The Herald
October 04, 2008 12:38 am
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Normally when you talk about strategy, you talk about a well laid-out plan, where you cover all the bases and give yourself the best opportunity to reach your goal.
In that case, the term “Strategy 1000” is obviously a misnomer.
Strategy 1000 was drafted in 2003 to get land ready for sale to businesses that may want to come to Mercer County. It was put into effect last December when commissioners bought land near the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 19 in East Lackawannock Township for a tidy price of $705,000.
At the time some people scratched their heads. The county was paying more than $3,000 an acre for former strip-mine property. Normally, your average business owner isn’t about to spend a lot of money on that kind of land.
While the commissioners felt it was a prime parcel for future development, some thought the price was too high. But at the time, we were willing to give the commissioners the benefit of the doubt.
Here’s the kicker, which we learned about a short time later: The land was purchased without proper environmental assessments.
Who allowed that to happen?
When you are spending that kind of taxpayers’ money, shouldn’t there be some strategy involved to assure the property was up to snuff before you bought it? Shouldn’t that be the terms of any contract?
The commissioners revealed this past week that a stability study of the 218 acres showed that the ground is unstable. It contains buried cement chunks and construction debris. That means the soil could sink to different levels.
Now that’s not necessarily a problem if you don’t mind that any building you put there might later break in half.
Commissioner Brian Beader, who voted for the purchase, said: “...it’s just a matter of how much money you may have to spend as far as stabilizing a foundation.”
And just who is that “you” to whom Beader is referring? Probably us — the taxpayers.
Beader said there is a compaction process that involves dropping a heavy weight from a crane to firm up property. Really. Just how much is that going to cost us?
If the county pays for it, it just might be a case of throwing good money after bad. After all, if you were a potential buyer, would you trust that compaction would actually do the job properly?
On top of that, there are no sewer or water hookups near that property. Throw in the fact that parts of it can’t be used for about 5 years because it’s leased to a gravel company and you have a real quandary.
The taxpayers have seen millions of their dollars wasted at Woodland Place nursing home. And now we learn that apparently more of our money was spent unwisely.
None of our current commissioners were on board when Strategy 1000 was crafted in 2003. All we can ask is that in the future, they actually employ some real strategy before spending taxpayers’ money.
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