New strategies in Clarke County lake issue

Imagine spending years of your life fighting to keep YOUR land from being grabbed up by those who covet what you have for their personal gain.

Imagine hard feelings with your neighbors and people you thought were your friends because you would not roll over and give in to the greed of others.

Imagine the price paid  in your sense of well-being, belief in fairness, and cost in personal finances that years of fighting for what is yours takes on your life.

Imagine what it would be like to find out that there was an alternate, less expensive way for water to be provided for the county where you live.

And then imagine what it would be like to uncover information that exposes the twisted, underhanded, and conniving “ramblings” of those who are desperate to grab your land away.

Yes, envision what life is like for those who are at risk of losing their  land and homes.
According to an article in the Osceola Sentinel – Tribune there is an alternate way to get water to Clarke County.

Pipeline costs were also discussed at the meeting. The construction of this alternative to the reservoir would mean pumping water from McMullen Water Treatment Plant in southwest Des Moines to Osceola.

The pipeline would be constructed along country roads for the majority of the route. The 38 miles of pipeline is estimated to cost $32 million.

Doug Robins, Clarke County landowner, states the following in a letter send to Richard Simms of the NRCS.

The reason I am writing you today is to ask if you are aware that an alternative to a water supply for Clarke County is a pipeline from Maffit reservoir west of Des Moines. At the last CCRC meeting a cost estimate was presented to the commission at a cost of just under 32 million dollars. The last estimate of the reservoir was 42 million dollars and that is not including the cost of the stream mitigation that the EPA is requiring which could run into more millions of dollars.

My question to you is, as the head of the Iowa NRCS, why are your employees still pursuing the reservoir when Clarke county can have an adequate water supply for at least ten million dollars less. As a taxpayer of this county and state I have seen this project spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with the NRCS charging the county close to $350,000 for your services.

And here is an e-mail that was written by Dan McIntosh, Manager of the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association. The document was requested by Doug Robbins through the Freedom of Information Act.

“My ramblings on new proposal.”
Possible New CCRC Strategies
Water Needs Assessments Reviewed
SIRWA & CCRC Water Needs Assessments will be reviewed by an independent engineer
*Possibly DNR
The findings will determine how the lake is sized
No Recreation
Recreation will not be a part of the CCRC plan to build the lake
*Lake would be fenced in so no one could use it for recreation
Positives
Those most vocal against current plan have said they would be “willing sellers” of their land if these two changes were made
Much less opposition from land owners & others around the state
*Takes the CCRC out of the “Hot Seat”
Less acres to buy because we only need to purchase the buffer strip & possibly land to square up property lines.
Legislature will not need to modify the current Eminent Domain law
*It works as they want it to
Negatives
NRCS will have to develop new Draft Plan
Costs for CCRC will increase due to less funding from NRCS because this will not be a multi-purpose lake anymore
*LOSST Tax will be in effect years longer
Positives
Area Citizens will be upset at the thought of no recreation
*CCRC Board can deflect blame to:
* Certain stubborn landowners
* Representatives Kaufmann & Tymeson
We will finally get the “Silent Majority” of the citizens to express their feelings
*They WANT RECREATION on the new lake

Negatives
It will probably add time to the planning stages of the lake

“Deflect blame to certain stubborn landowners”?

“Deflect blame to Representatives Kaufmann & Tymeson”?

Twist things around to say NO RECREATION because you know that “they WANT RECREATION”?

Readers, can you see what the ‘certain stubborn landowners’ are up against?

These people must be exposed for what they are doing before  more tax dollars are spent to create a lake when there is an alternate water source.

Iowans and Americans: What will you do to put those working to find ways to unscrupulously take this land and put them in the “hot seat”?

The time is now.

Your land could be next.

Taylor County, I hope you are paying attention to the struggles that may be coming your way.