Rumor is you are sitting on the water supply problem rather than begin to check out viable alternatives.
Disgusted taxpayers are questioning the legality of continuing to collect the local option sales tax designated for a Clarke County reservoir, which is an eliminated alternative.
Is it true new legislation commands acres for a reservoir requiring condemnation of private land be computed only on population census in the county in which the reservoir will be located?
And in addition, the new legislation requires that before a new reservoir can be treated or developed the acquiring agency “shall conduct a review of feasible alternatives to development or creation of a lake as a surface drinking water source.”
“An acquiring agency shall not have the authority to condemn private property ... if one or more feasible alternatives to provision of a drinking water source exist. An alternative that results in the physical expansion of an existing drinking water source is presumed to be a feasible alternative ... An alternative that supplies drinking water by pipeline or other method of transportation or transmission from an existing source located within or outside this state at a reasonable cost is a feasible alternative.” End quote.
Is it true pipelines from Des Moines or Rathbun are alternatives under this new law if the cost is within reasonable parameters even if overall price exceeds projections for a lake requiring condemnation?
Doesn’t “expansion of an existing drinking water source” include dredging and/or building storage ponds above West Lake?
Another alternative is capitalizing on a gravity fed pipeline from Arbor Valley Lake to West Lake, as well as the potential for expansion of Arbor Valley without the use of condemnation.
Why are you continuing to make land purchases in the current project area when this project must be reevaluated as commanded by this new law?
Has each commissioner informed the bodies you represent regarding new legislation?
Has each body voted permission to proceed on this currently proposed lake?
Are you aware you may be liable for millions of misspent funds?