The politics of ash

[Doug V]

City elections are coming.  Although there are many issues to consider, I suggest that whenever any candidate asks us for our vote we should ask - "Will you work for removal of the 'hazardous substances' notices from Property Record Cards?"

If the answer is anything other than "Yes, I will work for their removal.", then that candidate, Democrat, Republican, Whig, whatever, does not deserve our support.

[sheclown]

What is Dr. Gaffney's position on this?  Is he willing to initiate anything, politically, for us?  Is this the path we, as a neighborhood, want to go down?  

If we want a political solution, we need to find out what ordinance permitted the PRCs to be altered in this way.  If there wasn't any ordinance, as some suggest, then perhaps we could have Gaffney introduce some sort of protection for future PRC alterations.

He ought to introduce legislation which prohibits the property appraiser from acting without city council approval for something of this magnitude in the future (which would stop the wide-spread growth of the site).

As far as the PRCs which are currently tagged, damage has already been done and perhaps needs to be remedied, legally.

"Yes, I will work for their removal" is entirely too vague. IMHO. Legislation needs to be introduced to stop this from spreading or from happening again.  

If, on the other hand, there was an ordinance which permitted the property appraiser from taking this step, who introduced it?  Also, who voted for it?

[nvrenuf]

To add insult to injury, this from myspringfield.org forum regarding the park at 5th & Boulevard:

"Two large trees have already been cut down"

"spoke with some construction men and they said there are 4 more trees scheduled to be removed"

"It has been confirmed the trees are coming out in the name of "ash remediation" and this will probably happen at homes where they do remediation also. This is ridiculous! Springfield is a National Historic District - and the city has allowed several homes torn down in the past few years. Then the PRC's are tagged as "may contain hazardous materials" on properties that they city has NO idea about and now they are tearing out our trees! Those trees add ambiance, shade, energy savings, and value to our neighborhood. The city has to be stopped."

[Doug V]

Amanda and I will be interviewed on the ash issue on First Coast Connect on WJCT (FM 89.9) between 9AM and 10AM tomorrow (Thursday).

[Timkin]

There is even more than meets the eye, nvrenuf.  Those trees that they cut down are red cedars, a very slow growing species.  They are even older than the treaty oak, and were standing before the city was built.

Ryan Rummel and I stopped by and talked to the guys doing the work.

They got some crackpot arborist to come out and declare the trees to be 'in decline' to justify cutting them down.

After 250+ years, how in the hell.....?

They trimmed the other trees in order to let their scoops get to the creek sides.

What is most disturbing is that none of the contractors or employees were wearing any safety gear to protect them from exposure.

If it can be done totally ASS-BACKWARDS and for every wrong reason imaginable, you count count on our City Management to get the job done (wrong)!

[Timkin]

I saw them with a Scoop scraping alot of soil off of the bank(Boulevard side) of Hogans Creek Monday... did not see the trees being removed.  I do not get that part at all.

[sheclown]

Amanda and I will be interviewed on the ash issue on First Coast Connect on WJCT (FM 89.9) between 9AM and 10AM tomorrow (Thursday).

Amanda and Doug can be listened to at this link:

http://www.wjct.org/radio/listen

Go to "weekly programming" under "Thursday".  They are the first story.

[sheclown]

Doug and Amanda -- you represent Springfield very well.  You clearly have done your homework and know your facts.  Thanks!