To the editor:

In praise of KDOT

Now that’s a phrase you don’t hear often, but thanks is long overdue for the new divided U.S. Highway 59 between Lawrence and Ottawa. Entering and exiting the highway at North 1000 Road is much safer.

Haskell Avenue and the newly opened 31st Street are also great to drive. Yesterday we saw 14 egrets and five herons in the waters just east of the newly built portion of Haskell near where the SLT is under construction.

I remember several years ago, when I mentioned seeing a beaver in a manmade waterway on private property, I was chided by a man who said, “A wetlands is not a wetlands is not a wetlands.”

I replied, “Perhaps a wetlands made by man is not as good as one made by God, but if the beaver can’t tell the difference, what does it matter?”

Apparently egrets and herons can’t tell the difference either. Thanks KDOT. Thanks Roger Boyd.