In the 2-minute public comment period at Monday’s Council meeting, I pointed out that the city is spending $36,000 to repair the east river wall, directly across from Riverview Park where in the early days of Cascade, the mill sat on the falls. Now, there are three buildings on that narrow spit of land, so close together you can stretch your arms touch both walls.
So, you have to wonder where the water they shed goes. From the photo, it appears there is enough green space below Cascade Communications warehouse and Dr. Bisenius old office, but the lack of it around the middle building is worrisome.
The river—which can’t defend itself—gets the blame for buckling and cracking in the wall, but I can’t believe that rainwater isn’t at least partially responsible—that runoff froze, expanded and BOOM! But it is presented as an infrastructure problem, so we all pay.
Contrast that with how a private citizen on Main Street in my neighborhood, who has water pooling on the sidewalk in front of his house, which may have been caused by the city resurfacing Main Street. I’d bet he didn’t even know it, when he bought the house!
My neighbor, John Q. Private Citizen, was invited to council to split the cost of fixing the problem, probably $2,500 in 2016 Council passed an ordinance that makes citizens with sidewalks financially responsible for them. I told him, “You go down there and tell them that ordinance is illegal because you can’t treat half the people one way and absolve other half…”
So the puddle is still there. It freezes in the winter and I will probably be the one who falls and busts her butt there! My question remains: is this not a cautionary tale about the way citizens are treated by city council? It bears mulling over before you vote next month.
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