The Court will hold a hearing this Tuesday, October 29 at 10:00 at the Jefferson County Courthouse. Fourth Floor, Division two (take a right from the elevators).
The Court will likely address consolidation of the 5 cases filed against Green Mountain Water and Sanitation District by Cardel Homes, Stream Realty, Green Tree (Three Dinos), CDN (Big Sky) and Big Sky Metro District.
The Court may also decide some of the issues raised by the motions which have been filed by all the parties.
You will recall that Big Sky orchestrated the signing of the Big Sky IGA on May 8, 2018, the very night the prior board was being voted out of office. The Big Sky IGA approved by the outgoing board set up Big Sky, a private developer, as the new “master meter” sanitation district for all of Rooney Valley.
Here is a small but representative sample of the briefs that have been filed.
A sample brief filed by Big Sky in support of forcing Green Mountain to reinstate the Big Sky IGA:
A sample brief filed by Green Mountain Water and Sanitation District in support of terminating the Big Sky IGA
A brief that I filed as amicus – which will only be considered if the court grants the motion to file a brief.
Appearing at these hearings makes a difference.
Especially in a case like this where there are significant public policy issues – such as “should a private developer unaccountable to the public for the foreseeable future be selling sewer rights at a profit and controlling the distribution of an essential public service.”
See you then.
John Henderson
John
Good luck in keeping water and sewer from being supplied to Three Dinos. Joe Tempel
Joe
Thank you for your note.
The Three Dinos have water through Consolidated. There are several ways for them to obtain sewer.
But they all involved public hearings. The Three Dinos, Big Sky and the others seem very adverse to public hearings.
One of the issues is who will determine public policy regarding the distribution of essential public services such as sewer – private companies whose immediate interest is making as much as they can as quickly as they can – or elected bodies accountable to the public whose immediate interest is providing a safe, efficient public service.
The domination of private developers in public policy decision making is out of balance with the public interest. And if we don’t challenge what has evolved into a grossly inflated sense of self entitlement, the public will become slaves to the development community’s profit driven definition of the “public good”. No one person or company should make that decision. That is what public hearings are about. Public hearings the Three Dinos, Big Sky and the others work so hard to avoid.
John Henderson
Joe – Happy to hear you are still keeping up to date on the Dinosaur Ridge area. You did a wonderful job with the Dinosaur Ridge museum, etc.
while you were here. -Kathy White (Sally’s sister-in-law)
Thank you for filing the amicus (rhymes with Atticus!) curiae. It is perfect. We will be there on Tuesday.