Who's in charge here?

<$BlogMetaData$>Who’s in charge here?


Last Tuesday’s Argus Leader had the most interesting article about the Hyperion situation. First of all, there was a statement from the Clay County commissioners that said they submitted a formal letter to the state DENR against the Hyperion project. HOLD ON here, they did what? Yes folks, all the members of the Clay County commissioners signed a letter to the DENR stating that Hyperion will bankrupt Clay County. The letter went on to say that they cannot afford the infrastructure requirements that Hyperion would press upon them. They cannot afford the emergency services, schools, roads etc that will be forced to be upgraded because of Hyperion. You can read their letter on the DENR website. Wonder when Union County Commissioners will figure this out??

Here is another article in last Tuesday’s Argus that really blows my mind. There is a quote from Union County Commission Chairman, Doyle Karpen and Elk Point Mayor, Isabel Trobaugh about the status of Hyperion. "We’re just kind of sitting and waiting," he said. "I mean, it's been three years now. (Actually it’s been 4 years Mr. Karpen) You guys know more about this than we do.”, Karpen said, adding that he's "sort of in the dark" about Hyperion's plans. He's not even sure whether the refinery is permitted. It's not."Evidently they lost my phone number after the election," he said, laughing. Mr. Karpen must have lost their number too.

Elk Point mayor Isabelle Trobough must be rowing the same boat that Mr. Karpen is on. Trobaugh said “planning for Hyperion's arrival has involved only upgrading Main Street and the city's water and sewer lines”."We're just waiting, like everyone else, to see what happens," she said. "I don't think it's going to hit us as hard as many people think. But there’s that if – are they coming in? They say they are. I don’t know.”

We supposedly have had a $10 BILLION industry coming into Union County since 2008 and our civic leaders say they don’t have a clue what is going on. The public might be dumb, but we aren’t stupid. Now really, do our commissioners and the mayor in Elk Point expect us to believe all that mumbo jumbo? Maybe they do. I’m sorry but this is no laughing matter and for Mr. Karpen to be so flippant about the situation makes one wonder whether or not he is the right man for the job. Let him keep his job as commissioner, after all he was elected by the people in his district, but replace him as the chairman. He obviously isn’t up to the job. OR, maybe he is being like Hyperion and holding proprietary information confidential because he doesn’t want the competition to know what is going on. (R-i-g-h-t)

Do you mean to tell me the only reason the mayor of Elk Point upgraded the streets, sewer, and water is for Hyperion and not for the well being of the citizens of Elk Point who pay the taxes? Ooh-h-h-h-h-h Isabelle! The mayor has a short memory. Do you remember when Ms. Trobaugh said Hyperion was coming and they had the money to build because Al Huddleston was an honorable man and she has no reason to doubt him, and that Hyperion was going to pay the $3 million to upgrade Main Street? C’mon---

My God folks, if our leaders are this out of touch, can you imagine what is going to happen when things start going wild around here?

Another thing that happened at the commissioner’s meeting was the subject of the bridge on 475th Ave. and 315th st. States Attorney Mr. Miller stated that even though this is in the Planned Development area, Hyperion doesn’t own any land there so the bridge is still the responsibility of the county. So if the county still owns the bridge and the rest of the infrastructure in the planned development because Hyperion doesn’t own any land, then it seems only logical to me that they can’t have this area zoned as a planned development because they don’t own the land. Does this make sense? If it does then p&z needs to correct themselves and remove it. (Fat chance)

Another subject that was broached at the meeting was an invitation by SECOG (southeast council of governments) to provide 4 free hours of their time to REDISTRICT the county and then only charge $50 per hour after that. Remember back before the election for commissioners that I said this was a very important election because of redistricting. Well, it seems that the commissioners were talking before the meeting and it looks like they are going to have 2 commissioners in the dunes, 1 in North Sioux City, 1 in Elk Point and 1 for the rest of the county. To me, that means that everything north of Highway 50 to the Lincoln county line and the Iowa border will have only one commissioner. Perish the thought! I have suggested in the past that this was going to happen and they should increase the number of commissioners from 5 to 7. This would soothe some of the ruffled feathers that are going to come about because of redistricting, and give us adequate representation to the commission board. Surely we are not going to sit back and take this without a say so in the process are we? We do have the VOTE!

My real question is why they are letting SECOG do it. Maybe the commissioners just don’t want to take the guff from people who will be upset with the changes. I don’t think the commissioners are up to redistricting and I don’t think they are up to handling Hyperion. They will just make things worse. So my question is still, who’s in charge here?