>Subject: [ironcountyindependent]
>Re: Fw: Ironcountydoings: Building Iron County Michigan
>To: ironcountyindependent@yahoogroups.com
>Date: Saturday, June 27, 2009, 2:30 PM
>I read this article in The Daily News' Speak Out
>section. What is the writer trying to say in this
>article?
>We know the county is going to appoint a committee
>to do a feasability study of building a new airport.
>We know the county is not at the point of building
>a new airport and looking for a builder/developer to
>build it. We know that the county had in the past
>had a study done as to where to locate a new airport
>if one was to be built and plans to build when it was
>dropped because of various obstacles.
>The writer mostly focuses on getting the EDC involved
>in the process by sitting down with a builder/developer
>to ascertain the staffing and manning of the project?
>Also the crafts and job skills needed to complete the
>project and if need be provide training for these skills
>at county expense. The writer seems to be advocating
>that the airport be built using all local (Iron County)
>builders and labor and if all local resources can't be
>used, that perhaps the workers would have to live
>within 100 miles of the project for a year after
>completion.
>If this project was to come to fruition and be built,
>the majority of the monies would be federal and state
>and having the requirement that the contractor(s) and
>labor be residents of Iron County or be within 100 miles
>of Iron County will not fly.
>The largest obstacle is acquiring the land and getting
>approval from all the entities that have jurisdiction
>on this project. If were not the objection of the
>military that the proposed airport northwest of Iron
>Lake was located in a MOA, the airport may or may have
>not have been built.
>Shadow
Bill Vajk's answers:
1) Where a feasibility study is concerned, we know in
advance that the outcome of such a feasibility study
will find justification for building a new, better,
Iron County Michigan airport. To entertain even the
remote possibility of any other outcome is absurd. The
County Board is 100% predictable in such matters.
2) I suggest that the selection of a developer/builder,
or a small pool of candidates, has already been done.
It is in the best interest of the County Board to
do such a selection early because there's a lot of free
lobbying work available (in Lansing, Washington, and
even in Iron County) from those people if they have
a reason to believe that they could benefit by being
the builder/developer selected to do the project.
Shadowman, if he or she is knowledgeable about such
matters (and I have reason to believe that's true)
is being disingenuous in making a statement that is
designed to mislead the local population into
believing otherwise.
3) Who better than an experienced reputable builder/
developer to smooth the way through obstacles like
getting the military relocate their practice areas.
4) Iron County, including our EDC, has a recent
history of ignoring the needs of the local population
where it comes to significant projects. The operative
word in EDC is, ta-da, DEVELOPMENT. Why
was an out-of-state contractor hired to dismantle
the Cloverland Hotel by hand? Was there some special
secret technique used to do that job? No, of course
there wasn't.
4a) There is nothing significantly high tech about
building an airport that places such construction
out of reach of ordinary tradesmen. Radar equipment
and the like is generally installed by the manufacturer,
with the infrastructure (structures, conduit, wiring,
and so forth) provided by regular trades contractors
5) The US Government can and does write grants and
RFQ's (request for quotation) and RFB's (request for
Bids) carefully crafted to designate a targeted set
of contractors/bidders. To state out of hand that
because federal monies are probably going to be
used prevents targeting where the workers live is,
at best, incorrect. Such things are done with
great regularity.
6) I believe, therefore, that "shadowman," whoever
he/she is, does not have the interests of the local
population at heart, but has self-interest as his/her
primary motivation. Otherwise why not support "the
home team"? You fight for them without first throwing
in the towel and misleading people by saying what we
need to get done cannot be, without even trying! That's
not what shadowman is doing. That's not what shadowman
ever does!
Shadowman, whoever you are, come out-come out!
If you have legitimate issues to discuss, then stand
up and be counted, without hiding behind that stupid
pseudonym. Plug the name into google images and see
what nonsense that brings to your screen. But then,
who would expect legitimate discussion from someone
who calls themselves shadowman?
Bill Vajk
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