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OMAHA (KPTM) -- Unfortunate timing.
That's how the Army Corps of Engineers summed up a letter it sent to property owners in Missouri asking if they would be winning to sell their land for wildlife habitat projects.
Given the fact the Corps has been releasing water into the system causing massive flooding that has driven thousands of people from their homes and submerged farmland, the timing of this letter raised some suspicion.
"Sounds like another government takeover to me," said Tom Austin, a Blair homeowner who lives about one block away from a flooded out road.
"We clearly understand this may appear insensitive to some folks who are fighting the flood. It (the letters) should not have gone out at this time but it did," said Jud Kneuvean of the Corps.
The letter is dated June 6. The Corps said it intended to send the letters in May but by some error, the letters from the Kansas City office did not go out until June.
"Somebody in the office found them and sent them out," said Steve Fischer, senior program manager for the Corps.
Since 1986 when Congress passed the Water Resources Act, the Corps has been seeking land for wildlife habitats from Sioux City, Iowa to St. Louis, Missouri.
