Posted inCity Council Creekside Golf Course Jackie Leung

Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District debate continues

A few days ago I blogged about newly-elected city councilor Jackie Leung's effort to fulfill a campaign promise by attempting to get the Salem City Council to reconsider its decision to form a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District. The Reimbursement District would raise money to pay for road improvements by collecting between about $4,000 and $10,000 from lot owners in the south Salem area when a home is built on their property. It's unclear whether the City Council will undertake a reconsideration of the Reimbursement District, which has to be done at next Tuesday's council meeting, because an agenda item implements…
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Posted inCity Council Creekside Golf Course Jackie Leung

Support fairness. Stop the Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District.

Fresh off her upset victory in the Ward 4 City Council race, Jackie Leung is making good on her campaign promise to work hard on preserving open space in the Creekside neighborhood. She recognizes that unfettered development can't be allowed to diminish the quality of life for Salem residents. So Leung is asking the City Council to reconsider and overturn its recent narrow 5-4 approval of a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District. The Reimbursement District collects between $4,000 and $10,000 from lot owners in the south Salem area when a home is built on their property, then gives that money…
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Posted inCreekside Golf Course Larry Tokarski

Creekside HOA letter shows how messy the golf course fight is

It's a real battle going on between the Creekside Homeowners Association and the owners of the Creekside Golf Club, Larry Tokarski and Terry Kelly.  Recently I came across a May 9, 2018 letter that the Creekside HOA sent to its members, describing what was going on with the Association's fight to prevent the golf course from being turned into a subdivision, as Tokarski and Kelly are trying to do. The two-page letter is interesting reading. Here's a copy. Or click here for an online version, Download Letter from Creekside HOA All I know about this legal battle is what I've…
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Posted inCity Council Creekside Golf Course Larry Tokarski

Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District staggers across City Council finish line

Watching last night's City Council final deliberation on a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District reminded me of a demolition derby. The plan that was approved on a 5-4 vote was the last one standing, like a bashed-in car with smoke streaming from its hood, oil leaking all over, fenders missing, dents everywhere.  Not a pleasant sight, but in the eyes of a majority of City Council members, better than nothing. The Council considered four alternatives to the original Lone Oak Reimbursement District plan that landed with a resounding "no thanks!" thud at a public hearing a while back, which led…
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Posted inCreekside Golf Course Larry Tokarski

Is Larry Tokarski the developer of Creekside?

Yesterday I got a letter from an attorney representing Larry Tokarski. The letter also went to A.P. Walther, the publisher of Salem Weekly. It was in response to the opinion piece I wrote for Salem Weekly, "Larry Tokarski leaves the public with a $7.5 million development bill." Here's the letter: Download Letter from Tokarski attorneyThe gist of the letter is an assertion that Tokarski isn't the developer of Creekside. Well, let's look at some evidence that argues otherwise. My point in doing this is to show that a reasonable person, namely me, is justified in calling Larry Tokarski the "Creekside developer."…
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Posted inCity of Salem Creekside Golf Course Larry Tokarski

Salem City Council reconsiders making public pay for Lone Oak Road improvements

A citizen win! Last night the City Council voted unanimously to reconsider their decision to have the public pay for two extensions to Lone Oak Road in south Salem, rather than the developers who really should be footing the bill.  The impetus for the reconsideration was a letter from the South Gateway Neighborhood Association. Here's a screenshot of how it starts out. Download SGNA - Reconsideration of Lone Oak Reimbursement District There will be another public hearing on a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District at the council's March 26 meeting, if I recall the date correctly.  This is a complex…
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Posted inCity Council Creekside Golf Course Larry Tokarski

Neighborhood association asks City Council to reconsider Lone Oak Road decision

Good news! There's a chance Larry Tokarski, the Creekside developer, won't be able to walk away from his obligation to build an extension of Lone Oak Road after all.  The South Gateway Neighborhood Association has sent a letter to Mayor Chuck Bennett, Councilor Steve McCoid, and the other members of the City Council asking that the council reconsider its 7-2 decision to form a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District.  Download SGNA - Reconsideration of Lone Oak Reimbursement District Instead, as shown in the image above, the letter proposes an intriguing alternative idea. If Tokarski comes out on top in a…
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Posted inCity of Salem Creekside Golf Course Larry Tokarski

Larry Tokarski leaves the public with a $7.5 million development bill

It took me about two seconds to say "Yes" when the publisher of Salem Weekly, A.P. Walther, asked me via an email if I'd be interested in writing a story about the unbuilt section of Lone Oak Road that the City Council is asking the public to pay for, after the developer, Larry Tokarski, walked away from his obligation to make the road improvements. The front page story appeared in this week's issue of Salem Weekly. You can read it online. Here's a PDF file of the story as I sent it off to Walther. Download Salem Weekly Lone Oak…
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Posted inCity of Salem Creekside Golf Course

