c. Russell Wood Letter on NHA
An open letter to Kris Norman
Ozarks Preservation, INC.
March 23, 2011
Mr. Norman,
When Ray Cunio and I met with you and Mrs. Brenda Bell some six years ago concerning your ambition to form a National Heritage Area, we advised you that we would oppose such action. You, in turn, assured us you would notify us if you decided to pursue such a designation. Subsequently, you choose to ignore that dialogue and worked under our radar during the ensuing years to achieve your goal Due to your successful methods of subterfuge, we did not engage in your project until the fall of 2010.
Only after Mr. L.D. Davis reminded you of your promise to inform me did you attempt to contact us and arrange the meeting we had at Cabool in Nov. 2010. At the Cabool meeting we were told there was no documentation or paper work and that the feasibility study was an incomplete work in progress and there was nothing to show. We soon learned there were over 700 pages of relative material in your files and that the draft plan had been compiled at the time we were told it did not exist.
You must have thought we were complete fools or “useful idiots.”
While your effort pulled down about $200,000.00 of taxpayer money to fund you in 2010, we rely on our private resources and time to stave off these unneeded and unwanted designations with their potential regulations and restrictions on our private property.
You should not be surprised that many of our rank and file do not accept at face value your statement of withdrawal based on your past track record. We have compiled a large file of evidence of public opposition to any Heritage Area or similar designation that, in any way, includes our private property within any proclaimed boundaries. We prepared this file to present to the appropriate congressional committees, Missouri’s congressional delegation, National Park Service, and any other decision making body involved.
We will retain this file made up of letters from county commissions, newspaper articles and pictures, letters to the editors and complete audio recording of the Mtn. View meeting etc. for future dissemination, as needed, should this or a similar issue. reappear.
I hope I have made our position clear.
Thank you,
c.Russell Wood
President Ozarks Property Right Congress
