Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry meets Stop the Water Steal
Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry came to West Lafayette Tuesday to face questions and criticism from LEAP pipeline opponents, but stands his ground as cheerleader for the concept
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Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry meets Stop the Water Steal
Matt Gentry’s willingness to engage in the fight over the LEAP pipeline has never been in question.
The Lebanon mayor has inserted himself into the opposition conversation early and often, joining the fray on social media in attempts to knock down criticism centered in Greater Lafayette and aimed at the controversial LEAP water pipeline.
Gentry has reveled in it, essentially earning a part akin to a professional wrestling heel as he’s dismissed critics pissed about Indiana Economic Development Corp. plans to pump upwards of 100 million gallons a day from aquifers along the Wabash River in western Tippecanoe county to feed massive, water-intensive developments in the 9,000-acre LEAP district in and near his city, two counties away.
(Remember this? Tippecanoe County commissioners dropped Gentry’s name in November, thanking him as they voted for his unwitting work to galvanize community support for a moratorium on large-volume wells and large water transfers to slow work that made a pipeline seemed imminent at the time.)
On Tuesday, Gentry entered enemy territory, coming to West Lafayette to absorb 90 minutes of questions and jeers – face to face, this time – at the invitation of Stop the Water Steal, a nonprofit behind the yard signs that have cropped up Tippecanoe and surrounding counties protesting the pipeline concept.
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