FROM THE FRONT ROW

Ruston town council meeting 3-17-8:

Probably one of the most dramatic intense council meetings ever with the fate of the Town hanging in the balance. Dan, Bradley, Wayne and Jane took head on the anti-Cohen POINT RUSTON duo of the nit picking mayor and the immovable object HUITT-ZOLLARS. Jim Hedrick had an excused absence.

The outcome after much filibustering went pretty much in the favor of POINT RUSTON and the TOWN OF RUSTON. After a lot of jibbing and jabbing by the Mayor/Huitt-Zollars combo the final decision whether or not to retain the services of HUITT-ZOLLARS was left to the next meeting Monday April 7. The main point of contention was the amount of hours charged and the significant time delays.

In summary the Town Council, the irresistible force, won the day for the Town and the no nonsense full steam ahead development of POINT RUSTON. How magnanimous of Mr. Cohen to use the name POINT RUSTON.

Significant points of delay were the stone age MDP (Master Development Plan) which is a decade old and not applicable to the modern metropolis under development down under. This MDP is the hang up for HUITT-ZOLLARS, their raison d'etre. This was done when people weren't allowed to live on the old Asarco site (liability) and it was all to be commercial and light manufacturing. How times change, when a visionary, Mr. Cohen, comes forth with a futuristic plan for Ruston far beyond anything comprehensible twenty years ago.

For the Mayor it is the notorious ordinance 1002 originally written 100 years ago. Trying to force fit it onto a twenty first century project is an unobtainable task but some people are sticklers for head butting into the long ago. This is an uptown ordinance designed for single family homes in a smelter town. Maybe Ordinance 1002 can be posted on RUSTON HOME so the public can try and understand it's relevance to today's environment.

Anyway the Mayor and Huitt-Zollars won a temporary delaying action until an MDP advisory committee can be appointed and RFPs can go out to local communities for a town planner to replace Huitt-Zollars. Study session March 24th 7pm at school will finalize this issue, hopefully. The advisory committee will consist of the Mayor, Huitt-Zollars if still around, POINT RUSTON I hope, two council members, two planning commissioners and two public members, applications being taken at town hall. Huitt-Zollars pointed out there contract expires June 30th this year and would stay on until a new planner available at the town's bequest.

One public comment was put forward that rather than go through another SEPA episode where the town paid to duplicate Tacoma's study we bypass the old MDP and waive the out-dated ordinance 1002 in favor of adopting the POINT RUSTON plan as submitted. They along with the city of Tacoma have done exhaustive engineering and planning on this development without delays and have moved forward on the Tacoma side leaving Ruston in the lurch. I might add their engineers planners are as good as any the Town can hire and expend money on in a duplicate effort. The Town Council could review the project monthly and give their approval and hopefully in a public meeting sure to be well attended.

This is the only issue I will cover this post as it was, I feel, a momentous meeting for the Town of Ruston and I feel privileged to have been there. For those who couldn't attend it would be worth $5 to purchase a tape recording at the Town Hall.

The rest seems insignificant in such a critical time.

Essayons et Faisons. Let us try, let us do.

From the front row, all for now.