Shops Till You Drop!

We should have "Shopped Around" more! There was an almost nonexistent public process for relocating the County Shops, and now a location has been decided upon. 

The justification for no public input was that "no one wished to have the shops in their back yard", so why bother with public input. As Steve Martin use to say "EXCUSSSSSSSE MEEEEE!!!!!" ..... dismissing the public is not a matter for BSB staff to make the executive decision to exclude valid public comment.

Public input on the shop location was replaced with bar charts and engineering data with no citizen comments on neighborhoods desires or visual impact considered. The locating of the shops was all about the data and bar charts and the lowest cost, just by a horse racing "nose".

Months before this final Wednesday night (2/3) Council decision there was a half-baked announcement for public comment. The public comments surprised the Administration in that actual educated public comment was given by many knowledgeable citizens. The unified preference, presented in logical argument, was to locate the shops and batch plant remotely to the south in the Mansfield technology park. This unwelcomed public comment had to be battled with more adjustment of "Too much acreage, and the buildings are too large" and more Ga Ga! But the juggernaut of pie charts rolled on and on and low and behold the Montana Pole plant site came out ahead once again.  The funny thing about facts and figures is that they can be arrange to produce and outcome that you desire that is supported with the lowest cost. The humor continues when you view the charts of pies and bars and the cost differentials between all sites is minuscule.

In looking at the Montana Pole site it would have been nice if the closed doors were opened to the public and the real motivations and possible cost saving of using remedy money instead of restoration money was discussed with the public, but the public was not trusted and that is now a lost opportunity. The contamination of the site and adjacency to neighborhoods was fortunately communicated through various commissioners as additional public input.

In a full court press, the Administration kept the Pole Plant in the game, with the final game between 2 final sites, MT pole and "Gilman" across from metro sewer. As aforementioned, the pubic did rally and did call their Commissioners saying "don't put it on a dioxin poised site" and that families really did not want it in their neighborhood and in a primary view shed of the community - bravo citizens!

On Wednesday the council was getting close to including a backup site as commissioner discussions continued and motions were made that excluded Montana Pole. It seemed that the Mansfield Technology Park would be added as a backup site and would still be in the running for continued consideration. But that ended when Commissioner Sheryl Ralf made a motion to "End All Motions" but included dropping out the pole plant  in the motion (that was a modified motion) - that motion was not correct according "to Hoyle" - someone needs to review the rules of order!

What it came down to is that only one site was selected, a site that is not that bad but not perfect for the town with its placement in the heart of the community. If you were able to go back in time in this process and impose professional planning means in site selection, a comprehensive effort that included all possible sites, public input and view shed analysis you would see that there were many, many missed opportunities . But the milk is spilt and let's not cry, the positive aspect is that the selected site is across from the new and improved sewer plant and consolidation of Butte-Silver Bow facilities may work out to the benefit of the community.

The shop site selected will be partially sheltered to a point with a road-berm and is zoned correctly for the facility. This also means that the Parrot tailings removal can commence; but let us not forget that there a 3 other smelter tailing deposits downstream from the Parrot deposit for a required creek corridor to the confluence at Montana Street. Extensive removal must take place in order to restore our creek... all other agency and government words to the contrary are just Ga Ga!