By Donna Westfall – July 6, 2016 –
Just last month, to much fanfare and hoopla, the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority held its much anticipated ground breaking ceremony at the Crescent City Airport. Hosted by the Chairman of the Authority, Del Norte County Supervisor, David Finigan, the event drew speakers from the district representative for Congressman Huffman, the field representative for Assemblyman Jim Wood and others.
Finigan stressed that the project began with a dream in the year 2000 and that collaborative efforts made the project come to fruition. Finigan said, “All of you people said it wouldn’t happen… pffit.”
Well it turns out that all of those people who said the new terminal building would not be built were right after all and Finigan was wrong. This week we learned that one of the partners Finigan was counting on for part of the financing has backed out of the deal, making the entire project for the building dead in the water.
The question is why was the groundbreaking ceremony held way before all of the financing was in place? Why was the ceremony held in May when the actual construction was not going to begin until months later?
Very reminiscent of the City of Crescent City awarding the contract to Wahlund Construction to build the $43 million sewer plant six months before going out and getting the public’s support through the required Prop. 218 vote. Is this standard operating procedure for this area?
To us, the answer is simple. Finigan was in a tight race to keep his seat on the board of supervisors. With four challengers, he needed to show that he had accomplished something before the June election. We believe that this was his was to be his way of showing that he had accomplished something during his 20 years on the board. He even touted this as an accomplishment in several of the debates.
Now that is all in shreds. The board of supervisors is faced with the hard task of either finding new partners or coming up with some other way of financing the terminal. This did not have to happen if Finigan had taken his time to make sure he had all of his ducks in a row before holding a ceremony for a new terminal that is now in severe jeopardy.
As of now the new terminal is terminal.
How much tax payer’s money is behind this committee?
The word scum bag comes to mind.
Finigan has been “serving” this community for 20 years and how much improvement has there been in the homeless situation?
DNC’s children, (Finigan professes to be so devoted to) being last in academics out of all the counties in Ca. year after year?
Mental Health Patients left to their own devices to find help? RIP Jordan Freese, found dead in the SMITH. My sincere sympathy to the loving family he leaves behind.
How is the toxic waste situation? I can’t help notice all the piles of ? contaminated?
dirt by the fair grounds. When was McNamamra AND Peepe given the all clear?
And by whom? The airport authority? I believe Finigan, Martha McClure, Kathryn Murphy, and who else are
airport authorities? Anything happening with the 60,000 cu. yds. of harbor sediment illegally dumped behind the feed store and mobile home residence (with children, Finigan!)
Watch him run to save those poverty plagued individuals on Elk Valley Rd.
These are a FEW of my FAVORITE county atrocities our local government personally profits from before moving to a clean, democratic communities.
Solution: Place every body who had the courage to run against these puppets and their
manipulator (except relatives of Kevin H)in office to try and bring back representative government to our community.
The $800,000 FAA grant will be short lived when the oversight government organization finds out there is a covenant on the “pesticide site” that was a Super Fund Site before it was entered as a one APN site with LUST from WWll that has been cleaned-up and removed from the Super Fund Site. The Pesticide site had 1,600 55 gals.drums that were suppose to be triple rinsed and poked full of holes before they could be stored. But once again attitudes of ignorance and apathy prevailed from the shallow end of the DNC gene pool as the residual carcinogenic pest& people – icides were dumped at the airport. Inches below the deadly liquid flows the ground water south east, into your glasses and bath tubs. The DNC environmental department tests the monitoring wells to monitor how much 1,2 dichloropropane is in each well around the perimeter of the spill/dump. Any body besides me feel like there might be a conflict of interest having the same residents monitor the site that caused the toxic waste site that emits cancer causing chemicals into our drinking, bathing water. That is why there is suppose to be NO DIGGING, GRADING, LANDSCAPING where the TIDE WATER company is finishing phase one of the site where they are grading, digging etc.
Demand that your local government reveal where toxic chemicals are stored, dumped, or spilled.
The document is called Hazardous Waste Disclosure.
Has any one else noticed a large number of our population have cancer> I think that would be a good monitoring strategy. Place a dot on a map where cancer has invaded a citizen or their pets. When there are no more cancer cases for some years, then test the water and monitoring wells.
You say you care about the children, Finnigan. Your actions indicate that you care more
about extending those run ways, roads and rebuilding that terminal, even though their is a covenant on that land. You signed for it in 2007. Martha signed the 2002 covenant that only had one APN number. If you really cared about the kids you would at least warn their parents and the community.
The triplicate misinformed the public about how much the county would be required to pay on a loan each year for 20 years. In the paper they said it would only cost 120,000 dollars a year HA try over208 thousand per year for 20 years not including interest and insurance. And whose pocket does it benefit? CALORE and how much is cal-ore paying towards the new terminal? Zero people need to listen and pay attention
Spend, spend, spend the money we don’t have! I guess we need to have a landing strip and luxurious terminal for the 747’s that are soon coming, with tour busses to check out the homeless problem!
Typical political football! As well as Finigan’s new “homelessness committee.” He won’t include Roger Gitlin on this committee, and Hemmingsen agreed that Gitlin shouldn’t be on the committee because Finigan and Gitlin “don’t get along.” So if Finigan can’t get along with Gitlin, why doesn’t Finigan step down after 20 years and give Gitlin a chance?