MICA president’s statement misleads council

MICA President John Gordon Hill stated, during appearances at the Jan. 4 council meeting, “ … I would like to just thank the council for allowing MICA to proceed on the site of the abandoned Recycling Center. We are not taking over park land; we are building on the site of an abandoned building.” This is not true. The Recycling Center (which currently provides storage and sinks with hot and cold running water for the Farmers Market and the only public restrooms accessible from the Town Center) is located in Mercerdale Park. In addition, the proposed 24,000-square-foot MICA footprint far exceeds the current Recycling Center area, stretching south into the Mercerdale Parkland woodland, including protected wetlands.

No one corrected Hill’s false statement, including anyone on the council. If the MICA president can misstate such an obvious fact, what other less obvious and less easily verifiable “facts” has he misrepresented?

The council should beware of signing any documents without at least (1) an audit of MICA’s financial records, (2) proof that MICA has an adequate contingency fund to protect the city in the event of MICA’s default or posts a completion bond, and (3) specific legal protections that assure complete compliance with city codes that protect public wetlands.

Peter Struck