In a letter to The Explorer Feb 20, Michelle Saxer speaks out.
Councilman Parish said many times on Wednesday 2/6 during the town council meeting, “Take it to the constituents. Let them decide.”That, I concur, Mr. Parish, is a wonderful suggestion. Your words suggest that maybe you see that people / voters are your most potent resource.
How will the voters vote who have been impacted by this council’s decision to build a crematory a quarter of a mile from their subdivision? The February 2008 issue of Desert Leaf, in an article written by Loranne DarConte, points out that 16 percent of mercury emissions come from cremation. She documents what those subdivisions will be exposed to. Besides threatening their health you are lowering their property values. How do you think Vistoso Vistas and Vista Mirabella feel about the incumbents’ votes for the crematory? Do you think they feel protected by your council, your concern about them?
How do you think voters in Oro Valley will feel that by seducing them to vote for a “high-end store,” you effectively have deceived them by inviting Wal-mart, lowered their quality of life, view, property values and undermined their trust in local government?How is it possible that such an affluent community needs to financially persuade a retailer to come here? They should be knocking at Oro Valley’s door. Do you think this very educated, financially solvent community will feel you value them with this decision?How do you think this very educated, aware population feels when the town attempts to muzzle a citizen’s blog site by manipulating its description as a political organization, negating his right to freedom of speech?
Is this what a progressive, well-heeled, beautiful community wants … an image of a terrified reactionary political body that is closed to difference of opinion? Does the First Amendment work in every place but Oro Valley in the continental U.S.? This smacks of Nazi Germany. Haven’t we learned from history yet? Who will want to come to a community whose government even considers such a thing?
Naranja Park raises still more questions. At the council meeting, Bill Adler restated the results of the study about the park. The constituents are against it.Children need communal recreational facilities. But they don’t need to be built with the price tag of $164 million when there are fundamental services like water, roads and emergency equipment competing for the dollar. How do you think voters will feel if after the expensive survey where you obtained their opinion, you ignore the study and proceed to build the park?
Do you think they will feel appreciated, valued, or important and that you were fiscally responsible in using their tax dollars?The council often talks about the importance of enterprise. But you are forgetting your most valuable resource: the citizens of Oro Valley, whose money pays for its wares. This is what makes community … People with feelings, needs, wants, hopes, dreams, not just a collection of quality homes with beautiful views and owners with expandable wallets. Your most precious resource here is the people … they are the community. The quality of life here depends on the quality of people.
None of those events would entice anyone I know to move here. Just what are you doing to help, support, involve, pay attention to what the community is saying to you? Lose credibility with the community, and Oro Valley nosedives as a desirable place to live. You are seeding the demise of this town by your actions. Do you have to wait until election day to understand that message?
Michelle Saxer
15 comments:
The best line in this letter is "the quality of life here depends on the quality of people."
This has been my greatest concern since learning that a Wal-Mart will anchor Oro Valley Marketplace...the quality of people that will be drawn to this store is NOT the same quality of people who live in Oro Valley and criminals will also be drawn here, as they are to EVERY Wal-Mart.
I always use the Foothills Mall and LaEncantada Mall as my comparison. The people who shop LaEncantada are clean, well-dressed, and do not look menacing. Contrast this to what you see entering and exiting the Wal-Mart at the Foothills Mall and you will get some idea of what we can expect to see at the new Oro Valley Marketplace.
I think "Oro Valley" should be removed from the name of the marketplace as nothing at this mall will reflect Oro Valley in any way. If Vestar is so proud of it, then they should be happy to have their name plastered on it. They should change the name to Vestar Marketplace or something similar. Vestar's Great Mall of China has a nice ring to it!
The UGLY side of Oro Valley - so
eloquently described!
I like that one "Vestar's Great Mall of China"
I am with you, I would love to see the name changed.
Vestar is so arrogant and unresponsive and slick(not), they don't have the mall listed as OV on their web site, the mall is listed as Tucson.
Why should this mediocre shopping center represent OV.
If Terry Parish and others are so
proud to be associated with this
mall, maybe they can have their name on it. Why Not.
