{"id":1214,"date":"2009-12-02T15:46:22","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T22:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2009-12-03T11:19:55","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T18:19:55","slug":"greetings-from-redwood-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/?p=1214","title":{"rendered":"Greetings from Redwood Falls!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"redwoodfallscommunitycenter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Greetings from the Redwood Falls Community Center.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re here today for the Brookings CapX 2020 hearings, at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that many people wanted to testify today, so we’re on break until 7.<\/p>\n

Here’s what’s happened so far today, very rough notes, some stuff is missing, that’s just how it is, but you can get the idea:<\/p>\n

ROUGH Notes from December 2<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s interesting about today is MOES response to the issues raised yesterday in Marshall about the Citizen Advisory Task Force.\u00c2\u00a0 You remember MOES:<\/p>\n

\"moes-tavern\"<\/a>In response to those comments yesterday, under oath, from people of this area who testified that they were denied a Citizens Advisory Task Force, that requests were disappeared, that calls were ignored, Asst. A.G. Hamill has announced that they will be preparing an Affidavit, from Scott Ek, about formation fo the Task Forces.\u00c2\u00a0 In the same vein, I’ve already ordered a transcript of the PUC meeting regarding Task Forces.\u00c2\u00a0 And I took some time just now to look at the record, as reported here, and oh yes, we do have a problem here…<\/p>\n

Remember the post back in March, MOES denies western Citizens Advisory Task Force<\/a>, when this Citizens Advisory Task Force problem was reported in the Marshall Independent:<\/p>\n

Some residents of Lyon County townships said they were unhappy about not being allowed to form a citizens’ advisory task force on the routing process, like residents along the eastern parts of the routes had done.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

“We applied, and from what I understand we were denied,” said Galen Boerboom, a resident of Westerheim Township. Boerboom said he had communicated with OES staff about forming a task force, but received no response. “There’s a lot of mistrust that comes, and a lot of questions unanswered.”<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Grandview Township Clerk Brian Buysse said he had spoken personally with OES project manager Scott Ek about forming a task force. Harold Dieken of Fairview Township said he had also communicated with Ek via e-mail.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

OES representatives at the meeting said they had mailed letters inquiring about task forces to area city, county and township government, but they received few responses. In the two areas that did form task forces, the government response was much larger, they said.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

“If we don’t receive enough requests from (local government) entities, we can’t do it,” Ek said.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

“I think there’s a lot of citizen interest, but that’s what these meetings are for,” said Deborah Pile of the OES.<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the PUC meeting, I’d tried to get a western Task Force nailed down, or nailed open, and as I recall, in the PUC’s Order it was an option if people contacted Commerce.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, looking through my emails from March and April, covered in my posts back then, I see that they tried out here to get one going and had no luck, that township officials had contacted Commerce, and it’s not just in my inbox, it’s in the paper!\u00c2\u00a0 When the EIS Scoping meeting came around, in March, in Marshall, they were really upset that they had asked for a Task Force and didn’t get one, and\u00c2\u00a0 that should show on the record of the scoping hearing … but wait… those aren’t scoping “hearings,” anymore, now they’re scoping “meetings.”\u00c2\u00a0 …but wait, there IS a transcript — here what was said about Task Forces way back in March, March 30, 2009, NINE MONTHS AGO.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dept. of Commerce knew then there was a problem, and did nothing… a Task Force could have been convened — the Scoping decision was not released until June 30, 2009, THREE MONTHS after the March 30 Marshall meeting, but Commerce knew there was a problem and did NOTHING.\u00c2\u00a0 N-O-T-H-I-N-G.<\/p>\n

From the mARCH 30, 2009 transcript – TRANSCRIPT LINKED HERE<\/a>:<\/p>\n

TRANSCRIPT, P. 13, l. 9 – P. 15, l. 14.<\/strong><\/p>\n

MR. BOERBOOM: My name is Galen Boerboom,
\nI live between Ghent and Minneota.
\nFirst of all, I’d like to address what
\nyou had said earlier when you got up about sending
\nout the letters with your first mailing. The
\nmailings looked like junk mail, to be honest with
\nyou, so I don’t think a lot of people commented or
\neven looked at it. Secondly, we were advised that
\nwe could have a public task force committee, there
\nwas two of them, you said, that were up by the
\nNew Prague area.<\/p>\n

