Wishful Thinking and High Hopes Fuel CRC, Not Concern for the People

For some years now, the Columbia River Crossing Project, an overly ambitious desire to replace the aging Interstate 5 bridges between Clark County Washington and Portland Oregon and force Clark County citizens to accept Portland’s financially embattled light rail against our will, has elected to ignore the voters and taxpayers on both sides of the river. Common sense was thrown out the window from the beginning as schemes, plots and at times, outright lies have been used in an effort to portray the project as being favorable to citizens.

On the contrary, more people are expressing opposition after each effort.

But when it comes to the empire building effort of those involved with the CRC, taxpayers mean little even though we will be forced to foot the bill for this boondoggle for many generations and jobs will be destroyed upriver and in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Jobs that the very people they expect to foot the bill for this nightmare rely on to survive and pay the tolls, fees and taxes that will be needed to pay the monstrosity off.

Ring Out The Old and Ring In The New

Just hours from now we will be bidding adieu to 2012 and welcoming in 2013 with uncertain prospects in our future.

2012 saw several disappointments for conservatives as the march towards socialism in America increases, embraced by those who fall for whatever canard they are spoon-fed by the leftist pundits in the lamestream media.

Almost unbelievable was seeing Barack Obama, after four dismal years at the helm of the country, easily swept back into office in November. That all indicators point to us being much worse off than when he and his party seized the country, he easily won reelection against Mitt Romney amid more empty promises of how much better he will make the country, even though are more divided today than we have been in several decades.

Is Congresswoman Herrera Beutler Paying Any Attention?

Totally unbelievable that as more and more revelations of incompetence keep being revealed, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, in who’s district the bridge is located seems to be completely oblivious to what continues being revealed. A partial list can be seen in my recent posts here and here or simply scanning through current editions and archives of Couv.com and the Willamette Week, particularly articles by Nigel Jaquiss.

With all of the revelations of the bridge not supply sufficient clearance for river traffic, the Oregon Supreme Court admitting the prime reason for the project was to overcome Clark County’s objection to light rail, traffic estimates being wrong that proposed tolling is based upon, questionable financing and accounting and many more problems facing this $3.6 Billion boondoggle, what does our freshman 3rd Congressional District do?

Send out the following mailer, of course.

CRC and WSDOT: Defending the Indefensible

After years of “studies” and planning, not to mention sinking nearly $150 Million of taxpayer money into the abyss we call the Columbia River Crossing project, revelations previously marginalized, if not hidden, seem to be coming forth in a rapid pace. By all appearances, more and more it shows that we “Hounds of Whinerville,” citizens and business owners who have spoken against this boondoggle have been largely correct in their warnings.

The appearance of gross incompetence of this project is almost unimaginable. That anybody would even attempt to defend this high level of incompetence is even more unbelievable. But, with every revelation that has come out, that is exactly what some elected leaders and directors of the WSDOT and CRC continue to do.

How can we forget the abysmal treatment of forensic accountant Tiffany Couch after her independent audit of what documents she received from CRC pertaining to the finances of the project raised several red flags? Questionable payments, unaccounted for funds, questionable accounting practices all swept under the rug as WSDOT used two of their top level people to review her findings before writing them off and claiming theirs was an “independent review.”

Tie that to the claims of 49th legislative district representative Jim Moeller who said of her findings, “In a project of such huge scale and complexity, at least some errant billing and bookkeeping is inevitable,” before demeaning Ms. Couch with, “I think that Tiffany is doing the job she was hired to do, and that’s stop the project” questioning her objectivity due to her being hired by successful businessman David Madore, a critic of the project.

But who questions Moeller’s “objectivity” what with the project being in his district?

TriMet GM Sees A Problem, Will CRC and C-Tran Take Note?

The excessively high cost and expense of the Columbia River Crossing project is no secret. This blog, other Conservative blogs such as Clark County Politics, Couv.com and even the Columbian sometimes have spoken about it.

The Oregonian, Willamette Week and the Reflector in Clark County have lent their voices to the problems seen by citizens and some elected officials, to no avail. Any and all voices are written off as “designed to stop the project” of replacing the aging Interstate Bridges and dragging Portland’s financially ailing Light Rail into Clark County, even though 3 times in the past voters indicated in election we did not want it.

Even an independent forensic audit was soon shoved aside by WSDOT officials who seem to have no problem with millions of our tax dollars being unaccounted for in this project.

Tiffany Couch, the forensic auditor stands behind her report.

Couv.com recently informs us of how business owners downtown Vancouver are being left “in the lurch” as CRC admits their scheduled date of 2013 to start likely will not happen until 2014 or later.

They also inform us of officials looking for new ways to squeeze funds out of citizens for transportation upgrades, realizing there just is not funds readily available in this “Great Recession.”

So what possible problem could Portland’s TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane see that hasn’t been already seen?

CRC and C-TRAN Can’t See the ‘Elephant in the Room’

Undaunted by questions and growing opposition from taxpayers, the Columbia River Crossing and C-Tran continue to forge ahead with the multi-billion dollar project, ignoring or casting aside just about every single concern of taxpayers, business owners, elected officials, engineers, just about any and every person looking at this albatross and our economy and saying, ‘wait a minute.’

As was previously shown, an independent analysis of CRC finances raising several pertinent questions was instantly dismissed and the forensic accountant hired to wade through a “document dump” received through a FOIA request disparaged and demeaned.

As evidenced by the following Columbian video, Washington State Department of Transportation Director Paula Hammond makes no bones in her criticism of the analysis,

You can read more on Ms. Hammonds’ defending CRC over on the Columbian at Transportation agency defends work on CRC with additional video and coverage at Official: 2013 CRC start date not likely.