Monday, August 11, 2008

The Fat Lady Hasn't Sung Yet

Dear Readers,

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I need to explain why I'm still publishing after The Battle has been lost. As I have said before, I was planning to quit after the city of Onamia bent every which way but loose to accommodate Nexus in obtaining their Conditional Use Permit, which was, of course, tailor-made specifically for the sex offender institution. For me, personally, there seemed nothing more for ME to do which might influence the local government to stop the destruction of the 38.81 acres down the street. For a year of my life, I'd attended their meetings and "public hearings" trying to stop them from making the mistakes they made. Of course, they went ahead with their mistakes no matter what I said or printed or did... Apparently Hannabelle had no impact. But you must admit I gave it my all.
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The D'Angelo/Freeman lawsuit has forced me to continue my involvement, whereas I'd have preferred to move on to greener pastures. Recently it occurred to me that just because Hannabelle is sick and tired of fighting all this crap, you might think the War is over. Friends, it is not over. I had hoped that my part in it was finished, but I'm still stuck in the combat zone.
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As you know, I initially tried to save my neighborhood from having 94 convicted sex offenders in an unlocked facility located a few minutes run from my defenseless mother. She is elderly and in poor health. But as soon as I got involved, I immediately realized that something was wrong... By the time the Mille Lacs News and Bradbury Buzzz was created, my opposition was directed at the city council, who was intent upon supporting a private corporation which, in my opinion, was detrimental to the community. The "benefits" of the sex offender institution remaining in Onamia were greatly overshadowed by the negative aspects.
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I could easily expound on my participation over this past year and a half. Originally, I'd planned to dedicate only one year of my life. But of course, things didn't play out that way. Like stepping into quicksand, I'm now up to my neck in muck. And since I'm stuck here, unable to escape, I continue to work towards influencing the local and county government (to gain favorable government action).
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Although the War with Nexus is not over yet, there hasn't been much activity lately. I haven't been attending meetings since the CUP public hearing in April. Nexus isn't on the agenda. In the meantime, I've been directing a lot of my writing towards the city and county officials that read my stuff. These men have tunnel-vision when it comes to Nexus.
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For instance, Nexus barely met the qualifications for county tax abatement. To qualify, they needed to score points on a worksheet. Nexus scored 86, the minimum requirement. The finance committee generously duplicated points for the same issue (number of jobs), thus ensuring that Nexus would pass the "test". Without those jobs, Nexus doesn't make the grade. Also, our research indicated that the numbers Nexus provided to the county commissioners were nebulous, vague, misleading... First Nexus said that they spend $2 million dollars in the county annually. When asked to provide more detail about that, Jim D'Angelo reduced the figure from $2M to $610,000 he claims Nexus spends in the county annually. His figures, however, still did not add up. Ours came to only about $98,800, close to the figure quoted to us by a Department of Corrections source. Our request for the finance committee to further investigate was, of course, denied. Commissioner Dave Tellinghuisen stated that if Nexus cannot fulfill the requirements within the allotted time-frame, (such as creating several new jobs), tax abatement may be withdrawn.
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This is extremely significant. The new jobs which Nexus has outlined to meet qualifications were based on Nexus privatizing their school. A new school principal, teaching positions, aid positions, etc. If Nexus would privatize, 15 Onamia school employees would lose their jobs in the process. At an Onamia public hearing, former Nexus CEO Jim D'Angelo stated that those positions would not be lost, but those employees would work for Nexus instead of for the Onamia School district. He hedged when questioned if those jobs would be counted as "new positions" to meet qualifications for tax abatement. D'Angelo said that Nexus intended to, in fact, "double" the number of jobs. hmmm.
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However, Onamia school superintendent John Varner, along with the school board were against the privatization of the Nexus school. Privatization was denied. Without privatization, Nexus will not be able to create the school jobs they promised to deliver when they submitted their tax abatement applications to the city and county - there will be no private school at Nexus.
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So you see, Dear Readers... as Mayor Larry Milton recently said, this deal ain't done quite yet. Nexus now has to find another way to meet the conditions for the tax abatement already granted to them. Will they be able to do it?
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Although I opposed the annexation, purchase by the city, rezoning (incorrect zoning classification for the facility, along with improper zoning of the property), resale of the 38.81 to the corporation, as well as being opposed to the manipulation of laws, rewriting of ordinances to benefit one specific private company, the lack of a Planning Commission - the city council got around this by declaring themselves to be the planning commission! (see YouTube videos), lack of a Comprehensive Municipal Plan, improper procedures, violations of the Open Meeting Law, spot-zoning, lack of a traffic study, the impact on the environment - especially at such close proximity to the river and lake, as well as finding conflict of interests within the city council, and a serious discrepency in data provided by Nexus - such as conflicting statistics about safety (police and sheriff's reports), providing false and misleading information to obtain public funding, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. - BESIDES all that, I oppose property tax abatement for Nexus, who has been denied tax exemption in Mille Lacs, Crow Wing, and Mower counties. The Minnesota Department of Revenue has stated that NEXUS DOES NOT QUALIFY AS A CHARITY.
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So you see, the War goes on. There are still a few battles left to engage in. There is not much to "do", but hopefully my attempts at educating the public and public officials will be successful in the end. While the 38.81 acres has been destroyed, it is not too late for the city and county governments to reconsider giving tax abatement to Nexus, a multi-million dollar private corporation. As you know, if Nexus' tax abatement is not withdrawn, now that the school will not be privatized and promised jobs will not be created, citizens will make up the difference with a hike in THEIR tax dollars.
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Nope, this Fat Lady ain't sung yet. But after this long, long tour of duty, I'm starting to hum. I'm more than ready to be discharged from service. At least I know that I earned an honorable discharge. That's more than I can say for most ...

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