Stopping 10A over Paradise -- You can help!

[charris@uidaho.edu]

All (and especially those who've been gone this summer and are 
unaware),

We have been collecting signitures asking that ITD abandon its 
preferred 10A alternative for a 4-lane freeway over Paradise Ridge.  
(Unlike our opponents, we are not pushing the ITD's alternative 6, 
but are asking the agency and the city and county to complete a 
comprehensive plan that includes the likely western by-pass, which 
they are starting to plan for this August, before moving forward with 
this project).  We are approaching 600 signitures (adults only, 
unlike the pro-10A petitions), and an estimated 1200 family 
members they represent. 

If you would like to sign our petition, or to get a copy of the ITD 
public comment sheet to send in, there's still time -- visit our table 
at the Farmers Market next Saturday, July 19.  That will be the last 
chance, given that the public comment period officially ends July 
27th.

The next step in the process will be the compiling of the comments 
and the passing on by ITD of all the project material to the Federal 
Highway Administration for a sign-off of a "Finding of No Significant 
Impact" (FONSI) for the proposed 10A.  If, instead, significant 
impacts are judged to result, a full environmental impact statement 
(EIS) will be required.

We have reviewed ITD's environmental assessment and found it 
inadequate and even unfairly slanted to promote its 10A choice. 
Should FHA issue a FONSI, we have secured legal help to launch 
a court challenge that basicly would stop the project until an 
adequate EIS is completed.

Just an FYI -- Should we need to do this, we will be starting an 
environmental defense fund, so be thinking about how much you 
would be willing to pledge for a  contribution to this cause.

Thanks for the widespread support in the county for our position -- 
the vast majority of people we ask to sign our petition, first ask for 
more info, and once informed, are eager to sign.  Encourage your 
friends and neighbors to sign too.  

Once informed, people do not want the first phase of a freeway 
system that will run an S-curve through south Moscow (north over 
Paradise Ridge, then west somewhere south of Palouse River 
Drive over to the WA state-line, then north again around Moscow).  
They do not want all the strip commercial development that 
eventually will accompany this freeway system -- especially below 
the residential areas of Conestoga St., Ridge Rd., Indian Hills, and 
Ridgeview Estates, not to mention all the other high points in town 
this will be visible from.  Many of us moved to Moscow precisely 
because we didn't want the freeway culture and development of, 
say, southern California!  

(I am amazed that the UI is willing to sacrifice exactly those 
features that are some of the few attractions of Moscow to attract 
and retain quality faculty!  Because of their own land-holdings and 
development agenda, they are willing to short-sightedly "kill the 
goose that laid the golden egg"!!!)

If you need more info, I can send you a copy of our position paper 
and the documented concerns and problems with the ITD process 
and its choice of Paradise Ridge for its preferred route.

Join us in preserving what makes Moscow special and unique.  
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thanks in advance for 
your support!

Chuck Harris
"Don't Pave Paradise Defense Fund"