12-03-06 Update:

The Goodland Energy Center continues to flounder at the site west of town. It is now three months beyond the original proposed operating date of September 2006, and all that exists at the site besides the pile of used tanks and rusty iron is some type of iron framework. The latest guess now is that the earliest operating date (if this endeavor ever gets off the ground which seems less and less likely) is late 2007 or early 2008.

Little work is being done at the construction site at a time when the promoters one year ago promised this community that there would be "hundreds of jobs". The investors are now scrambling to raise more money and are approaching people to invest anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 so the plant can continue. Meanwhile, Ron Pickman and Mark Justus are no where to be found. Although the following information is third hand and must be considered in this light...it is being stated from reliable sources that Mark Justus is back in Tennessee and will not return, and that Ron Pickman is no longer with the project. Surprise, surprise!!

Both Mr Justus and Mr Pickman began a project which had never been attempted, and tried to do it with little knowledge of the process of permits and legal issues, and by cutting corners with the purchase of used parts. After 1 1/2 years of soaking up huge salaries footed by the investors, both are now living comfortably out-of-state, having washed their hands of this project.

Meanwhile, the local newspaper, which would only promote everything positive about the plant and never address any negative concerns, is now amazingly silent with the latest news that the people running the project have left town.

So now there are people in the community who have lost hundred of thousands of dollars, and there is an eyesore of tanks, rusty iron and used energy parts littering the ground where once there was open farmland. It is truly a travesty.