January 16, 2003
Breaking News: Reservoir Forum on February 19
Announced by Commissioner Dan Saltzman at this evening's this evening's meeting of the Mt. Tabor Public Advisory Committee was a forthcoming public forum on the Mt. Tabor Open Reservoir Replacement Project, to be held at City Hall on February 19 beginning at 6:00 PM.
It's important to understand that this event is being viewed by City Hall -- or at least by Commissioner Saltzman and the Bureau of Water Works -- as a public forum, and not an actual part of the public process. Saltzman at least is convinced that the decision to bury the reservoirs is not one which the City Council intends to revisit, and although the Commmissioner tonight went through the motions of asserting that an overwhelmingly impressive presentation by opponents of the project could in theory change his mind, it certainly is the furthest thing from likely that it will.
More information on this forum will be passed along here, as well as any official details of how it will function and who will be making presentations.
Comments (1)
Charles Heying on 27 Jan 2003
This comment is a bit late but may be relevant none-the-less. Today (Jan 27th) I received a letter from Comm. Saltzman and Comm. Sten confirming that there would be a public hearing on Feb 19th at 6:00 PM. The water bureau will get the first 20 minutes to present their case and the Friends of the Reservoirs will get the next 20 minutes to present their case. This will be followed by general testimony. The normal way to do general testimony is that a sign up sheet is placed outside the council chambers about an hour before the hearing. Apparently, Mayor Katz exercises her discretion as to the amount of time allotted for each person's general testimony based on the number of persons signed up to tesitify. She has been known to cut each to two minutes.
Take care, Charles