TTC Nacogdoche Showdown Last Night

Hundreds flooded the hall in Nacogdoche last night, to the point that more chairs had to be brought in. One man decried the "selfish Austin politicians" and "greedy foreign investors" he said were pushing the highway on unwilling taxpayers.

"Testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed" TTC-69 says the Daily Sentinel.

Only one person of the many hundreds that showed up supported the TTC land grab. And, it happened to be a banker. Bankers are one of the key profiteers, as debt must be created to build toll roads, so they benefit big time:

Tommy Ellison, CEO of Commercial Bank of Texas, said he was sympathetic to landowners, but said the area would benefit from improved transportation provided by the corridor.

"I'm supportive of a project that would bring better transportation out of Houston up through rural East Texas," he said. Ellison said improved rail infrastructure in particular would benefit the area.

Jack Heiss, a TxDOT project manager for the TTC-69 claimed he heard one concern that he's never heard of before, EVEN THOUGH WE'VE BEEN TELLING TXDOT THIS ISSUE FOR 4 LONG YEARS!:

And the public has provided new and useful information. Heiss said his agency had not previously considered concerns about the risk of terrorist attacks on the corridor.

"With the number of comments we got, we're definitely looking into that," he said. "We'll have to make a risk assessment about how realistic a concern it is."