Hundreds of people showed up Tuesday evening in Chiefland to express their opinions about the Suncoast extension now being rammed down our throats by the DOT and politician cronies so a few can get rich.
The meeting was a disappointment because the public was not allowed to speak before any shot-calling group. There were little boxes in several locations where one could deposit written comments. There was no task force composed of public stakeholders to give input. Security was incredibly abundant and overly-obvious.
In several rooms and also outside the building videos were played over and over extolling the contrived needs for this road extension. In the main room easels were set up with info sheets, attended by DOT employees with name tags, ready for any questions. This reminded me strongly of the Sabal Trail open house meetings and those by Twin Pines mining company in Folkston, Georgia.
I asked several different individuals if there was to be an extension past Chiefland into Taylor County and the answer was always “n0.” The suspicion remains that Thomas Peterffy will someday get his city built in Taylor County to make him even richer.
Your historian drove approximately 250 miles with the hopes of speaking with his comments written into to record. Knowing the opacity and covert ways of this toll road crew, I wonder if the written comments will be read, preserved, or dumped into the landfill.
We have written before about how the State pushed public comment to the end of eight-hour meetings, dropped calls of people trying to speak and blocked them if they tried to enter late in the meeting, refused to list “no build” as an option, and would not divulge the number of opposing comments compared to those supporting, and so on and on.
Sierra Club member Mike McGrath was there handing out NO BUILD signs and “No Roads to Ruin” stickers, and these were very popular. OSFR president Kristin Rubin was there helping, and it was apparent that those opposing the road were in the huge majority.
If you should care to turn in comments, here is a link to the DOT propaganda.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
