Friday, February 25, 2005

Pork Forest Project Falling Behind

From this morning's Iowa City Press-Citizen:
Environmental Project vice president Nancy Quellhorst said Thursday that a groundbreaking this summer would be ceremonial only and that actual work won't begin until late this year -- about a year after initial projections.

With 2½ to 3 years needed for the project, Quellhorst said the work would be finished in mid to late 2008 -- months past the April 22, 2008, goal.

Here's the most interesting non-development:
Quellhorst said the project has $90 million to $10 million from project founder Ted Townsend, $10 million from an energy deal, $20 million in land and infrastructure from Coralville and, most recently, $50 million from the federal Department of Energy earmarked in January 2004.

Oman has said that funding would be coming through in several months.

Quellhorst said project officials continue to work with businesses and individuals for funding and said most of the process involved building trust.

"You really have to do some friend-raising before you can do fund-raising," she said.

She declined to name those interested, but e-mails obtained by the Press-Citizen through an open records request have mentioned General Electric, Ford, John Deere and Hewlett Packard as potential partners.
David Oman was saying the same thing FIVE AND A HALF YEARS AGO. Nothing's changed. Oman's had over 5 1/2 years to raise money and he's done nothing. The best he could do was strong-arm fauxscal conservative Chuck Grassley for $50 million in deficit money.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Please Dump Money Here


Via the Nicholas Johnson web site:
The cartoon is copyright by The Gazette and Joe Sharpnack, and reproduced here for educational, non-commercial, fair use only. Any other use requires the permission of The Gazette and Joe Shapnack, whose Web site, www.sharptoons.com, provides contact information and a portfolio of his work, which not only appears regularly in The Gazette, but has also appeared in USA TODAY, the Washington Post, Newsweek Interactive, and the Financial Times of London. The Gazette, February 17, 2005, p. 7A.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Pork Forest Mention

Steve @ Pardon My English had a long rant last week about economic development in Iowa and mentions the PorkForest project and this site. It's good.