The Veterans Clinic. Jim Deal's effort is reported by ABC Newspapers, with one thing gaining my interest. His reliance on professionals.

[UPDATE NOTE: Readers should consult a subsequent Crabgrass post, this link, where I correct a misimpression that only the Landform firm was involved in the City's VA clinic proposal. When I last spoke with the mayor at city hall, he showed me a number of wall renderings apparently done by Landform, and no materials that were expressly identified to me as work output of any other firm. That and the Sakry reporting of Deal having a team without mention of any city team led me to wrongly conclude that only Landform, the only firm I was aware of, worked alone on the city proposal without other firms participating. The referenced subsequent link presents more info.]

Tammy Sakry reported in relevant part:

The clinic will be located at the northeast corner of Sapphire Street and Civic Center Drive.

With the soon-to-be constructed Allina Clinic and now the VA clinic, it is going to be a good medical complex, Deal said.

It also opens up the possibility of other medical-related businesses coming to Ramsey, he said.

While the VA is not talking about how the site was chosen, Deal believes one of the reasons that the PSD proposal was approved was the team he brought in, he said.

His team, which includes the Mark Davis Group and Timco Construction, specializes in medical facilities, Deal said.

So Jim Deal hired seasoned capable professionals, and got the contract. City of Ramsey hired Darren and Mike, and got expensive wall art pastel poster renderings. But they're local.

There is both a lesson, and a thirty day contract termination clause that has yet to be exercised by the city; may it happen soon.

When I talked to Kurt days ago about a data request regarding water ponding, I would have thought he'd have mentioned this, the city requesting, somehow and supposedly with a paper trail, funding for a pilot program that could be a national trend setter.

Is there anyone with knowledge about why there has been no paper trail shown for this landmark "Innovations" effort of the Landform insiders, the Senator and possibly the others going to the State for funding? In times of touting "the COR" incessantly, why is this all under a hat? Is there some concern for hiding and not propagandizing such stuff, a Senator applying for a grant his employer and he tout at trade shows, but not being proudly broadcast to the local folks, who presumably are to be treated as mushrooms.

Why? What's to hide? Who do you suppose picked up the conference attendance tab for the three attending? Paying for parking, etc.?  I think I need to request again to see Landform's billings to Ramsey, for January 2010.

_______________________
NOTE: The current facebook page seems to have altered friendships shown than on the cache image, but the Google Cache is dated as to when it was captured, second quarter, 2010 - after the trade conference downtown, where the "pilot program" presentation was an agenda item. The text highlighting on the page is Google's, showing occurences of my search terms on the page. Red underlining was added by me to the saved cache image. I do point out, cronyism and friendship have overlapping but also differing definitions. All the facebook page says, is "friends."