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Mayor addresses tree house issue
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August 27, 2012 |
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Bonners Ferry
Mayor David Anderson |
On August 24, the day after city-hired
contractors tore down a tree house at the root
of a controversy that swept around the world,
Bonners Ferry Mayor Dave Anderson submitted a
letter to the Bonners Ferry Herald addressing
the issues.
On request, he graciously provided a copy to
News Bonners Ferry, which follows in its
entirety.
"The levees in Bonners Ferry are maintained
under a cost-share program with the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (USACE) whereby the City
performs the routine maintenance to national
standards and receives technical assistance and
hundreds of thousands of dollars of levy work by
the USACE.
"The national maintenance standards are designed
to maximize the safety of communities. These
standards are dynamic and are improved over time
based on real-life experience with flooding and
levee failures.
"Unfortunately citizens sometimes build
structures that create conflict with these levee
maintenance practices that maximize the safety
of our citizens. One of these structures was a
tree house built on the river side of the levee
on public property.
"The council and employees of the City never
like to see the product of any of our citizen's
hard work and creativity removed, and empathizes
with the tree house builder's affection for
their creation.
"However, since the City of Bonners Ferry
Council represents all of our citizens, the
removal of the tree house was clearly the right
action to protect the safety of our citizens,
the ability to continue in the USACE cost share
program, and to maintain the integrity of our
public spaces.
"Therefore, the tree house that has raised so
many emotions and involved many hours of time
for the builders, the City and USACE was removed
Thursday, August 23.
"The City of Bonners Ferry would like to
publicly thank the builders of the tree house
for working with the City to allow for safe
levee mainteance and removal of the tree house.
"Sincerely,
"Mayor David Anderson" |
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