Meeting Mostly Opposed

To Council:

I hope you all heard about the overflow turnout for the meeting at SOU where the Canal Pipe Project team gave their presentation and local taxpayers voiced myriad points of opposition to the project. After the project team presentation, a show of hands resulted in fewer than one-half dozen attendees “in-favor” and well over one hundred “opposed”! Besides the fact, that even if piped, E-coli will continue to flow, unrestricted, into the 2 mile City stretch of TID canal, water loss can be reduced by repairing the canal, at a much lower taxpayer cost. The destruction of property, loss of privacy, damage to property values and disturbance of neighborhoods along the TID canal route can also be reduced tremendously by choosing an alternate fix to the canal. The estimated $3.1 M dollars to complete this project does not include final landscaping of private property, the already incurred “study” cost of over $200K and the potential costs of lawsuits filed by property owners for devalued and disfigured property. Property taxes and utility rates have grown at an exponential rate over the past few years and are beginning to pose a burden on all but the most affluent of Ashland Citizens. We, as a City, have many more pressing and unfunded problems to meet in the next few years. Please do not accept as ‘gospel’, the highly manipulated talking points put forward by the TID Canal Pipe Project team and realize that citizen concerns are well-thought and heartfelt.

Regards, John Hauschild