RE: Alturas

["Bill Strand" <strand@pacsim.com>]

Bill,

The meeting that generated these comments was the EDC meeting at the
Technology Incubator on Wednesday, September 4th. It was an open meeting and
anyone could attend. Personally, I found it very informative. I would
recommend that, before making such sweeping generalizations, that you
consider attending the meetings on which your report.

You presented the progress of Alturas in your normal negative light. But in
fact, one of the reasons the URA can consider turning the development over
to commercial developers, is now there is sufficient infrastructure as well
as established businesses to attract developers into additional phases of
development when the time comes. This was not possible before. This was
discussed in the EDC meeting. Jim Wallace also reported on the progress of
his new building and there was nothing but positive comments about what Jim
was doing. One of the primary discussions was how to make it easier for
small companies to make the transition from the Incubator to Alturas. Jim's
building makes this possible.

As for the "diverted tax" issues - four new buildings have been built. Each
one of these pay taxes both to pay off the bond AND to the schools. I'm
surprised that the post from Mike Curley omitted this. This card keeps being
played because the citizens of Moscow are still smarting from the school
bond. But the reality of the situation is that the school bond would have
been HIGHER if not for Alturas. Not only does PacSim pay taxes to the
schools, I also have three children in the public schools here (as do others
from PacSim) so that the school receives additional state payment. Not to
mention the property taxes paid by the forty some employees that work in
Alturas. While I cannot speak for the other companies here at Alturas, I
promise that without Alturas, PacSim would be elsewhere and your taxes would
be higher to be funding the schools.

However, I thought the most enlightening comment came from Shelley Bennett.
Shelley pointed out that the last thing that we wanted was a park that
filled in two years - that is truly uncontrolled growth. A technology park
that slowly fills over time is what Moscow should have.

I have a heavy schedule in running a company here in Moscow, but since I
feel strongly about the future of Alturas, I took the time to attend the EDC
meeting to hear what people have to say face to face rather than second
hand. As you seem to feel strongly about this issue also, perhaps gathering
first hand information about the activities of the EDC and URA would be
appropriate. I believe the lesson to be learned here is proactive
involvement from the citizens of Moscow in the process of business
development rather than reactive actions. And when I say proactive
involvement, I mean first hand.

Finally, I would like to thank the members of the EDC and URA for holding
the open meeting and allowing me to comment on development at Alturas and
the effect it has had on my company. It is this type of openness that allows
progress to be made in controlled growth in Moscow.

Bill Strand