MR. EK: Correct.<\/p>\n

MR. BOERBOOM: We applied, and from my
\nunderstanding, we were denied, or not given a chance
\nto have it. I went to a township meeting. We were
\nalso told that all government agencies where the
\nline was run through was notified. The township
\nboard never knew anything about it, nor the next one
\nto us didn’t know anything about it. So right away
\nred flags go up, mistrust is placed, and then when
\nwe’re not allowed this input by the public task
\nforce, there’s a lot of mistrust that comes, and a
\nlot of answers — questions that are not answered.
\nSo some of this stuff you say I don’t believe. And
\nI don’t know how the other people feel, but I know
\nwhen you made the comment about the task force, I
\nseen people look at each other here and say how come
\nwe weren’t allowed.<\/p>\n

MR. EK: Well, I don’t know how to answer
\nthat question, because we did send out letters to
\nall townships, all counties, all regional
\ndevelopment commissions, all large cities. And no,
\nwe did not receive any —<\/p>\n

MR. BOERBOOM: Oh, yes, you did. And
\nI’ll tell you the guy that called you was Ross
\nThompson from our township, and he was sent mail
\nfrom your office and he e-mailed it back. Any
\ncomment on this, Dan?<\/p>\n

MR. WAMBEKE: I had called a couple of
\ntimes, but I’m just a citizen.<\/p>\n

MR. BOERBOOM: There’s another member of
\nthe township board in here, sitting right there.<\/p>\n

MR. BUYSEE: I called you and e-mailed
\nyou, hoping to be on a task force.<\/p>\n

MR. EK: Okay. Well, we didn’t receive a
\nresponse from —<\/p>\n

MR. BOERBOOM: You did.<\/p>\n

MR. BUYSEE: I talked to you
\nspecifically.<\/p>\n

MR. EK: And your name?<\/p>\n

MR. BUYSEE: Brian Buysee.<\/p>\n

MR. BOERBOOM: So, in other words, we’re
\nsupposed to sit in this room and believe everything
\nelse that’s said.<\/p>\n

MR. EK: I’m sorry you feel that way,
\nsir.
\nAny other questions, comments?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TRANSCRIPT, p. 19, l. 10 – p. 20. l. 6.<\/strong><\/p>\n

MR. DIEKEN: My name is Harold Dieken,
\nD-I-E-K-E-N. I have a couple of comments here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…
\nAnd number three, on this citizen task
\nforce, I too filled out an application, I too sent
\nit e-mail and, yes, you did reply to me. I have got
\nyour e-mail reply in my computer at this moment. So
\ndon’t tell us that you didn’t receive any replies
\nwith the citizen task force information and that we
\nfilled out and returned to you. That is not true.
\nThank you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MR. EK: All right. On the task forces,
\nI guess I should clarify that. We need more than —
\na task force is made up of a regional development
\ncommission, a county, a township within the county.
\nIf we don’t receive enough requests from those
\nentities, we statutorily cannot set up a task force.
\nAnd therefore we did not receive the required local
\ngovernment entities to set up the task forces along
\nthe western portion of this route. So, yes,
\ncertainly I may have received yours, I may have
\nreceived another gentleman’s, but in order to set up
\na task force we are required to have certain local
\ngovernment representatives included to set up that
\ntask force.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TRANSCRIPT p. 21, l. 2-15<\/strong><\/p>\n

MR. DIEKEN: I’d like to address one more
\nthing. Getting back to your citizens advisory task
\nforce, I didn’t see anywhere’s in that application
\nwhere it said we had to have a minimum number of
\napplicants not to be represented out here. I feel
\nas though that the people out here have got just as
\nmuch right to be represented on a citizens task
\nforce as those people up at New Prague or Prior
\nLake. Probably even more so. We’re in agricultural
\nland out here and our land is adversely affected
\nwith this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MR. EK: Thanks for your comment. We’ll
\ntake that under consideration.
\nAny other comments, please?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And look, it was also an issue in February, when Delores Hagen called Scott Ek was told that there was no Task Force for her to participate in — that was also after the PUC Order.<\/p>\n

\n

Delores Hagen on birds, routes, and CATF<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here’s my post after the meeting at the PUC in January, 2009, where the PUC Ordered Citizen Advisory Task Forces:<\/p>\n

\n

Got Citizens Task Forces!<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Old age… my memory faded, and now it’s clear to me that this was not just an issue in the Marshall area.\u00c2\u00a0 Time to rally the troops to tell of their “Experiences of the Task Force kind” UNDER OATH at the upcoming public hearings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greetings from the Redwood Falls Community Center.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re here today for the Brookings CapX 2020 hearings, at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that many people wanted to testify today, so we’re on break until 7. Here’s what’s happened so …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,259,258,260,261,116,27,128],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-capx-2020","tag-catf","tag-citizen-advisory-task-force","tag-delores-hagen","tag-henderson","tag-lesueur","tag-nocapx-2020","tag-scott-ek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}