There were plenty of seats available as the meeting started.

    The community meeting, which the Chamber sponsored, was hosted by Pastor Kelly Hough at the Newberry Springs Assembly of God Church on Monday, October 20, 2025.

    The first speaker on the agenda was Newberry CSD's General Manager, Kayleen Vanek, who presented a requested update on the CSD's new fire department site.

    Second at bat was Jag Samra, representing the proposed Shell truck stop on National Trails. Samra presented a diagram of the proposal, which I found disappointing. The original sketch, which I had previously opposed, had parking for about 70 trucks. I had been informed that the plan had been revised with a greater emphasis on an automobile travel center and a reduction of trucks.

    Expecting a redesigned plan, I was disappointed in seeing the same proposal sketch that I presented here, on this website, over 16 months earlier.

    The proposal, as a truck stop, doesn't physically fit the site. Trucks coming off a two-lane road do not have a sufficient turning radius and flow space to prevent highway blockage.

    Truckers also want pull-through parking, not back-in parking, which is what almost all of the proposed spaces are. For ease, truckers will park on adjacent streets, as at Samra's Ft. Cady Mobile station.

    The only apparent change was the name of a truck stop to a travel center.

    While I am strongly opposed to a truck stop at that site, in speaking with Jag Samra after the meeting, I was pleased with his willingness to consider working with the community on a possible theme facade that would focus on historic Route 66.

    The third and final inning of the show dealt with the Cadiz, Inc. proposed water project. This was represented by Susan Kennedy, the Chief Executive Officer of the Cadiz corporation.

    Kennedy spent mucho time describing the geographics of the project. She spoke of the sustainability and the abundance of the water under the massive Cadiz, Inc. land holdings. While I agree with the vastness of the aquifer, I totally disagree with her spin on the sustainability.

    When I questioned her on a pumping station being built in Newberry Springs, it was learned that the site will likely be just east of the community with the groundbreaking in 2027.

    Kennedy appeared unprepared to speak on anything more than her project's memorized selling points. Direct questions to her were answered with evasiveness and generalities.

    And then, there was a discussion on a water shell game, where a 'One Water' concept was described. This involves trading water to different entities for water credit, where the costs of transporting water could be reduced. The middleman agencies receiving water would forward an equal amount of water through their system. In some cases, this would avoid the duplication of expensive pipeline infrastructure.

    The time spent on One Water didn't appear relevant for Newberry with the Cadiz pipeline running through it.

    Some important questions that I had for Kennedy were prevented when the Chamber had the Pastor stop my questioning of Kennedy. The Chamber apparently didn't appreciate direct technical questions being placed to Kennedy, particularly a major legislative question that she choked on.

    The meeting was supposed to be where residents could freely have their relevant questions answered. Not so!

    As the Chamber has been moving to ally with Cadiz, Inc., it appears jittery about questions that they find problematic.

    While the audience was there to learn what Cadiz, Inc. was planning to offer Newberry Springs, Kennedy flipped the questions to ask what the community wanted. The audience left the meeting with little information, feeling that they had wasted their evening.

    While Kennedy's generalities might lead one to conclude that the pipeline's operation will commence within the next four years, I feel confident that Cadiz, Inc. will not be transporting water until 2040 or later (that year is not a typo error). Not all political opposition has been bought off.

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