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2.4.06 Ashland residents fear study, not lake, would harm city Mayor Ronna Wiig couldn't tell whether the caller was serious. "Someone asked if we'll ever have lakeside properties," Wiig said, shaking her head. The phone "with callers both joking and real" hasn't stopped ringing at her home, at her office and anywhere she goes since a state senator announced a plan last month to dam the Platte River and build a large reservoir in the Interstate 80 corridor. One rendition of the plan would flood several hundred square miles of land, including Ashland, and force the town,s nearly 2,300 residents to relocate eight miles west. With decorative life preservers proclaiming "Save Ashland" on storefronts and Web sites such as www.saveashland.com popping up, the residents are fighting back. They're booking $5 tickets for a chartered bus to take them to a rally at the state Capitol on Monday, when a committee will hear state Sen. Pam Brown's proposal (LB1121) for a $3 million study of the feasibility of the lake. Wiig, a 30-year resident of the town, plans to testify against the measure with facts, not emotions, she said. It's not the lake or the possibility of moving the 150-year-old town that scares her, she said, because she figures the project will never come to fruition. What's worrying to her and others is that the study would cast a negative spell over the city, undoing its recent strides in population growth and development. "We are not fighting a lake. I don't think the lake has any possibilities. But the study cannot be hanging over our heads," Wiig said. Brown, of Omaha, hopes to study building a hydroelectric dam on the Platte River to create an 80-square-mile lake between Lincoln and Omaha. The towns of Waverly, Greenwood and Gretna would become lakeside communities under the project that has been projected to cost between $1 billion and $3 billion. Wiig, who has been mayor for three years, said she plans to tell the Senate Appropriations Committee how her town has been growing in recent years. Last year, Ashland issued some 150 building permits, a record for the town, she said. The city is taking bids in the next three to four months for a sewage treatment plant and a water tower, and officials hope to start work on a community center and library within the next two years, she said. Last year, Ashland was the second-fastest-growing city of those with populations of 2,000 to 10,000 people in the state, Wiig said. Bob Luebbe, who runs saveashland.com and is president of Linoma Software in Ashland, said the study would deter people from moving to town or setting up businesses, drive property values down and cost jobs. "We are united and a loyal community, and we don't take kindly to outside folks dictating to us," Luebbe said. Brown said she doesn't buy the argument that the study would harm Ashland. A city's circumstances can always change for the worse, often for unforeseen reasons, so the study should be no different, she said. "Things change all the time, and I don't think we should be scared of getting information," Brown said. Though emotions have been high since her plan was announced "the proposal was a surprise to Wiig and Ashland residents," Brown said her testimony Monday could help bring the study to fruition. The information she planned to present would be compelling, she said, though she declined to give specifics. "At this point, I would say the political rhetoric has been fairly negative," Brown said. "But I think when you start to look at some of the other information, I think it's a different story." The Lancaster County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously against the proposal. Gov. Dave Heineman said he does not think there is much support for the proposal in the Legislature and he doubts it'll make it to his desk. He wants to develop the area between Lincoln and Omaha but hopes that communities will have more input in the process. "Whatever we do in this area, and I hope we do some great things, it needs to be done by working with everybody involved," Heineman said. To understand what Ashland might face were it forced to rebuild, Wiig called people in the Lancaster County town of Hallam, which was destroyed by a tornado in 2004. They told her it cost $1.7 million just to replace the infrastructure of the town, which is made up of about 300 homes. Ashland has nearly 1,000 homes, she said. The city of Lincoln and the Metropolitan Utilities District for Omaha have said they'd have to spend millions to replace their well fields and other infrastructure drawing water in Ashland. The idea of damming the Platte to create a reservoir isn't new. It's been tossed around several times since the 1930s and was studied seriously for several years in the 1960s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agency ultimately deemed the project unfeasible because of disruptions to the environment and the cost, Wiig said. The current situation and proposal is far different from the one in the 1960s, Brown said, because the federal highway system wasn't fully developed and people weren't living in the area and commuting to Lincoln or Omaha. The area today has broad connections to the region, she said. It's not even clear whether the study would ultimately recommend flooding Ashland, a town Brown said she admires for the way it has developed itself and protected nearby Mahoney State Park, Brown said. There are other renditions of the project that would see it flooding other areas, she said. "The study is a study is a study is a study, and a study only brings together the facts," Brown said. "It doesn't assume conclusions." But to Wiig, Luebbe and other Ashland residents, it's not that simple. They're rallying to prevent the study. Some 600 residents attended a hearing recently to learn more about the proposal. They're signing up for trips to the Capitol Monday and they're buying up clothes with blue and white, Ashland's colors, to show their support. Wiig and Luebbe plan to take their children to the rally Monday to show them that you have to fight for what you believe in, they said. "Ashland is priceless. I'll go to my grave saying that," Wiig said. |
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