Riverside Info Tag: trees

Riverside Info Tag: trees http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ Discussion Forum for Riverside Illinois en Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:48:05 +0000 spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/6#post-15200 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:15:32 +0000 spatny 15200@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ You mean because I am against this "jobs" project? It will create jobs for years and years, decades to come, as we try and fix what it causes. On our own dime. anonymous on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/6#post-15196 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:35:54 +0000 anonymous 15196@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ This is amazing. I'm in. <blockquote>Why are we wasting $5-7 million on a project like this when the dam - a block of concrete sitting in the water that would last another 50-100 years - isn't broken? People here are up in arms about wasteful spending and taxes rising that they can't afford, but nobody says anything about this boondoggle. It's not someone else's money - it's yours. If you want to turn the gravy train around you have to start somewhere. </blockquote> Better watch it spatny---you're sounding a lot like a conservative! spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/6#post-15195 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:10:15 +0000 spatny 15195@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ I went up there today and nothing repeat nothing is being done. No one is working. No vehicle, nobody around. The staging area is empty, deserted. We should not allow any work in Riverside until we see what the results are at Armitage. We should say, " Finish up there and lets see what the results are before you come down here and tear up the parks" No more of this "Hurry up-Use it or lose it BS." Suspend the easements in Riverside pending the completion and an unbiased appraisal of the results up there. Isn't that only prudent? The Feds kicked in $5 mil for this nonsense. The State of Bankruptcy $2.6. They awarded contacts for $3.1 mil total. They have spent more than $2 mil paying themselves for a plan that was never finished. Ask them a hard question about sediments - how much or how will it be removed and they still say stuff like "The Contractor will ascertain that." Ask them to do better quality work in the Swan Pond and they say "It's too expensive." So where is the money? I filed a FOIA with the State andthey told me if I wanted to see it I had to come to Springfield. I asked our homegrown Comptroller three times to look into this and never even got the courtesy of a reply. We should go to court and ask that a competent Outcome Assessment be prepared by a neutral party and then vetted by our Commissions before anything is done. This is your Village, your Historical Landmark, your park they are screwing with. Why will no one join me in this effort? "Steve Jobs said, "Don't be trapped by dogma." He also said, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." This Village is recognized worldwide as a masterpiece of design, created by a genius. Why are we allowing this profound alteration of that work to be altered without even the benefit of architectural input? So somebody upstream can fish differently than he does now? And one more thing... as Steve used to say: Why are we wasting $5-7 million on a project like this when the dam - a block of concrete sitting in the water that would last another 50-100 years - isn't broken? People here are up in arms about wasteful spending and taxes rising that they can't afford, but nobody says anything about this boondoggle. It's not someone else's money - it's yours. If you want to turn the gravy train around you have to start somewhere. Where the heck is our vaunted Comptroller and fiscal conservative on this? She can't even take the time to get us the numbers. These agencies have crapped around with this deal for more than a decade and still haven't finished the details. No Village Commission has passed on this plan, which is nothing like the only one we ever saw back in 2006. How long do you need to wake up? anonymous on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/6#post-15190 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:15:02 +0000 anonymous 15190@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ "That's kind of one of our hopes," Zuercher said. but Zuercher said the dam is simply no longer necessary. "This dam is a very small dam. It's not one that has a big impact on the river," he said. "It's really more of an ecological restoration project." We're spending how much money that we have to borrow from China, at great cost, because they are HOPING that removal of the dam should give a boost to recreational fishing. Are you kidding me? spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/6#post-15189 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:27:15 +0000 spatny 15189@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ These arguments are getting to sound weaker and weaker... "Armitage Dam, which is located just north of River Forest on the Des Plaines River, is slated to be fully removed by mid-October. That change in the river should increase the overall health of the river, as well as increase the number of fish downstream from the dam. "There will be [an] ecological benefit," said Jeff Zuercher, the project manager from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the removal project. Zuercher said the dam is so small that residents won't notice much of a distraction during removal, and the impact won't be great enough to affect flooding in River Forest. But the removal of the dam should give a boost to recreational fishing. "That's kind of one of our hopes," Zuercher said. "There should be an increase in some fish species." Zuercher said the project began early this month and if the weather cooperates, should be completed by next month. There won't be any negative affect on the village, but Zuercher said the dam is simply no longer necessary. "This dam is a very small dam. It's not one that has a big impact on the river," he said. "It's really more of an ecological restoration project." Reconsider. It's not too late to say "NO, thank you." spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/6#post-15140 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:31:22 +0000 spatny 15140@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ From the Landmark: <a href="http://rblandmark.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=8072&TM=76508.8" rel="nofollow">http://rblandmark.