inclusive of the $6.7 million ... And the $12 million is intended to compensate Ward for the value of the water system that the city condemned, plus the legal fees for battling said condemnation, as the story clearly states.
About $1 million of the total judgment was earmarked, by the court, to rebuild 9 holes of the golf course, since the court accepted Ward's claim that he stopped watering it as a direct result of the condemnation of his water system.
Anyway, no one is paying anyone $12 million to "rebuild a stupid golf course," although that does make your rant sound better.
Anyway, no one is paying anyone $12 million to "rebuild a stupid golf course," although that does make your rant sound better.
Blah, blah, blah...
Read it. It's NOT clearly stated.
$12 million is intended to compensate Ward
So the City is paying this guy $12MM for losing the "use" of a golf course that loses $150K/yr.?
Maybe you don't get it: I don't have anything against this Ward guy. I think he was harmed. My beef is that the stupid City took action that cost taxpayers $12MM, $20MM, or some other enormous amount for the "lost use" of a golf course.
My beef isn't with Ward or the homeowners, but the lawyers in the case made out like bandits and taxpayers are going to foot the bill because of a bonehead move by the City.
I hope this thing is appealed though, and Ward is given the $ to rebuild the course (he deserves that), but whatever over and above that should be closely scrutinized, because there is one hell of an argument for the idea that closing the course actually saved him $150K/yr. Homeowners who sold during that time probably suffered MORE losses than any other party, and THEY should be hunted down & compensated.
Pulling a sentence fragment to make it mean what you want it to mean?
Good God. There's a place in the Bush Administration for you people.
HEY THERE BENDOS, CAL-THRASHER HERE. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I AM MOVING TO YOUR "TOWN"... IF YOU CAN EVEN CALL IT THAT. I JUST SOLD MY DOUBLE-WIDE DOWN HERE NEXT
TO THE LOS ANGELES FREEWAY FOR A COOL MILLION. PRETTY SWEET, I'D SAY. THEN I BOUGHT MYSELF TWO NEW VEHICLES FOR CRUISING BEND. A H2, CHERRY RED, CA LICENSE "RIFF-RAFF"
AND A NISSAN ARMADA, CA LICENSE "BENDOVER". I NOTICED ONE THING THOUGH, YOU PEOPLE DRIVE TOO DAMN SLOW!!!!!!! SO I USUALLY EASE UP BEHIND YOU REAL CLOSE TO LET YOU KNOW YOU
SHOULD INCREASE YOUR SPEED. THIS IS COMMON IN LOS ANGELES, WHERE MANY PEOPLE COMBINE THIS WITH A LITTLE PISTOL WAVING. I HEAR THE .357 DOES NOT GO DOWN WELL HERE SO I LEFT
THAT AT HOME THOUGH. I HAVE TO SAY THE ATTITUDE OF SOME OF YOU BENDOS REALLY PISSES ME OFF -NO OFFENSE INTENDED, I DO HAVE SOME NICE FOLKS FROM YOUR "TOWN" WHO CUT MY YARD.
DUE TO THAT FACT, I BOUGHT MY SELF A PLACE HERE IN BROKEN TOP, WHERE THEY KEEP MOST OF THE "UNDESIRABLES" OUT OF THE WAY OF CIVILIZED FOLKS. LET ME TELL YOU, I COULDN'T BELIEVE
HOW CHEAP THIS IS. I MEAN, I STILL HAVE A COUPLE 100K IN THE BANK FOR DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! JESUS THIS IS A GREAT COUNTRY. GOD BLESS. LIFE IS PRETTY GOOD I GUESS. I
LAUGHED THE FIRST TIME THE REALTOR TOLD ME THE PRICE OF SOME RINKY-DINKY 2500 SQUARE FOOT SHACK. DAMN, I SAID "IF THERE GIVING THEM AWAY, I MIGHT AS WELL MAKE IT 5000 SQUARE
FEET". HAHA, ANYWAY, I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU ALL KNOW "I AM THE REAL THING". YOUR TOWN IS PRETTY OK, BUT YOU FOLKS NEED TO SHAPE UP. I HAVE A LOT OF PATIENCE, BUT EVEN MINE
IS GROWING THIN. THAT OLD MILL SHOPPING DISTRICT IS A PRETTY GOOD START. I'D LIKE TO SEE SOME OF WHAT I SEE THERE SPRING UP AROUND DOWNTOWN. BUT MOST OF ALL, I'D LIKE TO SEE
A BIT MORE RESPECT FOR FOLKS LIKE ME WHO HAVE WORKED THEIR ASSES OF TO LIVE THE GOOD LIKE, MOST OF YOU BENDOS MEAN WELL BUT I'M SICK OF SOME OF THE WHINING HERE ON THESE BOARDS.
I NEED SOME HELP AROUND MY YARD IF YOU NEED WORK JUST COME TALK TO ME. SIGNING OFF FOR NOW. OVER AND OUT. CAL-THRASHER.
Thasher if I have my way we will build condos right in back of your place on the 1st tee right where the lake used to be. Rest assured your property values will go through the roof with the redevelopment of BT. Imagine that you will be living in Central Oregons Disneyland. Ya know - ice rink, ferris wheel, all your favorite high end foo foo shops. Live is grand.
Well this is what all californians are doing to pay for their H2's in town, its that simple . .
I recently joined AGLOCO because of a friend recommended it to me. I am now promoting it to you because I like the idea and I want you to share in what I think will be an exciting new Internet concept.
AGLOCO’s story is simple:
Do you realize how valuable you are? Advertisers, search providers and online retailers are paying billions to reach you while you surf. How much of that money are you making? NONE!
AGLOCO thinks you deserve a piece of the action.
AGLOCO collects money from those companies on behalf of its members. (For example, Google currently pays AOL 10 cents for every Google search by an AOL user. And Google still has enough profit to pay $1.6 billion dollars for YouTube, an 18-month old site full of content that YouTube’s users did not get paid for!
AGLOCO will work to get its Members their share of this and more.
AGLOCO is building a new form of online community that they call an Economic Network. They are not only paying Members their fair share, but they’re building a community that will generate the kind of fortune that YouTube made. But instead of that wealth making only a few people rich, the entire community will get its share.
What's the catch? No catch - no spyware, no pop-ups and no spam - membership and software are free and AGLOCO is 100% member owned. Privacy is a core value and AGLOCO never sells or rents member information.
So do both of us a favor: Sign up for AGLOCO right now! If you use this link to sign up, I automatically get credit for referring you and helping to build AGLOCO.
http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBT0773
Post a Comment