Sunday, November 05, 2006

The Honor Farm Project — Part 1

Initial thoughts on the Honor Farm Project to build a road across that area.

Last Thursday evening, there was a meeting hosted by an organization that I am unfamiliar with, but the topic of the meeting I am rather familiar with; a road through the Honor Farm to the west of Pueblo’s Northside; connecting Pueblo West with Pueblo, and points east, north and south, i.e., I-25.

There were three plans, along with tea and cookies, presented to the public at this forum.

None of the plans impressed me much. Indeed, two of them gave me cause for grave concern for OHNO. The third plan, offered as Option “B” was, actually, the obligatory “No Change” option. In other words, there would be no road across or around the Honor Farm connecting Pueblo West to Pueblo. I say “obligatory” as that is always one of the options that, from a governmental perspective, must be presented.

I was disappointed that some options that I know have been kicked around in certain circles were NOT presented. More on that idea at a latter date.

The point here is that both Options “A” and Option “C” were not very different from each other with respect to where the proposed road connections were being made on the east side of the Honor Farm territory. In both options proffered by this agency, the connection was made a 24th Street as it intersected with Pueblo Boulevard.

I could turn this into an essay. Buy I’d rather not bore most readers to tears. Therefore, I’m going to tear [Note: Interesting aspect of the English language that, tear as in ‘tear drop’ and tear as in disassembling something. How apropos….] this into various pieces so we can examine each of them closely.

Today’s aspect will be the two options proffered by this group. The next installment will deal with the options that were NOT offered. After that we’ll get into why they might not have been offered. And from there….who knows…..

So. There were three options given to the audience. And the audience was asked to give their pros and cons of these three options. [Note: Don’t you love it when people put you into a box and let you choose between death by ‘poison’, ‘electrocution’ or ‘hanging’? Reminds me of the MMPI psychology test where you’re asked questions like, “Would you rather shoot your father or strangle your mother?” Personally, I’d rather get out of said ‘box’ and make other choices. How about you?]

The audience blithely obliged. Many comments were collected from the various, I think about ten, tables of attendees.

I’ll digress here a bit. I recognized the ‘ringer’ at my table almost at once. She was the one who was always contradicting my comments and trying, in vain, to defend the options presented. I suspect that many, if not all, tables had such a plant at their location. Someone to ‘guide’ the discussion towards this organization’s desired outcome. [Note: I’ve seen and practiced this sort of ‘management’ myself, when guiding a commander towards the decision the staff thought was best. So I know what I’m talking about here. And by the by, an associate’s reports indicate my observation of this event’s management is probably accurate. At their table, the efforts to inject OHNO’s concerns about the presented options were summarily and repeated put aside, so as not to be mentioned during the course of the discussion/presentation.]

At any rate, not to belabor you by dragging this report out, suffice it to say that I still have grave concerns over the promises voiced by certain government agencies about their desire NOT to drive a principal arterial through Northside from Pueblo West to I-25 along 24th Street. This incident is just another, as we would say in the Army, ‘indicator’ that the game is still going on.

The questions will boil down to (1) cui bono [who benefits] and (2) who loses?

I think the latter is self-evident. The former bears considerable investigation.

In the meantime, feel free to offer your observations about my ‘paranoia’ AND, be sure to begin communication with one Scott Hobson, who seems to be the point of [public] contact regarding this project. He can be reached, via e-mail, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). BUT…do be kind to the gentleman…he’s sustained a familial loss recently. One I went through 30 years ago. It is not a pleasant experience and my sympathy goes out to him. He seems to me to be an honest man given an unfortunate responsiblity.]

Furthemore, before you start riping peoples’ ears or eye off/out, I recommend we discuss the matter in the form of comments to this post.

So…click on “Comments” below and let us have your opinion. [Note: You don’t have to be registered to comment here. But it helps.]

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