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The Rape of the Taxpayer Via Iowa's Earthpork (oops, Park)
http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=665

Steve Bowers

October 1, 2006


As far as I'm concerned, getting the "privilege" of hosting Earthpark, the $155-million albatross that federal taxpayers are on the hook for $50 million for (courtesy of Chuck Grassley) is kind of like getting herpes -- nobody wanted it, now the sleepy little town of Pella, Iowa where up until very recently, blue laws prohibited stores like Wal Mart from being open on Sunday, is pretending like they are happy to have it.

They've been shopping this albatross around for ten years now. It began as eccentric nut Ted Townsend's Center for Health in a Loving Democracy -- CHILD to use the cute acronym. If you don't believe someone could come up with such an idiotic name, check out the URL. Recognizing the idiocy of this name, the promoters of this behemoth renamed it the Iowa Environmental Project. Now they've named it Earthpark. Given the fact that this thing is a recipe for taxpayer rape, Earthpork is a more appropriate name.

Coralville, Iowa was the first finalist for this massive bubble of pork and they choked on the demands of the promoters, the majority of whom are a bunch of rich folks who would rather spend the taxpayer’s money on their wasteful pet project than their own. Since they were demanding $25 million and a bunch of land from Coralville but were unable to prove they could raise the private money to make the thing work, Coralville basically told them to shove it. Now they've given the Pork Forest to Pella: Lucky Pella, it's theirs for only $25 million in Marion County money. Bend over Marion County residents:

    Pella has won the 10-year derby to host Earthpark, a combination rainforest, aquarium and education center modeled after an international attraction in England.

    The Earthpark board today picked Pella over Riverside, the other finalist.

    Over the years, Des Moines businessman Ted Townsend and associates had negotiated with a number of other communities — including Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Coralville — over where the park would be located.

    The $155 million project is slated to include a three-section indoor rainforest, 600,000 gallon aquarium, a virtual-reality theater, galleries on Iowa’s natural resources and food production, outdoor trails, education facilities and outdoor prairie.

    The final site competition came more than a decade after Townsend — who also founded the already operational Great Ape Trust of Iowa in Des Moines — first began looking for a spot. The negotiations were hampered at times by local communities’ struggle to come up with their $25 million share of the financing.

    Earthpark changed names, architects and project concepts along the way.

    Earthpark still has not announced full financing for the project, which would draw an estimated million visitors a year.

    After 16 communities expressed some interest in the late going, the choice came down to Riverside and Pella.

    At Riverside, Earthpark would add to the draw of a local casino that offered support, but the city council there had many unanswered questions about the city’s financial liability.

As you can tell from the Register story, it's hard for anyone to paint a rosy picture about this bloated mound of pork. Riverside was smart to have a lot of questions and I suspect Pella should have had a hell of a lot more questions than they had.

In the first place, they've been pushing this idea for the past ten years and STILL haven't gotten a commitment for the private donations. Instead, they've got Chuck Grassley to commit to saddling the taxpayers of this great nation with a $50 million tax bill and the fools in Pella have saddled their citizens with another $25 million. By their own admission, this is about all they have -- if they even have it:

    The planning and construction budget for Earthpark will come from a variety of sources. The US Department of Energy has granted $50 million in assistance to support all aspects of the program. Earthpark has also received $10 million from Des Moines businessman and project founder, Ted Townsend, and there is also a $10 million in-kind partnership available from an out-of-state company. It is expected that the selected site and local public/private partnership will provide at least $25 million toward project financing. Additional funding will come from corporate and private sources, as well as the State of Iowa.
What is "assistance" from "The US Department of Energy"? Well, walk to the nearest mirror, point your finger at the reflection, and thank the person you see for their generosity. Likewise, Pella residents, for the "public/private partnership" that will "provide at least $25 million in funding". If you think a significant portion of this boondoggle is coming from the "private" part of "public/private" you are truly a fool. Add the $20 million from Townsend and the "in-kind partnership" and you still come up $60 million short of the $155 million "projected cost". As we know from recent bloated projects in Iowa, this "projection" is probably more pull-it-out-of-our-ass than accurate. (Remember the $168 million Iowa Events Center that ended up costing $217 million?) If we're realistic about it and say $200 million, they are $105 million short. Where's this going to come from?

Now consider the location. Again, in the Earthpork web site's own words:

    The nationally recognized firm on ConsultEcon, Inc. has estimated attendance up to one million annually with an eastern Iowa location.
This would be the plum "eastern Iowa location" in Coralville a thriving bedroom community of the University of Iowa with a population of 17,000 right on Interstate 80 -- one of the busiest East/West roadways in the United States of America. The pork dome would have sat on a plot of land right on I-80 and readily accessible to the tens of thousands of people who fly by every day.

Where did this glistening mound of pork actually land? In a sleepy town of 10,000, 25 miles south of one of the busiest East/West roadways in the U.S. -- and there are no major thoroughfares leading from the busy roadway to the sleepy town.

Oops! Cut that attendance estimate in half at least.

Am I the only one who can envision what pork project comes next? A several-hundred million dollar project to build a 4-lane controlled access roadway from the busy interstate to the Pork Forest where none was needed before. We could call it the Great Iowa Porkway.