Iowa City's "Dr. Science" (Dan Coffey) speaks out on the rain forest in a letter to the editor of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, "Rain Forest Plan Won't Work Out," and a subsequent statement, "Iowa Rainforest Proponents Modify Approach."
 
 

Three cheers for Norman Luxemburg in accurately describing the hysterical boosterism behind the Coralville rain forest scheme ("Answers needed on rain forest," March 10). If we're foolish enough to build it, I predict the facility soon will be converted to casino gambling in a desperate attempt to recoup the costs.

Dan Coffey
Chelsea

Stung by criticism that his support for the Iowa Rainforest is pork politics, Senator Grassley denied that he has much in common with the late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. Says Grassley, “Strom got the Navy, Army and Air Force to put huge bases in South Carolina. I’m getting Congress to plant a Rain Forest in Iowa. I can’t see any comparison. Besides, Strom was much older than I am.”

Boosters of the Iowa Rainforest have promised not to use the phrase “World Class” in promotional literature that justifies spending at least two hundred million dollars of public money to build the structure. After examining selling points developed by the Polk County Board of Supervisors to persuade their constituents to build the financial bleeding ulcer known as the Prairie Meadows Racetrack, a project that only became solvent after being turned into yet-another casino, proponents also agreed to sharply limit the use of the phrases “Cutting Edge” “State of the Art” and “Ahead of the Curve.” They also hinted that they may stop implying that failure to build the structure will “doom us to the status-quo.”

Momentum behind the project grows, as special interests eye the fifty million dollars earmarked by Congress. At this time, the opposition seems scattered and un-focused. During a recent survey of Iowans, the majority of those questioned regarding the project’s feasibility simply laughed and shook their heads in disbelief.