Letter to the Editor

Nabity feedback

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Dear Editor,

I realize that Dave Nabity has little to no chance of winning the GOP nomination for governor next year, but his thoughts and ideas reported in the April 29 Gazette ["Candidate emphasizes outstate growth" (http://www. mccookgazette.com/story/1095475.html)] deserve some feedback.

Nabity evidently hasn't been out of Omaha much in the past few years, for he has no clue what's going on in outstate Nebraska. When he talks of increasing economic development through livestock numbers, he shows no awareness of the growing rural Nebraska tidal wave against large, corporate livestock farms.

If he had been following the "livestock friendly" debate for Nebraska's counties, he'd know that only a couple have opted to go that route. More and more counties are concerned about being "people friendly" --they're already 'livestock friendly." They just don't want all the livestock concentrated in one section, where the odors and water contamination can affect county residents for miles around.

Nabity also demonstrates no awareness of Nebraska's ongoing water woes. When he promotes "marinas and lodges" for the state's lakes, he doesn't realize that many of them -- McConaughy being the biggest -- are battling historic water lows.

Some of this has been aggravated by drought, but most of it has been brought on by the endless sapping of our underground water reserve by groundwater irrigators. A bunch of new lodges and marinas on Nebraska's receding lake shores are not going to pump up the state's economy.

Nebraska can indeed become a "Jewel of the Midwest," as Nabity claims, but his ideas would simply escalate the depopulation of our rural areas and make it much less attractive for tourists.

I have no idea where Nabity came up with his ideas, but thankfully, he won't have a chance to implement them.

Pete Letheby

Grand Island

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