After several city officials last week expressed a desire to see continued study on a proposed NRD reservoir project, they got an earful from landowners in the Dog Creek area at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
With a standing-room only gathering inside the already-tight council chambers, the Wayne City Council heard testimony from area landowners about a proposed reservoir that would flood land around Dog Creek, located north and west of town.
Mayor Ken Chamberlain, one of five city officials whose e-mails were read by NRD officials at last week’s meeting, set to diffuse the situation before the public spoke.
“I know there’s a lot of frustration with e-mails and letters sent by council members and myself,” he told the audience. “I have had conversations with a few of you before that meeting, and I have not gotten in front of anybody banging the drum saying we need to build a lake. There’s a lot of questions that need answered and a lot that I don’t believe (anybody) has answers for.”
Chamberlain said he believes some of the reasons for the study on the reservoirs comes from Lincoln and Omaha city officials wanting to address their own water issues, and that he was in favor of the study only to get some of his questions answered.
“Omaha pulls half of their water out of the Missouri River, and it costs money to treat that water,” he said. “Omaha and Lincoln have 85 percent of the population and 75 percent of the Legislature, and if they want something they’re going to get something. I don’t think these questions get answered without that study, and that’s why I was in favor of study.”
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