Archive for November 2011

Mound Road Low-Income Senior Housing Project Brings Up Social Issues

By Kris
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

I hadn’t been too educated on the details of the Mound Road annexation controversy, so I decided to attend the packed meeting last night, which had been moved to the Decatur Civic Center auditorium to accommodate a large crowd.

An $11 million dollar low-income senior housing project is proposed for a parcel of land already purchased by the Decatur Housing Authority along West Mound Rd.  The money came from a federal grant.

Last month the city voted down the annexation request, after several owners objected to the project, however the council revisited the vote last night after some strong persuading by the DHA, who wasn’t prepared for the amount of objection they encountered last month.

When I stepped into the Civic Center lobby I was greeted by DHA supporters asking if I was in favor or against the vote. I told them I was just there to learn more about the issue but they handed me a sticker anyway in case I decided to support them later. There were senior citizens sitting front and center before the council in the first several rows, obviously planted strategically by the DHA.  

Several residents spoke before the council, first on the vote to revote and then on the actual annexation vote itself. There were several moments of loud applause for both sides. It remained, for the most part undramatic, until Councilwoman Dr. Dana Ray spoke her mind.

Ray expressed how she was in favor of the low-income housing plan, stating she wanted seniors to have a safe location to reside in, however she stepped in it when she said that Wabash Crossing, another low-income housing project in Decatur was unsafe because of criminal activity there. That perked the ears up of opponents who shouted out, “That’s our point!” and feared the same thing would happen to their area. Ray then raised her voice and pointed at the audience and told them that they had their time to speak and now it was hers. She then went on to proclaim herself the champion of those in the community with no voice. I have a feeling this stems from the recent decision by the city council to revoke the taxi license of a minority owned business.  She was the lone vote against revoking the license.

Before Ray’s statements last night, Councilwoman Julie Moore-Wolfe expressed her concerns that voting in favor of the annexation would be a stamp of approval for the entire project, to which she is opposed, at least at the proposed location. She agreed with a resident who spoke before the council that the project would be a better fit in a part of town which needed redevelopment. Moore shook her head in agreement as the woman spoke.

I agree with Moore and many others, who feel the development could be a great thing in another part of town that needs revitalized. Let’s face it, there are parts of Decatur that no private home builder will ever invest in. An $11 million dollar project would be more than welcomed in another part of town.  Lowering property values in a stable neighborhood doesn’t make economic sense, when we can bring up property values in another area that desperately needs it.

Beyond looking at it from merely a means of economic development for the city, the social issues it brings up didn’t go unnoticed by me.  It brings up social, racial and economic disparity issues in the community.  I wouldn’t call the area affluent, as has been suggested.  That has never come to my mind when driving though the area.  It seems more average middle-class to me.  Homeowners in the area worry about their homes losing value because of a low-income housing unit being next door.  They also worry crime will be introduced to the area. Others feel that the development should be able to go anywhere and not discriminated against because of the economic status of its tenants.  I see their point as well.  It’s basically a big ol’ can of worms dropped onto the city council’s lap.

The discussion isn’t over.  We’ll be hearing much more about it in the months ahead.

Categories : Decatur City Council, News Topics

What Lies Beneath: Fracking and Carbon Storage

By Kris
Friday, November 11th, 2011

Probably a year ago, if not longer, I and a few others addressed our concerns over the carbon sequestration project taking place on Decatur’s east side near ADM and Richland Community College.  ADM received a nearly $100 million dollar federal grant from the energy department to experiment storing large amounts of liquefied carbon dioxide deep below the ground.  Up to one million tons of carbon dioxide would be stored in underground wells annually. The project is meant to reduce carbon emissions released into to the atmosphere and if proven successful here, could be expanded elsewhere.  http://www.adm.com/news/_layouts/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?ID=247

At the time, I questioned the safety of such an experiment beneath a populated area.  My questions didn’t necessarily fall on deaf ears; rather they were quickly dismissed as silly.

About a week ago, I learned of a 5.6 earthquake occurring in Oklahoma of all places.  It seemed an odd place to have an earthquake of such magnitude and indeed it is rare.  In fact, it’s the largest earthquake registered in the state’s history.  Until 2009, the state on average registered 50 earthquakes or tremors per year.  In 2010, 1,047 tremors shook the state and some experts are pointing to a method of extracting natural gas from deep within the earth, called fracking, as the cause for such a huge jump in seismic activity.  See link:  http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/11/08/did-fracking-help-cause-oklahoma-earthquakes/

Fracking isn’t a new process.  It has been used for many years.  The process involves injecting millions of gallons of water combined with chemicals and sand to produce fractures miles within the earth in order to reach trapped oil and natural gas deposits.  Though it has been used for many years, only recently has it been used so frequently in various regions of the country and globe.  The recent increase in seismic activity in Arkansas might be the result of fracking procedures.  The government is admitted that fracking does indeed cause earthquakes.  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/?categoryID=1&faqID=1

Of course, there’s the troubling fact that toxic chemicals are being pumped within the earth, sometimes poisoning water supplies during the process.  That alone should be enough to raise an eyebrow or two; throw in a devastating earthquake here and there, and if that doesn’t rattle some senses, I don’t know what will.

