Bill White can't win with me. I either accuse him of wasting his bully pulpit on fluff like christmas lights and cake contests, or being wrong on more serious topics. Today, he's wrong on Wehr's Dam. Bill's biggest mistake is taking the Wildlands Conservancy and their
bought and paid for report as gospel. For
his latest column he interviewed the Wildlands Director, but didn't seek comment from one of the dam advocates. He and the director, who had told the South Whitehall commissioners that she would respect their decision and move on, keep referencing the $million dollar estimate to repair the dam. The director, Abigail Pattishall, even says that the estimate is
probably on the low side. Anybody who has ever visited the dam knows that it isn't going anywhere. It's a massive concrete wedge, most of which cannot be seen, sitting on a massive concrete shelf. Two years ago, the DEP concluded that
overall the dam is in good condition. Wildlands Conservancy and their contracted report by KCI, based the ridiculously overpriced repair estimate on removing all the silt in the mill pond, rerouting the creek, and rebuilding the dam completely from the shelf on up. In reality, for what the report cost, $239,000.00, the dam could have been kept in good repair for the next fifty years. Bill, stick with the cake contests.
I guess there aren't enough grants to harvest if the wildlands conservancy just stuck to conserving wildlands. Parks are not wildlands. I get that it's all connected, but the aesthetic beauty is valuable in and of itself, too. The conservancy would be better off focused on actual damage to our water supply with out of control bottling operations, outdated sewer systems, invasive species of both plants and animals and unmitigated fracking. But I guess there's no paycheck in those endeavors, so they stick to ripping apart dams.
ReplyDeletePeople actually take Bill White, so clearly a professional propagandist for certain special interest groups, seriously?
ReplyDeletemomma@8:45, it's sad to see people believe that repairing that dam would cost anywhere even near the figure fabricated by the wildlands and it's consultant. integrity wise, the wildlands conservancy is a skeleton of their former self.
ReplyDelete@9:27, i believe that bill white's column is actually very popular. if that wasn't the case, i wouldn't bother to address his misinformation in regard to the dam.
ReplyDeleteBill White is now nothing but a shill.
ReplyDeleteA shill does not make a good reporter..but then again, Bill White is conforming to the degraded ethics of his publication-home, The Morning-Know-It-All. The real issue here to me, is that the Lehigh Valley has no reliably neutral and objective source for news reporting. Bill White's sad excuse for a column is just a symptom of a disease that has reached a terminal point with the provincial media: the Big C: corruption
Bill White is entitled to his opionion. Heck, it's an 'opinion' piece. However, you are right, MM, to call him out for only printing the comments of the anti-dam proponents. The Morning Call is but a shell of its former self. Sadly they even have to troll for letters to the editor by suggesting topics.
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