Ohio EPA Director Scott J. Nally sent an official written response to my Nov. 27, 2012 email to him and Gov. Kasich about the closing of Aurora Golf Club. The faulty logic continues…
The response letter from Mr. Nally (click here to review), sent as a PDF attachment with a paper copy to be mailed later, is in response to comments I made criticizing the purchase and closing of Aurora Golf Club by his agency in the name of water quality enhancement. A statement similar to my emailed comments appears on Northeast Ohio Golf, posted that same date.
The PDF response letter was forwarded to me by email at 4 p.m. on December 14th, the final day of the ‘public comment’ period before a final decision on the proposal is made.
So as to have my response to the statements made by Mr. Nally in his letter included as part of the consideration in that final comment period, I immediately replied to Kristopher Weiss, the Ohio EPA employee who forwarded the letter to me by email:
Hi Kristopher —
Since he provides no response email address, please forward the following to Mr. Nally regarding his attached letter, and copy Mr. Kasich as well:
The statement ‘…the golf course has indicated that if WRRSP funds are not awarded it will likely be sold…’ is not a “fact”, and certainly not reason for the underlying premise of the Ohio EPA’s decision-making.
That “fact” is absurd on its face.
If and when the current owner has even a sketchy purchase agreement in hand from any legitimate developer of any kind, only then should the Ohio EPA consider such a statement even remotely plausible.
But no legitimate offer exists, and none ever will: the vast majority of the Aurora Golf Club property cannot be developed cost-effectively simply because of the nature of its terrain.
The current owner of the property has played the Ohio EPA and the City of Aurora in an attempt to get $4.7M in free taxpayer money, an amount significantly greater than he could obtain anywhere else, for any other reason. (Plus he keeps the most valuable portions of the property for himself, which is even more preposterous.)
Only from a government agency like the Ohio EPA could such a deal ever come.
Sorry, Mr. Nally, but you are about to be played by a businessman who sees an easy way to cash out at a profit level he could never realize otherwise. And plenty of people have pointed this fact out to you…
—
Allen Freeman
Brecksville, Ohio
The final, official decision will come from Mr. Nally soon. Since the Ohio EPA is both the originator of the idea and the entity that decides whether or not it’s a good idea, it appears they will proceed with their faulty plan.
But who knows, perhaps Governor Kasich will review this deal one final time and realize that it embodies poor government decision-making and a waste of taxpayer money on a concept that provides almost no real benefit. And perhaps, hope against hope, he will give Mr. Nally the nudge he needs to change his mind.
