[Vision2020] Latah Commission 'Shocked' By City's Action

[Bill London]

I want to thank Aaron Ament and Bob Stout, the two council members who are
clearly explaining that city attorney Randy Fife should never have issued
that cease-and-desist order shutting down the ice rink.
Fife made a mistake.  The Council was trying to mellow out this little turf
war thing with the county and Fife threw gasoline on the fire.
I agree that Fife needs to go.
BL


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 7:47 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Latah Commission 'Shocked' By City's Action


> >From today's (January 20, 2007) Lewiston Tribune -
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Latah commission 'shocked' by city's action
>
> By DAVID JOHNSON of the Tribune
>
> MOSCOW -- Bottom line: The Moscow Rotary Veterans Memorial Pavilion ice
rink
> at the Latah County Fairgrounds should remain open through the current
> skating season and probably beyond.
>
> It also appears the powers-that-be have joined ranks to ensure a permanent
> enclosed multipurpose building, which includes a bigger ice rink, will be
> built in the near future.
>
> Those predictions prevailed Friday after miffed members of the Latah
County
> Commission voted unanimously to appeal a Moscow cease-and-desist order
that
> threatened to shut down the popular ice rink next week.
>
> "That's the first cease-and-desist order I've ever gotten," Commissioner
> Jack Nelson said, adding he was "shocked" with the city's action.
>
> The order came from City Attorney Randy Fife, apparently with Mayor Nancy
> Chaney's concurrence. "I think it's in keeping with enforcing the city's
> laws," she said earlier in the week, and she stood by the statement after
> the commission meeting.
>
> But two Moscow city councilors, Aaron Ament and Bob Stout, washed their
> hands of the tactic. Stout said he was "embarrassed" by the
cease-and-desist
> order and Ament said the administrative action was a "slap in the face" to
> city council members and county officials.
>
> The rink is located on county-owned fairgrounds property within the Moscow
> city limits.
>
> The city order, issued last week, said the threatened shutdown was based
on
> the county's failure to finish a parking lot paving project around the ice
> rink under a city special-use permit. Several people at the meeting said
> afterwards they couldn't believe city officials would actually close the
> rink, especially to all the children who use it, over an unfinished
asphalt
> project. They said the situation smacked more of a power struggle between
> political entities.
>
> Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson Jr., acting as the commission's
> legal council, said evidence shows the county had done much of the paving
> work and substantially complied with the special-use permit.
>
> But the bigger issue, Thompson suggested, revolves around a legal question
> whether the city has any authority over what happens with the ice rink.
The
> county, Thompson said, has never acquiesced to city authority. The
> commissioners agreed to provisions of the city special-use permit, he
said,
> mostly as a good-neighbor gesture.
>
> The county appeal of the cease-and-desist order will go to the city's
board
> of adjustment, Thompson said. The appeal should result in a stay of any
> enforcement action and the rink will remain open. If the board denies the
> appeal, the matter can then be appealed directly to the city council. The
> courts ultimately could get involved and that would buy even more time,
> Thompson said.
>
> That's good, said Tim Ewers of the Palouse Ice Rink Association (PIRA),
> because the rink is extremely popular and hundreds of people devoted to
> figure skating, hockey and open skating would be left without a facility
> should the city take enforcement action.
>
> In the meantime, the commissioners, PIRA representatives, members of the
> Latah County Fairground Board and apparently city representatives have
> apparently agreed to resume talks leading to construction of a permanent
> enclosed structure at the site.
>
> Chaney said the city's cease-and-desist action served as a catalyst to
bring
> all interested parties together to ultimately build what the majority of
> people want at the fairgrounds. But Stout and Ament said the same ends
could
> have been reached through less drastic means.
>
> The meeting was attended by about 50 people, most of them ice rink users.
>
> Mike Fredrickson, chairman of the fairgrounds board, said he and other
> members want to work with PIRA to develop a multi-purpose facility that
> meets the needs and wants of those who like ice-skating and others who
could
> enjoy different activities under the same roof.
>
> Steve Bush, spokesman for the Moscow Rotary Club that's supplied most of
the
> financial backing for the ice rink, said it's time to keep all entities
> working together toward construction of a facility that meets the growing
> demands of a public hungry for ice time. He said a better building will
> easily attract more people and pay for itself.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far one can go."
>
> - Jon Dyer
>
>
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