Artists deliver plan

source: Copyright © 2007 Arkansas Valley Publishing

Artists deliver plan

by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer

Christo and Jeanne Claude plan to suspend fabric above the Arkansas River. The couple delivered a 2,000 page document last week, essential to the environmental impact statement.
Photo: Courtesy Christo and Jeanne Claude

The most detailed account to date of the Christo and Jeanne Claude plan to suspend fabric over the Arkansas River arrived last week at the Bureau of Land Management Royal Gorge Field office in Cañon City.

The 2,000-page document is an essential part of the environmental impact statement to which the bureau is committed as part of its approval process.

After reviewing the document, BLM officials plan to contract the environmental impact statement and continue with a decision about the controversial project.

Christo and Jeanne Claude have a history of out-waiting bureaucratic processes to complete large-scale public art displays that made them wealthy and famous.

Local opposition to the Over the River project is centered in the Howard area, the community that would likely be most effected by the two-week display. A group called Rags Over the Arkansas River formed to lead opposition.

Members believe the project will create major traffic congestion in the narrow canyon east of Salida and safety hazards for canyon residents.

The detailed plan received last week is another attempt by the artists to explain how they plan to stretch fabric in segments above a 40-mile section of river and how they propose to mitigate impact to canyon residents.

The document includes engineering, construction, removal, traffic and safety considerations.

Ken Smith, BLM spokesperson, said the agency isn't ready to release the document for public review.

"At some point we expect it will be available to the public, but we need to review it first," Smith said.

The BLM is working on an agreement with the artists about how the environmental impact statement will be executed. Smith said he could not determine when the statement would be complete.

"We have other things we're working on," he said. "It doesn't go to the front of our priority order. It fits in with our other priorities."