Local Opinions

This weeks Mt Echo (Ironton's newspaper) had an article about last Fridays meeting with Rep. Emerson. Since the paper is not online I'm going to lift part of the story.

Elmer Winingar, owner of Winingar Service Station in Lesterville, was the first to speak up. He said there were too many government agencies involved, with no coordination between the contractor and sub-contractors. "I'd like to see one person be in charge and make decisions," said Winingar.

Dennis Gawronski, owner of Lenny's Convenience Store in Lesterville, agreed. "They are doing absolutely nothing to get the lower lake clean," said Gawronski. "All we want is the river to be back the way it was. I've been pushing for a powerspray cleaning."

Gawronski discussed the powerspraying idea with Emerson, saying he thought it would be a good thing to at least try, from the lower reservoir all the way to Clearwater Lake in an effort to clean the Black River.

Emerson talked about having a meeting with AmerenUE officials and local business owners on compensation and river clean-up.

Its my opinion that the rain today will do more to clean the river than an army of powersprayers. But the lower reservoir will have to be cleaned out inorder to keep the clay from continuing to come down stream.