It's awful easy for people who have not been participating to have their own opinions about it

From the Sioux City Journal:

City leaders have met several times recently with organizers of The Environmental Project, trying to get a construction timetable for a planned indoor rainforest.

Asked if city leaders were satisfied with what they've learned about the $180 million project, City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said: "I think we're headed in that direction."

The centerpiece of the proposed 4.5-acre project is the rainforest, built under a three-story, translucent dome. The site would stretch three football fields in length and would feature a 1 million-gallon aquarium, a theater and 10 acres of prairie and wetland.

Groundbreaking was expected to start this spring, but organizers say they still are raising funds. About $90 million has been raised, $50 million of it from a federal grant.

"To build something like this from scratch takes a lot of contacts and a lot of promoting," said former Gov. Robert Ray, chairman of the Environmental Project board.

He said the project's executive director, David Oman, has been working night and day.

"It's awful easy for people who have not been participating to have their own opinions about it," Ray said.

Hey, former Governor Ray, why don't you shut up, get Oman out of his bunker, and tell us where the rest of the money is coming from. You've had over 5 1/2 years to get investors. You haven't done jack except promise so many feet of phony blue sky.

We have a right to be skeptical and to speak out, especially since it's our money you're trying to spend on this turkey.