|
Muslim youth camp work will begin soon in Iowa
The president of a Cedar Rapids-based Muslim group proposing to build a youth camp here said he hopes to start initial work, including land surveys, early next month. "We hope to start initial work sometime within a few weeks," said Manzoor Ali, president of Muslim Youth Camps of America, or MYCA. "I will be back the first or second week of April to start developing the project plan," Ali said during a telephone interview Thursday.On Wednesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved and signed a lease of up to 25 years with MYCA. Under the agreement, the Corps can terminate the lease at the end of the five-year period if it determines MYCA has not finished a sufficient level of building or planning by that point. Otherwise, the lease can be renewed for 20 more years. The camp would host up to 60 campers, about half as many as initially first proposed by MYCA in 1999. "Obviously, we are very happy about that and we appreciate (the) cooperation of the Corps of Engineers," Ali said. "For the last eight years, we've been working together. ... We will follow the lease according to the plan." Ali said he did not know when the camp would open but said he hoped to release more details after the MYCA board meeting in early April. Construction is expected to take place during a five-year period. MYCA's original proposal called for a 17,500-square-foot lodge, 12 tent camping platforms, 10 cabins and a 75-foot-tall prayer tower. Those plans have since been cut in half and the $934,000 camp would now include a 2,400-square-foot central lodge, five cabins, five tent pads, a central bathroom facility and a trail system. The camp would occupy the former Girl Scout Camp Daybreak on more than 100 acres of land two miles northeast of North Liberty adjacent to Coralville Lake. The Girl Scouts used the area until a 1990 fire destroyed their lodge. The land has remained in federal custody under the U.S. Corps of Engineers. An Army Corps of Engineers spokesman has said the MYCA has the right to start camping on the site immediately but must receive local, county or state permits before it can build. Although MYCA is a Muslim-based organization, the camp would be open to children of all faiths, representatives from the group have said. Under the lease, non-profit groups can use the federal land intermittently during the non-camping season, with a total of about 1,500 people a year. Terese Lisenbee, who lives near the proposed camp along Cumberland Ridge Road, said she does not have any problems with the camp as long as it adheres to the size set out in the lease. "The only concern that I think my husband and I have had is once they lease the land ... they'll try to expand it to a larger campus than what the specs were supposed to be," Lisenbee said. "We wanted to keep it more like a camp setting similar to what the (Girl Scout) kids were in." Questions about sewage and infrastructure improvements on the site remain. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is responsible for issuing a wastewater permit to MYCA. Chuck Corell of the DNR's water quality bureau was out of the office Thursday and unavailable for comment. Johnson County planning and zoning administrator Rick Dvorak also was out of the office Thursday, but assistant administrator RJ Moore said MYCA seems to be meeting prior concerns expressed by the county. "I think Rick feels that they're moving in a direction that the county can feel comfortable with," Moore said.
Front Page Magazine took a look at some of the fine folks involved with this project: Camp Terror Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-24 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=146460 |