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=8072&TM=76508.8</a> <blockquote> 10/4/2011 10:00:00 PM Email this article • Print this article Phase two of Hofmann Dam contract awarded Illinois Constructors Corporation wins with $2.64M bid By BOB UPHUES Editor On Friday, Sept. 30, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $2.64 million contract for phase two of the Hofmann Dam removal project to Elburn-based Illinois Constructors Corporation. Illinois Constructors will be responsible for notching the center 150 feet of the Hofmann Dam, stabilizing and planting the exposed riverbank and regrading Swan Pond Park and making other improvements, including repairing the park's concrete retaining wall and installing a walking path along the riverbank. </blockquote> This story gets worse and worse. There is little/no progress at Armitage, so why would we want them to come down here and tear up the park, put up a chain link fence and then wait until spring to remove Fairbank Dam? Like everything they do it makes no sense. They should have first gathered all their data definitively, then finish their plans, hash out their differences with the village, get approval for those plans from the commissions, then get their easements, come in and do the work in Swan Pond and at Fairbank first and then do Hofmann from the South Bank. This is all ass-backwards. Nobody knows exactly what is included in the contract, let alone what the contractor's plans are for operating here. They talked about this deal for over a decade, and after lots of starts and stops they identified this project as the "best buy" approach. Then the Feds put up $5.0 million, and the State chipped in $2.6 million. Then they half-finished some plans, came around with a "use- it-or-lose-it" pitch and got an easement with details to be supplied later, and awarded a contract in a big hurry to a company for $500K to take out Armitage and Fairbank last year. So far, very little accomplished except tearing a road through a Forest Preserve and stringing a cable across the river. Then they horsed around for over a year with dog and pony shows but produced no Outcome Assessment that anyone could verify, and now they have awarded a contract even though they don't know everything that will need to be done sediment wise, with the 1908 Dam removal, or even what the road will be in the Swan Pond. And where is the money going? $7.6 mil appropriated, two contracts for a total of $3.1 mil awarded, leaves $4.5 mil for what? I'm sure they have spent over $2 mil on engineering and other costs (in other words paid themselves) and there is still not a completed plan. But that should still leave $2.5 mil for changes and contingencies. So why do they say "that's too expensive" when we want something done right or ask them to do a design that won't cost us the loss of all those trees? And how much leverage do we have now that they have the easements? Will we be able to get the kind of job here that Riverside, a National Historic Landmark deserves? spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/5#post-15130 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:39:24 +0000 spatny 15130@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ A Suggestion for The new Swan Pond Path and Access Road I believe the Swan Pond access road that the Army Corps will build as part of the Swan Pond Park improvements phase of the dam removal project should do a couple of things: It should allow for a pleasant stroll along the river and be usable for people walking, pushing strollers, riding bicycles, roller skatering, etc., and should go from the sidewalk at the top of library hill all the way to the end of the park next to the bridge. I think this should be a hard, smooth surface - asphalt or macadam, and be only five feet wide and follow a more “Olmstedian course” - in other words meander rather than be some straight concrete driveway. Since there is also a need for access by emergency and maintenance vehicles I think it should have two outside strips of the type of grass block now in use for decades between Burling Road and the sidewalk that these vehicles have driven over in all weather. If a two foot wide strip of those blocks was added to each side of the center black top surface it would allow the wheeled vehicles a hard surface and yet, with grass grown up as it does now between the sidewalk and Burling Road, be all but invisible. This road should not go all the way to the bridge but exit on a slant to Fairbank road north of the monument stone and the trees there now, approximately across from 164 Fairbank.. This would allow entry or exit for police, emergency and maint. vehicles. The side strips of block would hold the edges of the blacktop in place and prevent erosion when there are floods and be maintenance free, and his would be far less visually invasive than the proposed 8 ft. wide concrete driveway the Corps was proposing. Right above where Fairbank Dam is now there should be a wye that would be a continuation of the blacktop strip only, for walkers and cyclists down to the end of the park at the bridge. We should also have at least two benches along the river path. I think we must insist that the Corps recognize the natural character of the park in their work. We need to insist they get this right. spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/5#post-15092 Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:09:15 +0000 spatny 15092@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ I just visited Armitage Dam, and nothing is going on. The safety cable they strung across the river is about a foot under water and snagging all the dead wood and debris that comes down rivert ,heir two boats are mired in a flotilla of flotsam - or is it jetsam - and they haven't made any progress and now, until the water recedes, probably won't. So I would think they will have to wait for spring to start down here. spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/5#post-15085 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:47:08 +0000 spatny 15085@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ The dam is saved! We're going to do this with the Hofmann Tower facade and the dam and charge admission. Revenues are expected to end taxation in Riverside. Check it out... <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XVTga6GmbGw&vq=medium#t=74" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XVTga6GmbGw&vq=medium#t=74</a> spatny on "Dam it!" http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic/dam-it/page/5#post-15077 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:27:07 +0000 spatny 15077@http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/ Prophet of Doom? A local Roubini? Hardly. Bu one nice lady wrote to the Village and said "God Bless Donald Spatny." That's a first, for sure, although my pals in high school elected me as the school chaplain (a joke, of course.) You were in at Evans Field. The access road goes through the next grove, Jerome Huppert Woods. (He was Cook County Treasurer for a long time and a potent politician. His daughter was good friends with my wife when they taught as young teachers in Lake Forest He used to get us parking passes for the Bears games so we could park right next to the gate and picnic with Stanley Kusper, who is renwned as the guy that swung the vote for Kennedy - remember? Old days....) People from here should go up there and take a look at what is going to happen here, right on Fairbank Road. That sign is pretty large for putting on a trail. You can just walk around the closure and about a quarter mile up is their work area for the Armitage Dam removal. That dam has some nice steamline moderne concrete abutments which are going to stay. The Serbs I talked to are looking forward to working down here because then they can go to Zupa in Lyons and fuel up on slivowitz when they get cold out there. I saw the sign said the trail will be closed through December so I expect that we may get both the Fairbank and Hofmann projects next year when the water drops along with the Swan Pond grading - and of course the school construction. It will be a busy year.