Dam site comparisons don’t stand up reason

To the Editor,

     After reading the Jones County Conservation Director’s summation of the effects of removing the dam in Manchester and trying to draw a comparison to the Mon Maq Dam was basically apples to oranges. His statement that fishing remained the same before and after the removal was not real comforting since that’s one of the benefits he preaches. Non-fishing activity has increased by five times at Manchester, which can be answered by the fact they made the whitewater park for kayakers in the center of town. Pretty sure this option was not available in Monticello, but the whitewater park was an option offered to a group of school children at one of the director’s meetings at Central Park to arouse interest in the vote to take out the dam. an option that was later taken off the table because our dam is located on a dead-end road outside of town. Nonetheless, the vote by this group was used in later grant applications to show public support for removal. Also conveniently left out was any report of the number of injuries incurred at the Manchester water park because it does require more experienced kayakers than average to navigate.

     I’m really skeptical about blanket comments of fishermen satisfaction and attractiveness of the site. Those are pretty subjective to reflect what the writer wants to accomplish with that statement. We can say those same things about the Mon Maq Dam and don’t have to pull comments out of our hats. Don’t forget we have 3,100 people in opposition to the removal of our dam and plenty of photographic evidence that the fish population needs very little input from the Conservation Director other than to admit that this piece of Monticello’s history is important to a huge portion of the voting public. I’m thinking that is a fact that should be taken into consideration by the “current” county supervisors.

     As the grants that have already been awarded time out or are withdrawn by the grantors, we are seeing the rewards of standing up to this ridiculous plan to waste taxpayer money. I would only like to say one more thing to the powers that be: “We ain’t done yet.”

Thanks

Larry McDonald

Monticello, Iowa