They are already tied together.
Don't we hear Mr. Parish stress that he promotes "Safety" again and again?
Michelle has it absolutely right about his actions. What safety will the crematorium fumes bring to families nearby? What safety will the crime brought by Wal-Mart bring?
Maybe we can have a new tax to fund the extra police for the crime that Wal-Mart brings to Oro Valley.
I think we should rename OV Marketplace to:
"Parish's Home for Wayward Boys"
...as the number of criminals it will generate will certainly fill up our local county jail!
Can we do anything? Can we sue Vestar for misrepresentation? A class-action... ALL of Oro Valley Residents agains Parish, Wolff, and Vestar?
I think the creamatorium needs to be shut-down. I cannot imagine the families raising young children being exposed to mercury. I cannot even imagine the damage to those little developing brains.. it is as bad as lead!
If we allow this to continue (mercury poisoning to the youth of OV), Oro Valley will be eventually made up of the same brainless dopes as the current council members. Then they can build their damn park!
Mercury poisoning (also known as mercurialism, hydrargyria, Hunter-Russell syndrome, or acrodynia when affecting children) is a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its toxic compounds. Mercury is a cumulative heavy metal poison which occurs in its elemental form, inorganically as salts, or organically as organomercury compounds; the three groups vary in effects due to differences in their absorption and metabolism, among other factors. However, with sufficient exposure all mercury-based toxins damage the central nervous system and other organs or organ systems such as the liver or gastrointestinal tract.
Symptoms typically include sensory impairment (vision, hearing, speech), disturbed sensation and a lack of coordination. The type and degree of symptoms exhibited depend upon the individual toxin, the dose, and the method and duration of exposure.
Due to its toxicity, there have been campaigns in many countries to ban mercury altogether.
Does anyone know if the harpolds have been required to install the $500,000 dollar scrubber or are they pulling the teeth of the dead before they burn them?
Morbid I know, but it appears that the UK (originally developed in Sweden) is way ahead of us on this, they are going to freeze-dry bodies to avoid the long-term build-up and exposure to mercury vapors from amalgam fillings.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F04%2F11%2Fnbury11.xml
One can only wish that the OV Council knew 1/10 of the info on Mercury poisoning that Websleuth provides. Boobie-Baby has stated that the crematorium will be "certifiable" as clean. How he knows that is questionable.
Buy the $500,000 scrubber---are you kidding? The Harpolds went to OV two or three times to get approval for dirt berms instead of block walls to save money. They sued the neighborhood group that took OV to court for their attorney fees. These people don't care whose children they poison....they just want to make money!
Mercury and other heavy metal pollutants from crematoria also cause a lengthy list of diseases in adults from A to Z, and one of the A's is Alzheimer's Disease.
Mercury's damage is frequently to the Central Nervous System and many diseases associated with the CNS.
It is an abomination to have a crematorium near anybody's home! Thanks Harpolds! Thanks P & Z Director! Thanks Town of Oro Valley!
Here are the actual numbers:
Cremation of those with amalgam fillings adds to air emissions and deposition onto land and lakes.
A study in Switzerland found that in that small country, cremation released over 65 kilograms of mercury per year as emissions, often exceeding site air mercury standards, while another Swiss study found mercury levels during cremation of a person with amalgam fillings as high as 200 micrograms per cubic meter(considerably higher than U.S. mercury standards).
The amount of mercury in the mouth of a person with fillings was on average 2.5 grams, enough to contaminate 5 ten acre lakes to
the extent there would be dangerous levels in fish. A Japanese study estimated mercury emissions from a small crematorium there as 26 grams per day.
A study in Sweden found significant occupational and environmental exposures at crematoria, and since the requirement to install selenium
filters mercury emission levels in crematoria have been reduced 85%.
Crematoria now contribute 11% of all the mercury released by industry and power plants in Britain. The 440,000 people cremated in Britain every year are estimated to discharge 1300kg of mercury.
A study of assessing hair mercury in a group of staff at some of the 238 British crematoriums found that the groups hair mercury were significantly greater than that of controls.
