Tuesday, April 01, 2008

The Mega Land Heist and Humanitarian/Environmental Crime

Unfortunately, not an April Fool's joke....
Cornerstone Alliance (Whirlpool) is seriously attempting to pull this off.
They make certain they can count on the BH City Commission to get what they want....
There's a photograph of Whirlpool Corp. in the Commission's meeting space!
Read between the lines when possible, and do your own research - two things that are always necessary to decifer the reporting of the Herald Palladium.

Harbor Shores public review period will begin this weekBy Julie SwidaHerald Palladium Staff Writer 1/1/07
BENTON HARBOR — A 30-day public review and comment period regarding the Jean Klock Park Conversion and Mitigation Proposal for the Harbor Shores develop­ment will begin Wednesday.
The Benton Harbor City Commission voted Monday night to approve the public re­view process, which includes a public hearing 6-9 p.m. April 17 at the Benton Harbor Mich­igan Works! office.
The plan involves leasing part of the park to Harbor Shores Community Redevel­opment Inc. for three holes of a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, the centerpiece of the proposed half-billion dollar development that would in­clude hotels, marinas and hun­dreds of new houses in Benton Harbor, Benton Township and St. Joseph.
The park conversion plan involves a lease for the golf course and a maintenance agreement for the park. It needs the approval of the Na­tional Park Service because federal money was used when the park was developed.
The proposal calls for the city to approve a long-term lease converting 22.11 acres of the non-beach portion of Jean Klock Park to public golf course use. In exchange, Har­bor Shores would pay for im­provements to the rest of the park and convert 38.41 acres of other land to parks linked to the city’s downtown and resi­dential areas by a trail system. The April 17 public hearing will be led by Phillip Schaeffer, a retired circuit court judge from Kalamazoo. Written com­ments can be submitted at the public hearing or can be sent to the city clerk’s office.
The documents pertaining to the park conversion and miti­gation proposal are available for public review at City Hall, 200 E. Wall St.; the clerk’s of­fice, 175 Territorial Road; the Benton Harbor Public Library, 213 E. Wall St.; and Benton
Harbor Area Schools Adminis­trative Offices, 777 Riverview Drive.
The documents include a de­tailed description of the pro­posed conversion and replace­ment parcels, related agreements and environmental assessments.
The documents have been reviewed by the Michigan De­partment of Natural Resources and the National Park Service. The public hearing and 30-day public review period must take place before a final proposal is submitted. During Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Juani­ta Henry proposed a longer public comment period, but other commissioners said it is time to move the proposal along. The vote to schedule the process as outlined was unani­mous.
In another matter, the City Commission approved spend­ing $4,500 for a facilitator for a three-day workshop later this month.
The decision-making and goal-setting retreat will be 6 to 9 p.m. April 18, 8:30 a.m.to 2 p.m. April 19 and a yet-to-be­scheduled date. The meetings will be led at the city’s Busi­ness Growth Center by Joe Ohren, a consultant recom­mended by the Michigan Mu­nicipal League. City Manager Richard Marsh, in proposing the retreat, said that because he and several city commissioners are new, it is necessary to invest time and resources into discussing roles, responsibilities and procedures for strengthening decision­making processes in the city.
The workshops will involve commissioners, department heads and some citizens. Marsh said the first session will deal with decision-making process­es and the second session will deal with goal-setting. After that, a third session will be scheduled at which goals will be prioritized and timelines set to reach the goals.