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Shelby County Reporter   

"The Alabama Rivers Alliance asks that the planning commission recommend that the city council reject the proposal to undertake rezoning which would allow White Rock Quarries to engage in mining activities within the town limits. If allowed, this Quarry will have adverse impacts on the Coosa River (including the structural integrity of the Logan Martin Dam), the Spring Creek Tributary of the Coosa River, the groundwater on which the citizens of Vincent and Shelby county rely, as well as the established property rights of the neighboring landowners. Formed in 1997, the Alabama Rivers Alliance is Alabama's statewide nonprofit river-protection organization. Our mission is to protect Alabama's rivers through water quality and quantity policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and the providing of information to citizens in order to achieve clean and healthy watershed ecosystems, healthy people, strong economies, and a functioning democratic system of government in Alabama. Approving this rezoning would effectively sanction an unavoidable infringement of the rights of the town's citizens to the peaceful enjoyment of their property.

In light of the direction of the Alabama State Legislature and judicial system, the Vincent City Council needs to thoughtfully consider whether it wishes to take an action that seems to be so clearly at odds with the established state law and policy. We therefore request that this commission recommend that the city council reject this request for rezoning."     
    

The Shelby County Reporter letter to the editor is a recitation of issues of those concerned with mineral development and how it may interfere with natural resources of riparian rights and ground water.  The objection provided by Mr. Bartlett in the letter to the editor is a fine recitation of an environmental position.  Also, it is noteworthy how the letter concludes that the legislature should be reviewing the issue.

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 Columbus Dispatch

Assuming all the paperwork is in order, Ohio regulators will approve Ohio American Water's latest rate request -- an average 23 percent increase across 16 service areas in nine counties.

That's the way state law works. When the regulated utility can prove and justify the expense, a rate increase follows.

OAW's parent company, American Water Co., started buying up small water companies across the state in 2002. Since 2005, OAW rates have gone up three times.

Ohio American rate increases have averaged 21 percent every two years, including a 30 percent increase in November. OAW sewer rates have gone up an average 19 percent every two years, including a 37 percent increase in November.

Ohio American President Dave Little said that the rate increases were needed to update the water- and sewage-treatment systems.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio also negotiates profit margins for regulated utilities. For Ohio American, that margin has hovered around 8 percent. "You can't expect a company to work without profit," Little said.

Kennedy said Ohioans shouldn't have to choose between decent water and affordable rates.

Ohio Consumers' Counsel spokesman Anthony Rodriguez said state law is the problem. "The law says that they are allowed to get a return on their investment as a private utility serving the public and that they are allowed to recover their costs," he said.

For now, Marion fights the increases by pooling legal resources with Tiffin, another citywide OAW service area. That costs, too, Schertzer said, but it's necessary.

"As near as we can figure, Marion has had a private water supplier for many, many years," he said. "A lot of people refer to it as city water, and when rates go up, a lot of times the municipality gets blamed for it."

Taking over the local private water company sounds simple until the stability of the community is shattered by the political brawl. If the community wins,  all the problems of poor administration will follow.

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The Times Herald

The Federal Highway Administration has issued a Record of Decision, giving its approval for the $553 million expansion of the Blue Water Bridge Plaza.

The Record of Decision, one of the final steps in the project's planning phase, was was signed Tuesday by James Steele, administrator of the FHA's Michigan division.

Officials with the Michigan Department of Transportation were not immediately available for comment.

Details will be posted as they become available.

Now that that the Record of Decision has been issued, one would hope that MDOT moves forward to construction in a decisive manner. Delay will be harmful to not only the individuals and companies losing their property, but to all of Port Huron, which has been under a dark cloud of project uncertainty for over five years.

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The Times Herald

The brother and sister inherited the Port Huron home when their father died several years ago. Now, they could be forced to move based on the newest plan for the Blue Water Bridge Plaza expansion.

"We don't want to move," said Marvin Beadle, 42, looking at a map of the plan, part of the project's final environmental impact statement released Tuesday.

"We want to keep our property," said Verna Beadle, 50.

The Beadles are among a small group of homeowners -- about a dozen -- who, under a previous plaza plan, would have stayed in their homes and not been included in the project's footprint. Among those homeowners, there is conflict about what is best: to have their property bought at a premium by the state or to remain in their homes.

Local officials fought for the homes -- located in two clusters on the south side of the plaza -- to be bought, fearing that if left behind, residents would have to endure years of construction and then life on the fringes of a major international border crossing.

