Development delayed due to politics

I want to answer some of Don Spier’s questions in his Jan. 31 letter to The Herald regarding the county park land on Cavalero Hill.

He asks where the park is. The park is there and has been there since the county purchased the property from a developer in 2001 who originally had high hopes of building a Fred Meyer at that location. The county, which at the time enjoyed Dave Somers as our County Council member, made the wise decision to spend conservation futures money to buy out the developer and turn this area into a much-needed county park. Conservation futures are our tax dollars that are earmarked only for purchase of land for open space and parks.

Right after the purchase of the park land, the voters elected Jeff Sax for the next four years. Sax did not do anything to put the funding in place for development of the park, but instead wanted to sell the land for commercial development, something that he was unable to do because of the nature of the original funding to buy the land for a park.

Now that the voters elected Dave Somers back in as their council member, the funding has become available to the Parks Department to begin to develop the park on Cavalero Hill this year.

SANDY THIE