Dear Friends of the Reservation, I want to thank all of you who came out Tuesday night to DOE's public meeting in Oak Ridge. We had lots of supporters, as you saw and heard! I feel sure that many of you must have felt frustrated and angry at the way the meeting was conducted by DOE. I certainly was frustrated! At least our voice was heard during during the last half of the meeting. To be sure that your opinions are counted, I urge you to write down your comments and send them to DOE; your federal, state, and local elected officials; and the editors of local papers. DOE will not take our voice seriously unless they have written proof. Business and development interests have already inundated some of our elected officials with their views and convinced those officials that most citizens of our region agree with them -- our elected officials need to hear our side of the story, too. We've listed the names and addresses of many of the officials to be contacted. To help you get started, here are some thoughts to include in your letters: I am a member of Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation and I support this group in its efforts. I support preserving the Oak Ridge Reservation in its current state for its multiple uses -- for conservation, research, recreation, cultural and historical preservation, and as buffer zones for public safety and national security. DOE must stop making piecemeal decisions to carve pieces off the Oak Ridge Reservation. ORO has been skirting the requirements of federal law by considering each project individually while ignoring the long-range, cumulative impact of development. This must end. I applaud DOE for beginning a comprehensive land use planning process for the Oak Ridge Reservation. This must be done with full participation of concerned stakeholders and in concert with the NEPA process. I attended the January 30 meeting on ORR land use, and it made me heartsick to see DOE's demonstration of favoritism toward local development interests. I oppose the proposed lease of parcel ED-3 to the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee. I am glad that DOE has decided to defer a decision on this proposal. No decision should be made regarding ED-3 until after DOE has completed a NEPA environmental impact statement that considers the combined, long-range impacts of land-use decisions for the Reservation as a whole. Regarding the Boeing floodplain strip, I am deeply disappointed that DOE has abrogated its responsibilities as a steward of natural resources on public land. Rather than selling this public land to a developer and hoping that other government agencies will provide at least some protection for the sensitive resources on the land, DOE should have accepted its responsibilities as a steward of the public's ecological resources and used its powers to ensure a meaningful degree of protection. Although there were some negatives surrounding the way this meeting was conducted, there were some important positives, too: Ms. Dever did persuade her staff to hold the meeting and her upper level managers to attend and listen to the public's comments. DOE did shelve the ED-3 proposal for the time being. This proposal should remain on the shelf until some long range, comprehensive planning for the whole reservation can be accomplished. We do have promises of future opportunities for public input. Many sincere thanks! Dev Joslin Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation