Saturday, October 08, 2005

Rain forest future murky

Rain forest future murky

Cloudy, actually:

Coralville City Council member John Lundell, the key swing vote for whether Coralville continues to work with a proposed indoor rain forest, says he’s increasingly discouraged the long-promised project will be built.

Lundell’s discouragement is fueled by the fact that seven weeks have passed since the City Council set a fourweek deadline for reaching an agreement to transfer 22 acres to The Environment a l Project, which is proposing the rain forest.

‘‘This is just another example of how deadlines come and go. And that’s been the history of this project,’’ Lundell told The Gazette.


John Lundell's a good guy and I knew he was too bright to fall for this.

Interestingly, Coralville is having a quiet election. 2003 saw a record turnout, with an anti-rainforest, anti-hotel, anti-incumbent slate running. But the challengers got thumped by about 70-30. With the hotel now a fait accompli and the rainforest in doubt, the residual likability of the incumbents seems to be enough, and this year Lundell, Herwig, Gill and mayor Fausett are all unopposed.

The hot local election spot appears instead to be North Liberty with two city council incumbents squaring off for mayor and seven (!) candidates for two city council seats.

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