David Grimes wrote:Tim, as I pointed out earlier I do not know any of the details about the project and never claimed that I did. I merely mentioned that to me it seemed odd that a group of cavers who have spent so much time on a project would suddenly want to open it to the public. There are a lot of details that are unknown to people outside of the ISS. It almost seems like my suspicions may have been correct seeing how the first ISS member to chime immediately starts attacking me personally after I express my opinion. If my suspicions are not correct and you have more details please enlighten us all. I have admitted I would like to know more and that my suspicions were probably wrong so I do not see why you are so upset. If my suspicions are correct then you can bet myself and everyone I know will fight this project all the way.
EDIT: I am also curious whats in it for the ISS? Will the ISS be managing the entrance and who can visit the cave through the new entrance? I just wonder why they are willing to pay out so much of their money to widen the road, there must be some payback for them.
David Grimes,
It seems the dust has settled a bit on this topic, but I want to address your posts on this matter. My name is Nick Benton, and I am a very active member of the ISS. I for one found your posts to be very irresponsible and filled with untrue rhetoric about the potential misuse of taxpayer dollars and ulterior motives by the ISS. Your suspicion
"maybe they were using the county and their political position to fund their personal project."
literally made me laugh, as I doubt any elected official in Harrison County is even aware of the ISS. I realize the record has now been set straight, but a casual reader of these message boards could easily mistake your "suspicions" as truths. Furthermore, the ISS goes out of the way to be transparent, open, and accommodating to ALL cavers and interested people. There are no politics or hidden agendas whatsoever. I feel your prior posts could, and possibly already have, given impartial observers a negative perception of the ISS. I believe a more constructive approach to your concerns could have been to do more fact finding rather than post your inaccurate suspicions for the caving community to possibly misinterpret.
Please allow me to set the record straight on what I do know. The ISS is not affiliated with developing Binkley Cave into a show cave. The ISS is concerned with conserving, exploring and surveying the Binkley Cave system. Gary Roberson is a key member of the ISS, however he is spearheading these efforts with other investors outside of the ISS. This will not be an ISS controlled entrance, it will be a private entrance to the commercial cave managed privately. I assume (and hope) the cavers of the ISS will be allowed to use this entrance once it is opened, but it sure isn't being blasted for or by us! Outside of Gary Roberson, the ISS and it's members had no input or prior information on his plans to commercialize the cave. I have no idea how long this has been in the works or who the other co-owners will be. We are all finding out the details from the article in the Corydon Democrat just as yourself and everybody else is at this point.
I personally have mixed emotions on the commercialization of Binkley. I've spent hundreds of hours exploring and surveying in this system, and a certain part of me wants it to remain pristine and unseen from the masses who may not appreciate it the same way I do. The more I think about it, the more I am warming up to the concept. Current landowner relations on all private entrances are in good standing, however, who knows what will happen in the future. If anybody is going to develop Binkley Cave with regards to caver access, conservation, appreciation and respect for the cave, it is Gary Roberson. He authored the book about Binkley Cave (50 Years Under the Sinkhole Plain) and has been involved with exploring this cave for over 40 years, along with the development of Squire Boone and Marengo Caves, and I'm sure he knows what he is doing on this endeavor. Many people in Corydon and Harrison County have no idea there are caves under their feet, much less a 30+ mile monster such as Binkley. If this brings more awareness to ground water pollution and conservation for the karst area under Corydon, it is a good thing in the long run.
I plan on being at the Indiana Cave Symposium on Saturday, and hopefully Gary is in attendance so he can speak about this project himself. I'm sure he will have an interested audience to say the least!
Any further replies or dialog should probably be directed to the thread Gary started himself on this topic.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13902Nick Benton
NSS 23480