Grand Jury Petition To Be Circulated

A petition calling for a Grand Jury investigation on the 18th Street Extension project will be circulated beginning Friday to citizens of Grove.
Backers of the petition are hoping to get 650-700 signatures, "or more than the winning candidate got in the last city council election," said Jack Forrest, local real estate broker.
He said petitions would be circulated by some 35 citizens who will be out in the neighborhoods. He said the purpose of the Grand Jury would be to determine "why city government and certain citizens of Grove did what they did" in killing the 13th Street project and approving the new 18th street extension from Sumac to Shundi.
He said the petition's purpose is to "call a grand jury for the purpose of investigating activities, agreements, and participants, including members of the Grove City government and certain citizens of Grove as to their role, if any, in the events between November 5, 2003, and June 1, 2004, which would explain the decision to precipitously move City funds, without proper agenda item public notice, from 13th street to 18th street."
Forrest maintains that the 18th street extension is part of a plan to by-pass Main Street and 3rd Street and re-designate Highway 59, and as such, should be built by ODOT, not by city funds using outside contractors.
"Any attempt to influence ODOT to build a bypass around Grove to the East, by spending millions of dollars of city funds to do the preliminary work on the bypass, borders on criminality," Forrest said.
The November 5 date is a key, he said, as on that date City Manager Bill Galletly wrote to ODOT requesting a revision in priorities from widening Main Street between 13th and Third, to a bypass around the north side of Grove on O'Daniel Blvd. In the same letter he also asked if the Highway 59 widening project could extend up the hill to 13th street, to tie into the eastbound arterial, 13th street, and a reconstructed Shundi from 13th street north to Highway 10.
Galletly has told The Observer that Council did not vote on this matter but that he consulted with "several people and the mayor at that time, Bob Nold."
The Main Street widening project, however, stopped short of going up the hill and is now at least 14 years from being constructed, according to the city manager.
At a city council meeting on June 1, 2004, a discussion was held on a proposal to move $1,350,000 for widening 13th street, to the 18th Street Extension project. Council voted to authorize a study by Garver Engineering which subsequently recommended the change which was approved by Council. Garver Engineering eventually was awarded the engineering contract for the 18th street project.
The Miami News-Record report of the June 1 meeting stated that there had been a quid pro quo, i.e., the 18th street extension project was approved in exchange for a 20-acre donation from Seigfried Properties, Inc. for the site of Grove's new Civic Center.
Forrest has made no secret of his opposition to the Seigfried location east of Grove in favor of a location with a view of Grand Lake easily seen from a main highway.