That brings us back to Decatur where fracking isn’t taking place, as far as I know, but carbon sequestration is.  We’re reassured that pumping huge amounts of liquefied CO2 deep within the earth couldn’t possibly cause any problems but we don’t know that for sure.  Common sense tells me that if we are pumping CO2 into huge reservoirs deep below the ground, the pressure is going to change.  These changes could cause ancient fault lines to shift, maybe not enough to knock a house down, but enough to possibly damage a well, maybe?

And what happens if a well is damaged and its contents leak?  Well, the carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere, nullifying the whole intention of keeping it out of the atmosphere in the first place.  A worst case scenario could kill humans and animals exposed to large amounts of released carbon dioxide gas.  Such a catastrophe has happened before naturally in the world.  CO2 isn’t a harmless gas. If concentrated too high it impairs respiration.  In other words, those affected would suffocate.

I’d encourage you to do some research of your own.  There’s a wealth of information out there but be warned some of it is propaganda produced by oil companies and maybe even our government.  That’s been my experience.

 

 

Categories : Decatur Issues, News Topics

Happy Halloween!

By Kris
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

I still remember the uneasy, almost sinister feeling I sensed, when moving into my house 16 years ago this month, on Halloween weekend. I sensed it as soon as I was in the driveway and really felt it when on the front porch. I could smell the fear, but I have to admit, most of it was attributed to the 17 potpourri air fresheners scattered all about the house that I found and threw away. My husband had already found and disposed of a dozen himself. They were everywhere! I’m not kidding. The smell hit me like a wall before entering the house. Apparently the people who owned the house before us, were the owners of five dogs, and instead of cleaning up after them, or shampooing the carpets occasionally, they just stuck another air freshener on the wall, ceiling, closet door, etc. Anyway, this isn’t a story about stinky dogs and obsessive uses of potpourri. It’s about ghosts!

Once I was settled in the house, the creepy feelings disappeared. It wasn’t until several years later, when I slept in my newborn son’s bedroom, that I began to have strange experiences. There were a couple times I awoke to see a black hand come down towards my face. Other times I saw strange colored lights suspended about six feet above the floor, next to the bed, morphing into different shapes and colors. Needless to say, the black hand freaked me out the most. I’d jump up and sleep on the couch. I attributed the experiences to sleep deprivation and I never thought much about it once I no longer stayed in the room… till my son, who doesn’t make up stories, told me he was having the same experiences! That unnerved me a little because I never told him nor anyone else about what I had seen.

All before this happened my daughter had seen a strange shadowy “thing” walk out of the same room and slink creepily across the hallway years before her little brother was born. I remember we had come home after visiting my parents, and she began freaking out as we were still taking our coats off at the front door. She told me she saw some black hunched over creature exit the bedroom and go across the hallway. I had a hard time calming her down. A few months ago, she came to my room, looking like, well, she had just seen a ghost. She had seen a shadow walk across the same hallway and then through the bathroom door. This is when I told her about mine and her brother’s experiences.

This Summer we remodeled the house. My son’s bedroom is no longer a bedroom. It is the entrance to the new addition. It will be converted into an office and pantry soon. I wondered if all the construction would rile up our ghost and I think it did. At night, when the new addition wasn’t opened to the rest of the house yet, but closed in so nobody could have entered it from outside without a key, I’d hear boards dropping on the floor, footsteps and other bangs, while I watched tv in the old master bedroom. It even awoke my dog who began growling at the sounds. This happened several times on different nights. When I’d inspect the addition in the morning, nothing would look out of place and there hadn’t been any boards that could have just fallen over. Boards were stacked in a neat pile and unmoved from the day before.

Now I get a creeped out feeling in the new master bathroom, where the sounds came from when it was still under construction. A couple months ago, I was speaking with my daughter in the family room and heard banging sounds coming from the new bathroom. We thought it was the cat but he was with us in the same room. We joked it was our “ghost” and laughed. Right after that we both heard footsteps and the doorknob to the patio door move, as if someone was trying to open it. We stopped laughing.

Other than these experiences, the house has always seemed welcoming and cozy, so I’m not concerned. I’m not a “believer” in ghost. I could be convinced that the experiences are all the result of active imaginations but who knows?

Happy Halloween!

Categories : Humor