<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Question, V-Peeps: How soon will Moscow's new city council (consisting of Walter Steed, John Weber, Wayne Krauss, Art Bettge, Dan Carscallen, and Tom Lamar) and new mayor (Bill Lambert) vote on providing Moscow water to the Hawkins stateliness mall?</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://youtu.be/6DtRFBxmyS0">http://youtu.be/6DtRFBxmyS0</a></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (December 28, 2013) Lewiston Tribune. </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 30px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 34px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: TiresiasInfofontRegular, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Countdown begins on $6 million Hawkins quagmire</span></h1><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Whitman County anxiously awaits Jan. 30, when costly mall agreement expires</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">COLFAX - Whitman County is about a month away from saving nearly $6 million, but the county commissioners aren't planning any holiday parties to celebrate.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The savings should occur Jan. 30, when an amended agreement related to the Hawkins shopping mall expires - assuming the developer doesn't start construction before then.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Right now it looks like the amended agreement will go away," said Commissioner Dean Kinzer. "As far as we know, they won't be pushing any dirt."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jeff DeVoe, the project manager for Boise-based Hawkins Companies, did not return a message seeking comment. However, he met with Whitman County Supervisor Gary Petrovich two weeks ago and gave no indication that the company was ready to proceed with the project.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"He didn't have any new information," Petrovich said. "My impression was they were still engaged in talks (with potential tenants) and thought the continued expansion of Washington State University enrollment and the growth in this area was positive. But as far as them moving dirt before Jan. 31, I don't see that happening."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hawkins has spent the past several years trying to develop the 714,000-square-foot shopping mall, which would be located on the Pullman-Moscow Highway at the Washington-Idaho border.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2008, Whitman County agreed to reimburse the company up to $9.1 million for any public infrastructure improvements related to the project, including roads, sidewalks and an oversized water system and on-site sewage treatment system that could support additional commercial growth along the highway corridor.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The development was almost immediately put on hold, however, as the economy turned sour.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">DeVoe returned to the commissioners in the fall of 2011, asking them to increase the infrastructure reimbursement by 65 percent, to $15 million. Given the new economic climate, he said, that was the only way the project could pencil out for Hawkins.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It would still be a net positive for the county, he said, because the sales and property tax receipts from the mall would more than cover the cost of bonding to pay for the improvements. Moreover, if the project were delayed much longer, there was a risk that tenants would look to build in Moscow - thereby depriving Whitman County of much new tax revenue and undermining efforts to promote growth along the Washington side of the highway corridor.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Former Commissioners Pat O'Neill and Greg Partch approved the amended agreement in January 2012. Both lost re-election bids later that year, largely because of the public uproar over the deal.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Unlike the amended agreement, though, the original deal doesn't have an expiration date and remains a county obligation. Consequently, even if the $15 million drops back to $9.1 million come Jan. 30, the county doesn't have much reason to celebrate.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We didn't have the $6 million in the first place, so we aren't really saving anything," Petrovich said. "And we're still on the hook for the original $9 million."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A grass-roots group, the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct, filed a lawsuit last year asking that both the 2012 and 2008 agreements be overturned. However, there's been no action on that case since February.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The site of the proposed Hawkins mall in Whitman County, just west of the Idaho border, remains undeveloped.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><img src="cid:5A242BD5-F42D-4D90-919B-B4496795AC15" alt="52be842d15a1c.image.jpg" id="5A242BD5-F42D-4D90-919B-B4496795AC15" width="498" height="200"></p></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>