ARCHIVE PAGE 5
|
|
Need a professional locksmith? Click q for truly professional services! |
- Enormous piles of cow manure may be history
- Sunnyside Port District to put Monson-feedlot purchase on ballot
- SUNNYSIDE (Friday, 730-99)---The Sunnyside Port district and Arvid Monson family have, after almost two years of negotiation, struck a deal.
- Port officials and Monson announced their agreement to community leaders in canopy shelters erected for the purpose near the intersection of Swan Road and Grandview Avenue today. The hilltop location provided a perfect view of the feedlot and lovely Valley it occupies.
- If voters approve a bond issue currently estimated at $3-million Nov. 2, the Port will buy 150 acres of Monson's 170-acre feedlot located along Highway 12 and turn it into a retail-professional park. Monson would retain 20 adjoining acres for himself.
- Bonds would be repaid over 20 years at 35-40¢ per $1,000 of assessed property valuation. A person owning a $75,000 property thus would pay $26.25 to $30 a year in taxes over that period.
- If voters approve, the land deal would be closed in March of 2000. Monson would cease operation by December, 2000. By June, 2002, the property would be free of all cattle pens, feed bunks, other structures and cow dung. Building could then begin.
- Meanwhile, the Port is working with the City of Sunnyside to provide water and sewer along one side of the property to the west boundary. The property would be designated industrial-commercial in Sunnyside's projected urban growth area.
- Sunnyside's western gateway would be open to some serious beautification. Enormous piles of manure would be traded for attractive architecture, trees, shrubs, and parking areas. Overpowering odors would cease, something both residents and tourists could appreciate. The city, once bottlenecked from westward development along Highway 12, could expand toward Outlook.
- Arvid Monson, speaking at the outdoor forum, said his company will be entirely responsible for feedlot cleanup, indemnifying the Port from any environmental lawsuits.
- Port officials praised Monson for approving the deal, saying he had turned down prospective buyers who ply the cattle business, who desire the existing operation, its grandfathered zone status, and freeway access.
- Purchase of the land fits into the Port's mission statement, written when it was created in 1964. The Port was formed to enhance economic development and diversify the economic base of the Sunnyside area.