Creekside golf course farce highlights City of Salem dysfunction

So... today we learn that after months of Creekside advocates moaning and groaning that the golf club absolutely needs a $60,000 irrigation water rate reduction or it will go out of business, thanks to good reporting by the Statesman Journal's Tracy Loew we know this isn't true. Creekside Golf Club’s owners have released a statement saying they will not close the business after all. "We want to reassure the membership that our intentions are not to close Creekside Golf Club and we would like to put that concern to rest," owners Terry Kelly and Larry Tokarski wrote. Since April, the owners have been…
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Posted inCreekside Golf Course Warren Bednarz

Councilor Warren Bednarz voted himself a 30% irrigation rate reduction. Twice.

Here's another twist in the Creekside Golf Course water rate reduction scandal: City Councilor Warren Bednarz, a member of the City of Salem Water-Wastewater Task Force, repeatedly voted to give himself a 30% reduction on his irrigation bill. Now, if you're thinking, Aren't elected officials supposed to recuse themselves from votes that would give them a private financial benefit?, congratulations. That's the correct thought.  But someone who listened to recordings of the Water-Wastewater Task Force meetings has learned that not once, but twice, Bednarz admitted that he owned commercial irrigated property which would benefit from the 30% rate reduction he…
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Posted inCreekside Golf Course

Letters to editor trash sleazy Creekside Golf Course water rate deal

Way to go, Lois Stark and Ann Bornholdt! I really like your letters to the editor about the Creekside water rate giveaway that have popped up on the Statesman Journal web site.  Hopefully your letters (see here and here) will make it into the print edition of the newspaper soon. I'll boldface the most pleasingly snarky portions of what you said. Salem residents not responsible for golf course's woes Nice try, Kent Hunsaker and Jerry Bennett, but it ain’t gonna fly! No matter how much these guys tried to sugarcoat the issue in their guest opinions, lowering the water rates for…
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Posted inCity Council Creekside Golf Course

Water rate giveaway to Creekside Golf Course affirmed by City of Salem committee

Oh, goodie! I'm so excited that the Creekside Golf Course water rate scandal, a.k.a IrriGate, is continuing on its special-interest-kiss-up backroom-dealmaking course. This will give local political junkies like me even more raw material for snarkiness. When politicians fail to realize their mistakes, doubling-down on a stupid decision, it's entertaining to watch how far down the Rabbit Hole they will go before thinking, "Oh, shit, we should have turned around before hitting the slimy bottom." Here's a report I've gotten from a reliable source on today's Water-Wastewater Task Force meeting, the group that's been determined to foist a $600,000 water…
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Posted inCity Council Creekside Golf Course Peter Fernandez

More disturbing revelations about Creekside Golf Course water scandal

OK, Salem's IrriGate scandal isn't Watergate quality, and I'm no Woodward or Bernstein, but this tale of crony capitalism and special-interest deal making at City Hall still is fascinating to dig into and report on. Following up on Tracy Loew's initial reporting in a Statesman Journal story about how a City of Salem advisory committee voted to recommend that Creekside Golf Course get a $60,000 water rate break, a fellow citizen activist has shared some juicy tidbits with me about how this potential $600,000 giveaway to Creekside and other large irrigators came about.  (The outrage is magnified by the fact that…
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Posted inChuck Bennett Creekside Golf Course Political donations

Follow the money: Creekside Golf Course “IrriGate” scandal

In Salem these days, as elsewhere in the U.S., corporate fat cats don't have to carry around bags of cash to surreptitiously hand over to compliant politicians when they want a favor done for them.  No, our campaign finance systems have gotten so screwed up, rich political donors can do their "bought and paid for" thing right out in the open, pretty much. Their money buys access to politicians, greasing the skids for favorable votes that can't be directly connected to the cash they donated to a campaign fund. Case in point: Salem's Creekside Golf Course water rate reduction brouhaha.…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City Council Creekside Golf Course

Crony capitalism on display in Creekside Golf Course water rate giveaway

There's so much wrong with the City of Salem's planned $600,000 reduction in water costs for all high-volume irrigators -- a roundabout way of saving the Creekside Golf Course $60,000 a year -- that it almost has a delicious rightness to it.  Meaning, hopefully this travesty-in-the-making will wake up Salem's citizenry to what has been obvious to those who closely watch goings-on at City Hall. Crony capitalism is alive and well in Salem, but it should be dead and gone. Here's how Wikipedia describes it: Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on…
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