By
Brad Smith
GOLD
HILL, Ore. – Those opposing a proposed
whitewater park near Gold Hill are in for a surprise: It’s been a part of the
city’s parks master plan since 2015.
May
18, 2015, to be exact. That’s when the city council passed and adopted the
parks and open space master plan: Councilors Doug Reischman, Gus Wolf, Margaret
Dials, Karen Baker and Donna Silva voted their support for the plan and Chris Stanley was
against it. Then mayor Jan Fish and city manager Rick Hohnbaum signed off on
it.
Over
the last several months, Councilor Danielle Hinkley said she’s been in touch
with citizens who say they have concerns about the whitewater park project,
which has been spearheaded by Stephen Kiesling. Hinkley said some locals felt their “concerns” about a whitewater park were ignored and felt the city shouldn’t be involved or backing it.
However,
it is in the parks and open spaces master plan – and there was plenty of public
input.
Hohnbaum
said the process putting together the master plan was very thorough.
“We
had a series of whitewater park meetings with at least two large
intergovernmental ones with tribes and four small group ones with county and
local so I would say six (meetings),” he said. “In addition, Molly Bradley, our
AmeriCorps intern, had organized some park
trail meetings. There was a lot of input and support from (Gold Hill)
residents.”
Richard
Hart, a Gold Hill resident who’s been active in previous park projects, was
involved in the process leading up to the master plan’s finalization.
“Meetings?
There were a lot of meetings and the public was right there,” Hart said. “We
reached out to many in the community, even kids – kids are our future and we
wanted to hear what they had to say, what they wanted. As for the actual
meetings, they were well attended.”
Hart
said it’s frustrating because over the last five years, some residents have
developed “selective amnesia.”
“Some
have said Gold Hill residents were left out of the whitewater park
discussions,” he said. “Some have said it was never talked about publicly.
That’s not true. There were meetings and the public was there. Those are on
record. Some have claimed the tribes were shut out and environmental issues
were ignored. That’s nonsense: (Kiesling) included the tribes in the process
and many environmental agencies were brought in. Were the i’s dotted and t’s crossed? Yes, they were.”
Hart
feels that a number of local “negative elements” are playing on people’s fears
and stirring up rumors and misinformation.
“They
know about the whitewater park’s inclusion in the master plan,” he said. “They
know – but it’s my view that they’re misleading others in order to stir up
trouble. These people don’t want Gold Hill to prosper. They want it to be a
dead-end bedroom community that has nothing to offer. No growth. No jobs.
Nothing.”
One
source said that social media has been a problem with some people pushing fake
narratives and those narratives have found their way into city council
meetings.
“When
(Hinkley) brought up the Ventura story, well, that was embarrassing,” the
source said.
In
a social media post, an individual claiming to be from Ventura, Calif., said
they didn’t want Gold Hill to be like their hometown. “Ventura used to be a
sleepy little town until tourism ruined it,” they said. Hinkley would use that very
phrase during a city council meeting.
“They
don’t want that to happen to Gold Hill and I don’t want to see that happen
either,” she said.
The
problem was that Ventura was never a “sleepy little town.”
By the 1930s, Ventura had a population of more than 11,000 people and over 14,000 within a decade. Along with an oil boom and lucrative fruit produce businesses in the area, Ventura was always known for its tourism trade. Hart grew up in the area and laughed at the social media post. “Ventura has always been a booming place,” he said. “It was never a small town like Gold Hill. However, someone made a comment on social media and people believed it, not bothering to check it out.”
Which
circles back to the whitewater park, he said.
“You
have people making some wild claims about the whitewater park and how people
weren’t aware of this or that,” Hart said. “We know that’s not true. There was
a very thorough, well documented process involved and it was never underhanded.
It’s all there in the master plan.”
The
anonymous source said they were “perplexed” by Hinkley bringing up misleading
social media posts during council meetings.
“You
would think a councilor would take the time to fact check social media posts
before saying something on the record,” they said. “I’ve talked to her a number
of times. She’s smart but she should have checked things herself. I have to
wonder if someone is feeding her misinformation and she blindly accepts it.
Now, I have to wonder: ‘Is this the sort of person I want representing my best
interests?’ No.”
Whitewater Park... Cool, with no modification of the river bed or shores. Olympics? A dream that will never come true.. Right there with the 2016 Olympic Kayakers bs
ReplyDeleteKiesling and others have all said the 2028 Olympics is a long shot. That said, the whitewater park is in the GH master plan and is still being worked on.
DeleteNow . . . . Toddle off and tell Alford you did her bidding.
Your last comment was rather rude. You have no idea whether Rogue Butch even knows Christine Alford! It's highly possible he bases his opinion on other factors.
DeleteReferring to yourself in third person?!
DeleteWant a safe space? Try Parler.