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| | | published Tuesday, May 17, 2011 | 1056 Views :: 0 Comments | |  |
By Donald Bradley and Lynn Horsley
From The Kansas City Star
Too late to stand in front of bulldozers, an anti-nuke group has presented a petition to try to defuse a bomb component plant going up in south Kansas City.
Voters could see a proposed initiative on the ballot in November.
The petition does not seek to halt construction at the billion-dollar Honeywell campus at Botts Road and Missouri 150. Instead, it would divert the plant from its intended use to “green energy” manufacturing.
Critics of the petition effort say the project is too far along and predict the initiative will get knocked down in court long before it gets on the ballot.
The KC Peace Planters, a grassroots coalition of nuclear opponents and peace activists, contend it’s not too late to stop a bad idea.
The group acknowledges seeming slow in taking action on a project initiated in 2007 and finally approved by the City Council early last year.
“We don’t have big dollars,” said Henry Stoever, an attorney with KC Peace Planters. “We do what we can.”
The plant, a key component in the ongoing modernization of America’s nuclear deterrent, is scheduled to open in the middle of 2014.
Rachel MacNair, who coordinated the petition drive, says the first hurdle has been met. Only 3,572 signatures were needed — a number based on 5 percent of votes cast in the recent mayoral election. The group turned in 4,959.
The city election board will verify whether enough signatures are valid.
“Let the people of Kansas City decide this,” MacNair said. “The Cold War is over. The New START treaty has been passed. This is a poor investment for this city. What happens a few years from now when the country decides it will no longer build nuclear weapons?”
Jude Huntz, human rights director for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said in a statement that the initiative provides “the opportunity to decide what we wish to see built at this new facility, to decide what we will be as a city, a nation and as a global community.”
According to city attorney Galen Beaufort, “legal issues” should kill the initiative.
First, he said, the opponents’ goal would impair contracts already in existence between the developer, CenterPoint Zimmer; the tenant, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies; and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Second, says a city law department memo, plant opponents contend Kansas City will own the plant or the land it sits on.
“These are conscientious, good, smart people, but they are wrong on this point,” Beaufort said.
The facility will be owned by the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, a state-chartered agency with members appointed by the mayor.
Stoever, the KC Peace Planters attorney, said that he expects to argue such issues in court.
Councilman Ed Ford and freshman councilman Jermaine Reed attended the petitioners’ rally on Thursday.
Ford, the only council member to oppose the project when it was first approved, said: “I remain steadfastly opposed to building non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons.”
But he wasn’t sure the petitioners’ approach was lawful or would work. He could not say whether he would vote to put this proposal on the November ballot.
“Whether one can force green technology through an initiative petition remains to be seen,” he said.
Scott Wagner, new to the council, said he had met with petitioners early this year, during his council campaign.
“The issues they brought up are legitimate to talk about,” Wagner said, adding that a public vote could prompt a serious public dialogue.
Wagner said one of his biggest concerns is the health and safety of workers at the new plant, since there have been allegations of such problems at the current plant in the Bannister Federal Complex.
Councilman John Sharp, whose 6th District includes the new plant, is clear where he stands.
“Anyone can see this project is well under way,” Sharp said, adding that killing the plant now would “leave a giant hole in our local economy.”
Sharp said the plant is employing hundreds of local construction workers and will provide 2,100 well-paying manufacturing jobs when finished. If the plant isn’t completed in Kansas City, he said, the government will just move those jobs to another plant in Albuquerque, N.M.
Ann Suellentrop of Peace Planters said the new building would be ideal for the manufacture of wind energy equipment, such as high-voltage power lines, turbines and windmills.
“Kansas could be to wind what Saudi Arabia is to oil,” she said. |
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