These Marxists around here never give up! I will never vote for Fred Hunsaker (R) again! He is no more a Republican than the next Democrat! If he won't stand up for Republican/American values and protect the Constitution and private property, why vote for him?

This whole "open space" BS is a ploy in order to frighten everyone into thinking that there will be no where to walk or bike in a few years. Hello! It's private property, no one should walk or bike on it now. Does the term "Private Property" mean anything? They want to control all the land is what its really all about. The chairman of the Land Use committee for Cache County and Logan City made the statement not too long ago of how the citizens don't really own their land. He said that we just rent it by paying taxes on it. Sounds like Little Communist China in Big Cache Valley to me.

The following is from the Hearld Journal 7/7/06

"County officials meeting to create Critical Lands Task Force

Local officials will strategize ways to gain political and public support for a county-wide conservation easement program that could preserve open space.

In a “grassroots effort,” members of the county’s Agricultural Advisory Board, legislators, elected officials and representatives from outdoor and wildlife organizations will meet to create a Critical Lands Task Force at a July 11 meeting. The task force would help create a local program that would pay landowners to give up development rights.

“We have a lot of people who want to keep their land the same as it was,” Dave Rayfield, chairman of the Bridgerland Outdoor Coalition, who plans to attend the meeting, said. “The conservation easement programs get them what they are due.”

Easements allow landowners to sell the right to develop their land, giving farmers extra money and, at the same time, preserving agricultural lands, wildlife habitats, vistas and trails, said Cindy Hall Bilskie, community and economic development director of the Bear River Association of Governments.

However, there is no local source of funds to purchase conservation easements from landowners.

“The people around the state are seeing we have a lot of good conservation easement projects and they are wondering why we as a county are not doing anything to fund those projects,” Bilskie said.

The meeting would be the first step in discussing ways to finance the projects with local money and to gain the public’s support to do so, Bilskie said. Past plans, such as creating a bond that would raise property taxes or changing the state code to allow usage of a small percentage of sales tax, have received opposition. In order to pass a bond, public officials need to be willing to allow the public to vote, then the public must actually pass the vote, making public and political support the key, Bilskie said.

Rep. Fred Hunsaker, R-Logan, said there is almost always opposition to tax increases, but a local easement program needs to be developed soon as land continues to be developed and critical lands may soon run out.

“If we don’t do something shortly then we don’t have an option to do something in the future,” Hunsaker said. “The real question is how is it funded and what methods of funding should we consider.”

Hunsaker has worked to obtain money that could be used to match federal funds already providing conservation easement."