Is A Port Huron Arena In Our Future

Nah,Na,Nah,Na,Nah,Na My Dad's tougher than your Dad.

Isn't that the childish game we are coming down to. Tecumseh managed to put together a business deal with Project Ice Track. Windsor did not (but of course Windsor never wanted to do a deal with Project Ice Track). Windsor offered in its Report Options A & B where the only real action item was:

"Administration be authorized to enter into negotiations for the acquisition of the required lands in the East end of the city."

The deck was stacked in advance. If you do not believe me then go and read Administrations' Report for yourself. It is on the City's website.

This whole exercise is a gigantic farce designed to get Windsorites hot and bothered to approve something that Council decided a long time ago but did not have the guts to bring forward until about a month before the election. Ram it though, stuff it down the throats of taxpayers.

Do you honestly believe that taxpayers in April would have approved a $70-100 million transaction (pick your number since no one knows the real one) when the economy here is going to hell? The Mayor and Council would have been run out of town.

So dither, delay, stall and then act. Forget cost, don't ask about Business Plans, be a MAN or a WOMAN. Show those County people. You cannot push around Windsor. Can you picture Eddie, the gunslinger, in a black Cowboy hat and outfit with guns hanging at his side with his cold, steely eyes staring down Mayor Gary McNamara of Tecumseh at High Noon at Festival Plaza (why give business to the dying downtown when the Casino is beckoning).

Gord Henderson's opening today was so funny and ridiculous:

"Tomorrow night is gut check time. That's when we'll find out whether Windsor councillors, some of them mad as hell after getting their collective bell rung by a Tecumseh sucker punch, have the intestinal fortitude to get up off the canvas and go for the jugular...

Anything less than a green light for an east-side arena in partnership with the Windsor Spitfires and the Collavino construction firm will only confirm what their snickering critics have been saying...

Any waffling on Wednesday, any hint of indecision, any delay to get more facts and do more soul-searching, will be viewed, amid gales of derisive laughter...

If the city blinks on an issue that's been pursued for 20 years, that will amount to throwing in the towel and slinking off to the showers..."

This is not governing. This is not acting as prudent administrators of the public trust. This is ramming a business deal down our throats so that the Mayor and Council can be "tough guys and gals" for the election campaign.

There is a serious legal issue that requires examination before Council takes rash actions that could give rise to a massive lawsuit.

Gord gave Council their orders:
"a green light for an east-side arena in partnership with the Windsor Spitfires and the Collavino construction firm."

Now I have real problems with this frankly. Check out the Report of Administration. Even the tame City Administrators did not have the nerve to recommend what Henderson suggested. How could they? They have no idea about the PCR deal.

ADMINISTRATION NEEDED 90 DAYS TO DO A DUE DILIGENCE REVIEW OF THE PCR PROPOSAL.

Let's get real. Pages and Pages and Pages of the Report were spent analyzing Project Ice Track to death but in about one page there was some discussion about the PCR offer with no real analysis.

Everyone seems to be holding their noses about the so-called "secret" Tecumseh dealings. Well check my BLOG the other day about the secrecy surrounding PCR. I'd like to know exactly when each Councillor was told about the PCR deal.

Was it July 6 when the PCR deal came in? On 7/11 when the Project Ice Track letter came in? Was it on 7/11 when the Mayor responded to the Raceway letter? Was it September 22 when the PCR became public or some time in between? Hmmm September 22 to today is how many days until today and yet Administration needed months to examine the Raceway proposal!!!

I have a question that needs an answer and so does the Construction Association. Why are we handing a massive job to PCR without a tender? What makes them so special? Is it merely because they just lucked out and sent in an unsolicited offer. Geee, don't you think Beztak should be offered the chance at least too?

Let me repeat what I wrote the other day about price:

"Now PCR’s proposal is interesting. An associated Company was a subcontractor in 1999 on a $60M arena and 4 icepads project in Port Huron. That project failed financially. They propose to use the unused components and plans in that job for Windsor to reduce costs.

Remember, the Bus terminal.. well its cost was estimated in 2000. We just learned that its actual 2006 cost has increased by 35%. If we use that same percentage, then the PCR arena should cost $81 Million to build

But wait a minute. In the Administration Report, PCR’s price with parking is $50M. How did a $60 M project in 1999, that might be costed out at $81M in 2006 be offered at $50M. That’s quite a discount.

If you read the PCR proposal carefully, the cost is described in this manner:

• PROJECT CONSTRUCTION PHASE—“All items included within this listing are for the Arena area only; all other work beyond the arena footprint is by the City”
  
  Is the Administration Report incorrect on the numbers since the PCR price may NOT include the icepads?
  
  If that is the case, would the view be that the whole PCR project is much too expensive and would have to be thrown out so that all we would be left with would be the icepads. This must be clarified immediately."
  
  

No I am sorry. I do not like what is going on. I know when I am being played. And I bet YOU do too.

Oh and if you wondered, the pictures are recent shots of what is remaining of the project that PCR or its associated company was building for the arena project in Port Huron until the developer went broke there. A recent news story there said that

"Dozens of other bikers, off-road vehicles and pickup trucks were zipping along impromptu tracks, jumping over mounds of dirt and spinning around abandoned construction debris.

"They should charge admission," said Brum, 22, of Warren. He and others like him had arrived early in the day to practice for their upcoming motocross season. His girlfriend lives in Port Huron, and he's been coming to the site for two years.

The problem is, the site is the idle unfinished hockey arena on Range Road at the Horizon Outlet Center, and township officials want to curb activity there because of accidents and complaints...

Cliff Dease, Kimball Township's deputy supervisor, told the township board on March 21 that the partially built arena site continues to attract vandals, troublemakers and is a dangerous eyesore. The board unanimously agreed to get legal advice, which Supervisor Tom Portis expects to discuss Tuesday at the township board meeting.

The building and unfinished concrete structure are home to an elaborate set of race tracks, which have led to accidents and injuries there, township Fire Chief John Gorski. The grounds are littered with glass shards, chunks of concrete and trash, and the bowl of the arena is filled with rainwater. "

Is that our future too in the East end if this Council acts stupidly?