"My words was straight, but my intentions was crooked as the Ocklawaha River" - excerpted from "The Yearling" (1938) by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

INTRODUCTION:
Hopefully by now all have "voted" ONE PERSON-ONE "VOTE" their honest opinions regarding the "retaining Rodman Reservoir vs. restoring the Ocklawaha River issue" by answering the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) official "Rodman Reservoir / Kirkpatrick Dam Comment Form" at https://floridaswater.formstack.com/forms/rodman

As to ONE PERSON-ONE "VOTE", I say "shame" to those individuals who would attempt to game the system by using multiple email addresses to "stuff the ballot box." Don't they have the honor and integrity to understand that the State of Florida is finally attempting to accurately determine public sentiment about this topic?

Now we ALL will patiently wait for the important analysis of this SJRWMD questionnaire to be released online and to the news media as public information in a timely manner sometime after October 22, 2021. Possibly the tally resulting from the SJRWMD "Rodman Reservoir / Kirkpatrick Dam Comment Form" will need to be reported by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection instead of SJRWMD? I don't anticipate that as a hold up but it may be a possibility.

After the results of the official SJRWMD "Rodman Reservoir / Kirkpatrick Dam Comment Form" are made public it is my fervent wish that the "not-for-profit" non-governmental groups on both sides STAND DOWN and let the officials of the State of Florida deliberate the next course of action. After all the State is the property owner of the Silver, Ocklawaha, and St. Johns River mainstream channels plus much of their bordering corridor. These groups HAVE NO LEGAL STANDING as they own NONE of this land and waterway that I know of. The Property Appraiser of Marion, Putnam, etc. counties would have that data online.

In my opinion, these groups on both sides -- SEEKING WIDER SUPPORT and DONOR / GRANT $$$ MONEY -- have presented appalling amounts of inaccurate information over these past 20 or so years. Why they didn't broadcast only accurate, documented-by-credible-official-Florida and U.S. agency research data all the time baffles me. My guess is that these groups' leadership decided that it didn't make any "cents" for / to them to do this. Remember that State of Florida officialdom -- as they have in the past -- will request advice and opinion from the professional staffs of these actual Florida and U.S. governmental entities: SJRWMD, FDEP, FWC, FLACS, US EPA, USFS, USFWS, USMFS, USGS. Doesn't that make sense to you? I was a member of both Florida and the United States government for many years and I have a working experience of how government functions.

THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE: I think that it would have been a decent gesture during the COVID-19 pandemic for the "not-for-profit" non-governmental groups -- as they are not an essential service to Florida -- to suspend all fundraising until the Nation / State is back to normal. That would have been showing some real class!

CONCLUSION:
Restoration of the Ocklawaha River was mandated by Florida's Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund (the Governor and Cabinet) back in the late 1990s. Approval of the ERP and CUP permits required for the Ocklawaha restoration process to begin in earnest have been held in abeyance for 20 years or so almost entirely ONLY to allow for the TMDL-of-additional-nutrients (free-flowing Ocklawaha River into the lower St. Johns River) problem to be scientifically studied in a meticulous manner. It appears that SJRWMD has nearly completed that intense study and mitigation methods to counter any added nutrients have been identified. This should make it possible for restoration to proceed as originally ordered in the late 1990s.
 
Sincerely,
"Ocklawahaman" Paul Nosca
Data Processing Administrator SES (Retired),
Florida Department of Financial Services (Tallahassee) &
Veteran, Finance Corps, United States Army