Jim Bemis missing the privilege of attending tonight's Ward 4 meeting at 7 p.m. in Room 326 of City Hall and asks for support on Red Oak Park concerns: Here it is

As usual, Jim Bemis asks hard questions and makes sense.
Here is a copy of Jim's message:
"Hope you will hold Connie to their commitment on Red Oak Park and that somebody really pushes to see that the "Regional Sports Complex" money is used for true community parks and trails in Ward 4.
"Seems to me that we should somehow get some sort of time-line and set of priorities from the Parks and Rec folks, and hold them accountable. They promised a public meeting and progress reports on the City web site, but I haven't seen anything so far.
"Thanks again,
Jim"
My response:
Jim, was it the September Ward 4 meeting at which I pointed out that any plan proposed to the Corps of Engineers should be provided to the public BEFORE going to the corps?
If one has been sent, then the public should have been notified so that the public can comment on the plan to the corps. The corps rubber-stamps almost everything if there is no public comment.
The corps isn't required to consider water quality or anything harmful involved in the discussion of a plan to pipe water through the park. But corps officials many times have said that the public was right but that the city could make stronger rules than those they operate under.
Such a piping plan would make less sense than just building a couple of dams to make the whole park into a pair of detention ponds and about the same amount of damage. If someone will remind me to call the corps office on Monday, I will try to find out whether they have a copy of the plan and have it emailed to all of us.
If the corps received it, it is a public document. Over the years, I have received several corps reports on projects that apparently were not shared with the planning commission or the council before approval. A few times officials have asked developers whether they have a corps permit, but I have never seen or heard of one being presented to the commission or the council. Maybe Shirley can remember having a corps permit in her packet. In fact, the corps should also provide a copy of every comment received by the public to all city officials.
Destroying the park to "save the park" cannot be allowed. The only real solution is keeping the bulk of the water out of the park and out of the channel downstream of the park. Hamestring Creek is receiving more and more water from all its tributaries, all the way up to Gregg Avenue and the UA campus and Markham Hill. The extra water that will be running off when N. Garland is widened will all go to Hamestring.
I agree with Jim's comments. If, however, the park planners and engineers haven't completed a plan to send to the corps, then I would recommend being patient a bit longer but only after making clear that the plan should come to a Ward 4 meeting for public scrutiny BEFORE going to the corps.
I assume that the park department's report on Red Oak Park is on the agenda for this meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.