STATEMENT FROM WS-PACE.org:                                    (April 22, 2008)

“We are very, very disappointed about the vote of the supervisors. It appears that the only means of convincing the majority of the board is to attract thousands and thousands of members to our organization.

“It is unfortunate that four of our county officials did not choose to listen to the concerns of affected residents. Issues such as water availability, loss of prime agricultural land, creation of massive infrastructure needs such as multi-laned roadways between parts of the county, new pollution and mayor safety problems, and moving Stanislaus County’s industrial center to a rural area as far away as possible from our major population areas along Highway 99, is not a reasonable farsighted plan.

“What is further disheartening is that the majority of the board chose to ignore elected officials and agencies on the West Side. The city councils of both Patterson and Newman, the school boards in both communities, the Del Puerto Health Care District directors, those of the rural fire district, the West Stanislaus Resource Conservation District, and even the directors of the Crows Landing Community Services District are all opposed to expanding the project to beyond the limits of the original military base. Those original 1,527 acres should be enough to provide thousands of jobs that without destroying the quality of life on the West Side.

“However, many West Siders have told us this past year that the project will not be stopped by our supervisors. ‘They won’t listen’ was one frequent comment. ‘They don’t care about what happens to us on the West Side’ was another. Others in the Modesto and Turlock areas say the majority of our supervisors only care about special influence and big money.

“But it’s too big a battle and means too much to us who live so close to just give up and walk away. Our organization will continue to gain in strength and numbers and continue our fight against this illogically-located project. You may not hear from us for awhile, but we assure you there are other methods to oppose this humongous project. County government hasn’t heard the last of WS-PACE.org.”