I noticed the article said "if" approved by the proper authorities. There's already one UNA prof fighting it. I think the city has another boondoggle on its hands.
It's a sad day for Florence. To take such a beautiful piece of property and convert it into a dump is indeed a shame. Everybody should be up in arms and calling their Councilman. Water quality of the creek is already in question, not to mention property values and effects on wildlife.
I find it even more ironic that Sheffield is placing many of its 'eggs' in the golf course basket while the Florence Country Club literally becomes a dump......
Kirk
"Better to have and not need than to need and not have, because you ain't using mine" -- Senior Chief
Posts: 1378 | Location: So easy even I can do it.... | Registered: 22 June 2007
The real shame is the price to be paid for to the "country club". The environmental effects will probably be better by a properly built, maintained, and regulated landfill as opposed to any golf course. I think our city should move on this, though with my reluctance to the price. All taxpayers have to share the price and placement of our garbage. So what if it is to a former "country club"? We can save ourselves money and environment at the same time. Play or watch golf somewhere else. Everybody else has to adjust to change.
The deal for the dump ain't done until ADEM says it's done:
"The city offered $2,030,400 for the property - made up of an 18-hole golf course, $1.8 million clubhouse, swimming pool and tennis courts - with the intention of expanding the city's landfill if and when required permits are issued by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management."
"if and when" could be a big factor. Remember the city's dumb as a rock purchase of land that was proposed to be developed into the "Eddie Frost Commerce Park"? The City CLOWNcil approved that purchase even though they KNEW that it might well drain to Key Cave, sol known habitat of a Federally-listed endangered species, the Alabama Cavefish. They decided to buy first and investigate later. Hydrological investigations by the U.S. Geological Survey showed that the land there did indeed drain into the Key Cave Aquifer, and the city learned to its chagrin that it would be impossible to develop that land. They wound up swapping it for the land that now has become the Sportsplex. The doomed Eddie Frost Commerce Park land was bought without any appraisal and the cty paid well over twice what it was worth. The CLOWNcil rushed to buy that land lest some other, equally-stupid buyer grab it up first. Such fears were unfounded, since no one else would have paid as much for the land as the VERY GENEROUS city did, thereby hugely fattening the coffers of the shrewd lawyer who foisted the land off on the city and took off for cozy retirement to Florida.
HERE THEY GO AGAIN! Grabbing the Country Club land without having done any preliminary investigation, and this in an area that is underlain with the same basic kind of subsurface hydrology as the Frost Park land. In addition, recent observations strongly suggest that leachate from the current landfill is reaching Cypress Creek via several springs downhill from that landfill. In the face of these kinds of unknown or undefined issues, the CLOWNcil, at its next meeting, will presumably finalize the deal for this land. That meeting, dear friends, will be WELL ATTENDED!
The very same city council who is buying the course is the the one, who through taxpayer money provided the competition, that helped put them out of business, i.e. Blackberry Trail and RTrent Jones. I bet Florence C C wishes they could've benefitted from taxpayer dollars.
********************* --just a reasoned, calm and assuring presence. An Obamanomenon! He did it. (BeternU)
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America) 1830's
"...the things that pass for knowledge, I can't understand..." s.dan
Posts: 2079 | Location: "Here at the Dude Ranch above the sea".... | Registered: 23 November 2006
Topday's article indicates that the sale will be conditional on the outcome of environmental studies. Let us hope the city obtains the services of a well-qualified firm to perform such services, since the findings of such studies will doubtless be reviewed and thoroughly critiqued by others who "know the territory."
********************* --just a reasoned, calm and assuring presence. An Obamanomenon! He did it. (BeternU)
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America) 1830's
"...the things that pass for knowledge, I can't understand..." s.dan
Posts: 2079 | Location: "Here at the Dude Ranch above the sea".... | Registered: 23 November 2006
I can not even wrap my head around the concept of our City taking this beautiful piece of property on beautiful Cypress Creek and turning it into a Dump! It that is the area of where the City is posed to grow, why are we making the center piece of it the Dump? Help me here!
Originally posted by beternU: Topday's article indicates that the sale will be conditional on the outcome of environmental studies. Let us hope the city obtains the services of a well-qualified firm to perform such services, since the findings of such studies will doubtless be reviewed and thoroughly critiqued by others who "know the territory."
Let's hope so. I've never played there, now I may never have time or chance. I live outside city limits but I can't see citizens allowing this to happen.
