Who are the "Cherry" pickers in the SFAAP clean up? What a Sham!

[hdqrs@worldnet.att.net]

By MIKE HENDRICKS - Columnist (04/06/99)

At last, a little Oz scrutiny

Wait, let's see that article again, only this time with my glasses on. Can
that be? One of our fearless leaders is actually standing up to the Oz boys? 

Was that really Johnson County Commissioner Johnna Lingle saying Oz
shouldn't get the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant if Oz won't accept full
responsibility for environmental cleanup?

If I wasn't so cynical, I'd say this is a sign that the Oz theme park
development is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves, if not in Topeka
then at least in Johnson County. 

>From Day One the county's position has been that whoever gets control of
Sunflower should accept all the land and be responsible for cleaning up all
9,000 acres. 

Oz had seemed to go along -- in its public pronouncements, anyway. 

Behind the scenes, however, Oz has been trying to accept less
responsibility. Oz wants to buy the land in stages. If approved by federal
and state officials, that would mean no assurance of a full environmental
cleanup. 

"It's unacceptable," Lingle told a reporter last week. "The sole reason the
county was supporting the (Oz sales tax) legislation was for the
remediation of the entire 9,000 acres." 

OK, it wasn't exactly a searing attack, but it was something -- for a
change. Months have zipped by with hardly anyone in a position of authority
asking pointed questions about the $771 million plan to build the Oz theme
park. 

In Topeka only two members of the Johnson County legislative delegation
were willing to lie down in front of the Oz steamroller. 

Rep. Bob Tomlinson of Roeland Park and Sen. Karin Brownlee of Olathe voted
against a bill that would allow Oz to use sales tax money to retire $250
million in bonds in the next 30 years. 

To be fair, other members of the delegation saw to it that the Oz bill had
some safeguards -- requirements that the project pay school property taxes
and that Oz not be allowed to pocket sales tax receipts above the project
cost. 

But they voted for Oz, anyway, partly on faith. 

Faith that Oz might be good for tourism, and faith in the conventional
wisdom that Oz is the only developer willing to acquire all 9,000 acres and
clean up the environmental mess left by the Army. 

If not Oz, goes this theory, then someone else will come in and cherry-pick
the least-contaminated land, which would leave the rest to be cleaned up by
the federal government perhaps decades from now. 

Now we learn that Oz wants to pick some cherries itself. 

The plan is to buy the least-contaminated land now for the theme park, then
take on the rest of the property later. 

Why? Because the developers can't afford up to $5 million for premiums on
cleanup insurance. 

That's right, Oz's high rollers can't or won't raise what amounts to pocket
change, less than 1 percent on a project that's priced at three-quarters of
a billion dollars. 

All together now: Hmm. 

Is it any wonder people find parallels with an outfit called Trizec? 

Trizec, you'll remember, promised to redevelop Union Station if allowed to
construct an office building next door. The building went up. Nothing was
done for the station. Kansas City had to sue the developer to gain control
so Union Station could be saved at a much greater cost. 

Oz is making promises that it will eventually clean up all the land. Johnna
Lingle is right to be skeptical. Promises alone won't cut it. 

All content © 1999 The Kansas City Star