"Due Diligence" They Call It?

Is this what's next for us?

The condemnation and taking of the Astoria Red Lion Inn property for yet another undisclosed scheme?

Looks to me, the cogs are starting to fall into place for the next "boondoggle"by the dealmakers at the port.

Do we really need condos on that site?

Wouldn't condos at a planned unit development on Skipanon Peninsula be more exciting?

Before the port goes off on its next adventure, let's take a look at a couple of the deals in question.

Calpine: A 60-plus-year irrevocable lease of 92 acres at $38,000 a year for a half-billion dollar project with the potential to pump one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day out of our community to Calpine's "commercial clients" in who knows where, through their pipeline through who knows where, for a measly and purely speculative $6 million dollars a year tax revenue that will be so diluted by the time it gets back to this community that it will mean nothing, and a few jobs nobody here is qualified to handle.

Not one thought of a residual per cubic feet of that gas or a tariff on gross revenue, just a $38,000-per-year lease to go from one hand to another.

Don’t even get into the infrastructure upheaval.

And these people actually expect us to believe they did “due diligence?�

Bornsteins: Starting out with a port-sanctioned loan through the state Economic Development Commission, forgive me for not getting that name right, for what was it, $6 million-plus dollars and then, deep in the throes of construction, Bornsteins comes back and says “Ooops, we need another $4 million because we overlooked something?�

And the amazing thing is they got it!

Lack of “due diligence� is exactly what I would call it, on somebody’s part and yes, it’s time to cut some cords and quickly.

Another appropriate question is: Who does the overseeing of these state ports? Is it true, as I read somewhere, that they are an island unto themselves?