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Larry E. Matthews wrote:Mike Carlton, who heads Parks, actually called me on the telephone and threatened me shortly after the "Dunbar Cave" book came out.
Larry
Larry E. Matthews wrote:Yeah. He "claimed" that for me as a State employee to write a book on Dunbar Cave was somehow a violation of the State's Conflict of Interest Policy.
I explained to him that the book was published by the NSS, a bona-fide non-profit organization and that I had donated the Copyright to the NSS and they made all the proceeds. He said it was "Still a violation of the State's Conflict of Interest Policy."
As much as they hate cavers, if it was, they would have had me in the Commissioner's Office that afternoon and fired me.
Larry
Larry E. Matthews wrote:The State was letting the City of Spencer build a new Sewage Treatment Plant. They gave them a Permit to dump treated sewage into a Dry Creek, that flowed into Falls Creek Falls State Park and then into the entrance to Rumbling Falls Cave, which has the largest cave room in the Eastern United States..
It was all about BIG MONEY. These guys (the City Big Wigs) and their friends were subdividing several thousand acres next to Fall Creek Falls State Park, BUT..........the soil was too shallow for septic tanks. So, rather than build their own sewage treatment plant, they used State Funds to build this plant that the citizens of the City didn't want and didn't need. (The sewage treatment plant wasn't built in Spencer, oh no, five miles down the road by the new subdivisions.)
Cavers, and other environmental groups, sued them and won. They were violating almost all their own rules and regulations. They hate our guts. They knew I was a caver, so they took most of their hatred out on me.
Larry
Larry E. Matthews wrote:A "good gesture on their part" that they MIGHT open some of the caves in a few years? And then for "scientific research"?
That means IF you are in one of their "most favored" groups, you MIGHT get special permission to go in. Why not allow caving on public property? They allow hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, etc., etc. Why do we get separate and UNEQUAL treatment? Caving is just as legitimate a sport as all those others.
You sound like they are doing you a favor. You and I own those caves, not them.
Larry
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