Bob Ruxer spoke to the Common Council last night

Bob Ruxer told a story. He told a story about a dream he had the night before coming to speak at the Jasper Common Council meeting.

In front of the Council and another packed room he described how in his dream Wayne Place, Arnold Habig, and Alvin Ruxer stood over at 15^th Street across from the Kimball lot looking out towards the east. The men were talking.

In the dream Wayne Place said, “Gee look at that, the bypass is in, Alvin; and look at all the growth in Jasper. And Highway 69 is finally finished.  Jasper’s hit the big time. And Mr. Habig, is it my imagination or what, even the air smells fresh at Kimball. It never smelled fresh before. And look at that! Across the street. A public library! With a smokestack! And a Riverwalk. By Golly these people are doing the job, they are putting Jasper on the map.”

Ruxer’s story immediately lightened the mood at the meeting, but it was short lived for the council as he described Alvin Ruxer, Arnold Habig, and Wayne Place as “visionary and trustworthy” and then suggested that the council needed to work on those qualities tonight.

Ruxer called together the town and reminded the Council they were elected to work in the best interest of Jasper. He asked them “If this was such a good thing, instead of renting the facility for a little income, let’s hire Jay (Catasein) and Twisted Oak to build it for us and Jasper can collect the big money”

He chastised the Utility Service Board for taking the easy way out. “I tried to find a word to describe the job the utility board has done. I got a dictionary and I got to the F’s and I found the word to describe what they have done. I found it under ‘flub’; ‘flub the dub’.”

He pointed out that if this is such a good deal shouldn’t local banks and businesses be involved in financing the project.

Ruxer currently resides in Arizona; he described how biomass plants are popping up and then closing down a few years later, leaving the cities and towns in millions of dollars of debt. He explained they close because they don’t function like they were supposed to, they run into financial problems, or the clean air standards change.

“The LLC’s (limited liability corporations) come in; doesn’t work; they walk.” Ruxer said.

He called attention to the many doctors and health care professionals in the community that stand against the biomass power plant. “Dr. Kreilein secured even more doctors signatures to attest this would be unhealthy based on true facts, not hypothetical studies. Yet, you have yet to secure one doctor to say, ‘this will be okay, this won’t hurt’.” He continued. “I remember watching a western movie one time; this guy looked down; he had a great big gun; he looked at the other person and he said ‘I believe we got you covered’.  And I believe we do here folks.”

Ruxer explained how his neighbor, an engineer that designed biomass power plants all of his life, had told him that if this facility is built at its current location, Jasper’s expansion will stop right there.

He closed by calling upon the council to be the hero in this contentious situation and make the right choice for Jasper.

“The answer is clear, crystal clear. Will you make the right choice?” Ruxer finished.