To the editor:

Last weekend, I celebrated the melting of the snow by taking my bike out on the highways. It was wonderful to see the actual land again (not to mention my dry driveway). On purpose, I rode past farms north of town and eventually came back by the Farmland Industries site by Highway 10 on the east side of Lawrence. These areas will be up for discussion at an important city commission meeting on Jan. 22. The commission will discuss and possibly vote on spending $8 million or so of our tax dollars to support a private industrial development near the airport. Meanwhile the Farmland property, with infrastructure already in place, remains unused.

There has not been a comparison economic study of the two sites nor even an independent analysis of the proposed industrial park. I would like to see the Farmland site developed before we even think of gambling tax money on a speculative project to be built on top of some of the best farm land in the nation.

Joe Douglas,

Lawrence