Reader’s Watchdog: Farms at stake in battle over lake
“But to build the new water source for Osceola and residents of other cities and counties, the Clarke County Reservoir Commission would have to acquire or take about 2,040 acres of private land from 58 owners — a political hot potato.
Any day now, Clarke County District Judge Sherman Phipps is expected to decide whether the reservoir commission can create the lake by using a legal process called eminent domain to take farm and timber land from those who won’t sell it willingly. The estimated cost of the new reservoir is $37.6 million, including $7.75 million for land acquisition.”
Des Moines Register 22 March 2014.