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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
TxDOT reps to address timber concerns
The Angelina/Nacogdoches Counties Forest Landowners Association will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Angelina County Extension Service Building in Lufkin. Speakers will include Cheryl Flood with TxDOT who will present further information on the Trans Texas Corridor. Assisting her will be Steve Bartlett with Barwin Consulting in Nacogdoches. Richard Scott, procurement forester with International Paper Co., and Buddy Hawkins, procurement forester with G&S Lumber Co., will discuss the buying and selling of timber in East Texas. Business of the association will be the election of new officers and board members. The meeting will adjourn following lunch.
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Comment deadline?
March 19 is the deadline for comments on the DEIS. But that doesn’t mean it’s the last time you’ll have a chance to comment.
Following the release of the FEIS (final environmental impact statement), TxDOT will begin a process called “scoping,” where landowners can identify homes, historic sites, bodies of water and other items in the preferred corridor that will lead to the drafting of a series of Tier Two statements, according to Jack Heiss of TxDOT.
All substantive comments will go into the series of documents likely to comprise the Tier Two statements, which will identify the final alignment options for construction of the highway. These documents will likely trigger a whole new round of hearings and comments. So March 19 is the end of commenting for now, but not forever.
But what about this “substantive comments” deal? Heiss said all comments submitted to TxDOT are evaluated but only those that address issues TxDOT can actually do something about will receive serious attention. Foreign investment, border security and the North American Union are issues TxDOT really has no control over, Heiss said. Here’s Heiss on:
Public Comments
A quick point of clarification: while it’s true that no developer has been selected yet, there are two bids out. One is with the Madrid-based Cintra (also called Bluebonnet Infrastructure), and the other is with the San Antonio based Zachry American Infrastructure.
Reminder:Comments can be submitted to TxDOT online here; by mail to I-69. TTC P.O. Box 14228 Austin, TX, 78761; or at one of the remaining public meetings this month.
You have until March 19. Kind of.We listen to them all. Things that are beyond our purview we can’t answer.
Foreign InvestmentNot applicable in this corridor because no developer has been selected yet.
Border SecurityBorder security is a federal matter. We are not putting any new crossings of the border with this facility.
