Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

BREAKING NEWS: Moscow will drop appeals

From the Lewiston Morning Tribune website:
Breaking News
Moscow council OKs water pact
February 5, 2008, 12:19 am

MOSCOW — Members of the Moscow City Council voted 5-1 late Monday night to provide water service across the state line to the proposed Hawkins Companies shopping center.Members also agreed to drop the city’s appeal against Hawkins’ attempts to secure its own water rights to drill wells. The action, taken shortly before midnight, stems from an agreement hammered out last week during 22 hours or closed-door mediation in Spokane. The agreement calls for the city to provide a total of 65 acre-feet of water annually to the development in Whitman County.

Earlier Monday, Whitman County commission passed a preliminary development agreement to partner with Hawkins on the 700,000-square-foot retail shopping mall it plans to build west of the Idaho state border.

3 comments:

Barenjager said...

See there. It turns out it was about the water. Not how to conserve it (Moscow thanks Mark Solomon and other useful idiots) but about who controls it and who makes money off the deal.

Local eco types take note; you are tools. Nothing more or less. Just tools for use by others whom you do not control.

April E. Coggins said...

It's all about control and money. Moscow City Councilman Tom Lamar's comments on KQQQ this morning prove it. He sounds like the spoiled little boy who insists everyone play by his rules or he will go home.

That's why we still need to put in our own utilities in the corridor. We don't want to have to go crawling to Moscow everytime we want to expand development in the corridor. Owning our own water and sewer services will protect our sovereignty.

Unknown said...

I have said all along that Moscow's appeals have nothing to do with water, but the other big "W" word around here: Wal-Mart.

There have been persistent rumors that Wal-Mart was going into the Hawkins development (so much so that PARDner Don Orlich stated his belief last week that Wal-Mart owned the land there.)

All you need to do is look at the Moscow NoSuperWalMart web site. A pamphlet titled "Closing the Gaps," reads:

The Hawkins Companies of Boise have started the application process to build a 200-acre big box development just across the state line by Airport Road. Water supply is likely the biggest stumbling block to the proposal. Loews [sic] Home Center is the only declared occupant at this time, but there is plenty of room for a SuperCenter there as well.

Mark Solomon, one of the appellants in the Hawkins case is a key member of the NoSuperWalMart group, as well as many of Queen Nancy's staunchest political allies.

You CANNOT underestimate the power of Wal-Mart Derangement Syndrome.