OMAHA- A battle is ramping up over who will control nearly $90 million in public funding intended to launch a job-producing business park near Omaha's Eppley Airfield, with Sen. Justin Wayne criticizing the city's final proposal for the area. "That's insane," said Wayne of the estimated cost just to get the ground ready for development, "My concern is, what do we get for the $90 million? Are they even going to build anything vertical? If you don't have a structure, you don't have a job."

Despite Wayne's objections, the team behind the 47-page development "master plan," the Greater Omaha Chamber, Burlington Capital, and the Omaha Economic Development Corp., argue that Wayne and other legislators were well aware of the substantial expenses necessary to begin preparing the area for broader construction.

"The scope of the airport business park concept has always been the development of large, shovel-ready lots," the team said in a joint statement, "Our study and planning effort simply updated the cost estimates that the senators had seen previously." Overall, the group's master plan projects a $200 million price tag to establish an industrial and commercial business park on two sites around Carter Lake near Eppley Airfield.

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