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City holds firm: no new EAW [UPDATED]
Published 7:43am Tuesday, August 7, 2012 Updated 12:47pm Tuesday, August 7, 2012The city of Fergus Falls is holding firm to its position that it doesn’t need to complete an updated environmental assessment worksheet before demolishing the RTC.
Special Advisor on the RTC Kent Mattson told the council Monday that after researching the inquiries made by the State Historic Preservation Office and inquiring with the Minnesota Environment Quality Board, the council would only have to complete another environmental assessment worksheet if the scope of the project or the circumstances surrounding the project changed. The city does not have to complete one just because the project changed hands from the state to the city.
According to Mattson, the project’s scope (demolishing some to all of the buildings) and circumstances (the impact on the neighborhood) have not changed since the original EAW was done by the state, and he would be sending a letter to SHPO explaining the reasoning.
Later in the meeting, RTC Marketing Task Force member Anthony Hicks suggested that an EAW should be done, given the long delay of demolition at the campus’ incinerator (a project which ended up costing more than expected due to hazardous material removal). No one on the council or the city staff responded to his statement.
It is a 6 page work sheet, and it gives 30 days for public input. For crying out loud, it would take less time then if the city has to file a lawsuit. Never mind what they will have to pay Mattson for legal fees…. Is there any body that doesn’t have the brain cells to figure that one out?