To the editor:

I was appalled at the NIETC meeting hosted by the Barton County Commissioners Tuesday evening. The commissioners were short-changed and the citizens were completely disrespected. When nobody from the project is present, and the M 3 gang (Moran, Marshall, and Mann) send uninformed staff to field questions that they can’t answer – you have a complete waste of time and a massive message of disrespect from our elected officials. It makes me suspect that the deal is done, and these meetings are held to meet the requirements of the project so it can proceed. Our elected officials have betrayed us by not stopping this long ago. They either approved the appointment of some person or didn’t oppose one when they should have.

When Senator Moran’s representative isn’t familiar with the Acciona threat to our Cheyenne Bottoms – we have definitely been shoved to the back burner. We need to know if Acciona is involved in this project. I hope that the Barton County Commissioners will be interested in knowing if Acciona is involved and inform us of the facts. The citizens of Barton County deserve to know that information.

I was intrigued by the outrage at the possibility of “eminent domain” being used to take land out of use. Whether you lease the land to Acciona or the government takes it for a “good project,” the result is the same – pristine Kansas land is removed from access or use. It’s funny to me that one process is promoted, and one is despised. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Both projects take electricity from Kansas to large cities and trash a whole bunch of irreplaceable Kansas land and threaten our marsh and flyways. I don’t see much benefit to Kansas by either one. It is a strange world.

Dan Witt

Hoisington