USEPA TEST – 1 (Woodlawn Crematorium/ Midwest Research Institute)
* Conducted in June 1999
9 cremations total
Normal operating conditions
2 cremations suspected to have no silver amalgam fillings
Average mercury release per cremation over 9 cremations - .456 grams per body
Average mercury release per cremation for only the 7 cremations believed to contain silver amalgam fillings – .584 grams per body
The average mercury emissions from these documented tests, under a worst case scenario, would be .568 grams of mercury emitted per body cremated.
It takes only .5 grams to polute a 10-acre lake!
ferlin, websleuth - I don't know if you are aware of the extent to which many of us went to try to get the crematorium cremated. All of those stats and issues that you pose were examined and utilized in attempt to fight The Thing culminating in a court hearing some time ago. Headed by the very dedicated Larry and Brenda Ryan, a group of us worked with great effort to try to halt this abomination - the health issues were explored in depth, the zoning issues were explored in depth, the failure of our Town to utilize 'advise and consent' was explored in depth, an attempt was made to get a hearing before the board of adjustment and those who 'informally' tried to deliver 'papers' to The Town were treated like dirt. And, finally, a Mandamus action was heard by The Court and the judge ruled, among other 'things' that the time for such action had expired. Harpold attempted to sue the Ryans for $25,000 (he was added to the hearing as an 'intervenor')because he, too, did not want a fair and impartial hearing, but that was thrown out (I suppose because he 'volunteered' his two cents). Additional funds were not available to pursue an appeal.
And so this issue went. As to the pollution/health hazards, our dear EPA doesn't want to get involved because to interfere with 'death' would be politically incorrect. So the feds won't touch the issue, leaving it up to our sit-on-your-ass state, county, and local agencies and governments. And so it goes, my friends, save the incinerator and kill the people.
Hopefully nobody and I mean nobody in Rancho Vistoso ever gives these
greed mongers one single penny.
I know we won't. I would rather rot in my backyard then give these
ghouls my money.
You can take that to the bank.
I knew about the court hearing, I guess I just don't understand the decision to allow a crematorium.
Aren't we supposed to be going Green? LEED comes to mind in OV. Why would OV allow such an operation, why is OV Government not pursuing alternatives and requiring other businesses to do so?
There is case law on the books in the state of Colorado regarding a similar case. In the end, the owners of the crematorium decided to locate their crematorium in an industrial area.
Wouldn't it have behooved the Harpolds to do the same instead of becomeing public enemy number 1?
I too, will not allow my remains to be cremated nor touched by the Harpolds. I have amalgam fillings and would worry that my cremation would further polute the environment. I will just be happy with a pine box in the ground.. or maybe we will catch up to the rest of the world and I can be "freeze-dried"!
Oh and I almost forgot... remember parish's quote about the crematorium;
NORTHWEST EXPLORER
OV residents fired up over funeral home plans By: Brian P. Nanos, February 21, 2007
Town council member Terry Parish said the opponents of the crematorium are conducting a “misinformation campaign.”
“It seems to me that some of them believe that if they say it enough times it will become true,” he said.
IT SEAMS TO ME... this is the exact way that Parish operates his campaign and unsullied life!!!
If he says it enough, it will be true... I am a good person.. I am doing the community right... I am a good person... I am doing the right thing...Thanks Malin for the money... I am a good man.. Everyone likes me.. I am wonderful...
A “misinformation campaign.”
Makes me SICK!!!!
Ferlin,
I don't remember saying that the crematorium will be certifiable as "clean." The only thing I know is that the County will be enforcing state rules (as weak as they may be) so that the facility operates "cleanly" (however that is defined).
Ms.Coyote has the right idea as I've mentioned before--vote with your feet and your money. If the Town code lacks "teeth" to deal with these issues, ask your (new) Council members to request that P and Z Dept. draft such rules.
Dear BB,
There's no reason to "draft rules"--this Town government doesn't follow its own rules, especially P & Z. Its only rule is ""We can do what we want."
Dear BB,
There's no reason to "draft rules"--this Town government doesn't follow its own rules, especially P & Z. Its only rule is ""We can do what we want."
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