Project Manager Matt Webb said the Michigan Department of Transportation did its best to affect as few people as possible. In all, 125 homeowners, 30 businesses and one church will be displaced in the $553 million expansion.

"We went back and tried to reduce the footprint and make it as small as possible," he said.

St. Clair County Administrator Shaun Groden said the message officials received from residents left behind by the previous plan was: "Oh my God, they are leaving us behind, and we are going to have to live in this monstrosity."

He said people were upset about what Port Huron City Councilman Jim Fisher once described as the "Swiss cheese" effect: Two pockets of homes left behind.

The project will bring to ground level and increase the size of the plaza from 18 to 56 acres. The 56-acre plan, officials said, is much better than the 90-acre one proposed several years ago and better than the 65-acre plan proposed last year.

During the comment period for the draft environmental impact statement, the majority of the homeowners in the area where the Beadles live said they would rather have their houses razed than be left behind, Webb said.

There are some perks to being relocated. The state will pay moving costs and 125% of fair-market value for owner-occupied homes, Webb said. For other homes, such as rentals, owners will get fair-market value, he said.

Meanwhile, state Rep. John Espinoza, D-Croswell, introduced legislation Thursday that would give tax incentives to people and businesses that develop the area once plaza construction is finished.

The plaza plan released Tuesday will be open for public comment through May 4. Then, the Federal Highway Administration is expected to issue a "Record of Decision," which will, among other things, allow the state to move forward with acquiring properties.

Construction, which will begin with rebuilding 2 ½ miles of the Interstate 69/94 expressway, is set to start in 2011 and wrap up in 2016 or 2017.

The single most pressing problem is getting the project determined with certainty and soon.  Delay in deciding what is to be taken will leave the Port Huron neighborhoods surrounding the Bridge in shamble.

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Times Herald

Canadian officials are prepared to start a $54 million (Canadian) project to revamp the Blue Water Bridge Plaza in Point Edward.

The project includes a 120,000-square-foot, four-story building to house Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, commercial brokers and Blue Water Bridge Canada administrative offices. The project also includes building seven new inspection lanes for commercial traffic.

The project will start this month and be completed in December 2010. The new building will be west of the existing Customs building.

Chuck Chrapko, president and chief executive officer of Blue Water Bridge Canada, said travelers to Ontario barely will notice the project has started.

"It will not divert traffic in any way," he said.

The work is the first phase of what is expected to be a three-phase project costing a combined $110 million.

Phase two includes building secondary processing stations for passenger vehicles and 14 new inspection lanes. Phase three includes new toll booths and toll offices and updating infrastructure.

At the end of the project, which could take between six and 10 years, virtually everything on the bridge plaza will be replaced, Chrapko said.

Timelines for the second and third phases have not

been established. Chrapko said the project is designed in such a way that each phase is not required to be finished but can be depending on need and money.

The design of the new plaza, Chrapko said, increases security by making it less open. Currently, people can walk easily across the plaza from other places, such as the Duty Free parking lot. That won't be possible on the new plaza.

All one needs to do is travel on the Blue Water Bridge. This bridge, which was once a beautiful alternative to going through Detroit to New York State or Toronto, now maintains lines through Detroit Customs to the Canadian side of the bridge. Clearly, no PR blitz is needed for one to understand that something must be done with the plaza. It is simply a decision of how best to maintain the City of Port Huron's commercial existence while substantially interfering with commercial activity because of the acquisition/eminent domain process. 

The bridge clearly will hurt the United States far more than Canada because Canada has been attempting to purchase the land over the years. Canada probably destroyed values by the process, but the same process has been used by the Detroit International Bridge Company for the past 20 years; with some results not totally destructive of individual property rights but other results which created great harm to neighborhoods.

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Chico Enterprise, August 18, 2007

Paradise Irrigation District has been in talks about collaborating with its neighbor, Del Oro Water Co., to chare water from a proposed pipeline.

PID officials announced they are looking at an alternative. They would like to acquire Del Oro’s two districts covering Lime Saddle and Old Magalia.

Del Oro maintains its districts are not for sale.

If PID presses ahead with the acquisition process, it will have to seek approval from the Butte County Local Agency.

-The article is a classic example of the desire to obtain a new “economy of scale” in purchasing franchises, thereby expanding the business viability and opportunity. As part of this taking, the proposed acquirer would best review its statutory authority. See Grosse Ile Township v. Grosse Ile Bridge Company, 727 Mich. 593 (2007).

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