Not many years back, I was in the inner circle of a proposed $500 million project.

A man with big dreams who already had swayed between millionaire status and penury was working on a project to construct a giant velodrome near Post Falls, Idaho.

A velodrome is a gigantic sports arena equipped with steeply banked oval tracks, oftentimes to accommodate bicycle and motorcycle racing. His dream, bigger than most, was to insert a professional ice skating rink at ground level, enclose it with adequate seating, construct a banked bicycle track around that and, just below the roof, install another oval track for speed inline skating.

Serious, he initiated talks regarding the possibility of purchasing an abandoned greyhound race track on which to build the structure.

My role in the four-person group was to employ my writing abilities to further advance the hush-hush project.

The dreamer said then, slightly more than five years ago, that only two velodromes like the one he was proposing existed.

He also told me, and I have no reason to doubt his word, that an existing National Hockey League team had committed to move to Post Falls and play its home games in the new velodrome.

It sounds far-fetched, but those of us on the inside saw possibilities. Post Falls, although not large, was growing faster than any other location in Idaho; Idaho had tax benefits attractive to business; hockey is a fast-growing sport in the lower states; hockey fans are avid, hence driving from not-too-distant Canada to attend matches was feasible; and Spokane International Airport and adequate lodging were only miles away.

The velodrome plan, a long shot at best, never materialized. I wasnt around to see the plan crumble, but I was present the day I instantaneously lost favor with the dreamer.

Not long before, Id finished reading Barack Obamas book The Audacity of Hope and was impressed with his writing skill and verbiage.

I slapped a pro-Obama campaign sticker on the rear bumper of my car and, once the dreamer saw it, I suddenly had no value to the velodrome project.

I think its common for Americans to have at least one national issue of prime importance to them. Mine was nuclear power which I adamantly oppose, and when President Obama eventually wilted on that issue, personal doubts arose.

Last week I wrote an article about SNAP, or food stamp reductions that will save the federal government $5 billion this year. Of course the savings are achieved on the backs of the poor, but who cares, right?

Troublesome to me is the fact that no one was available here to speak about the matter. Like reluctant receivers of a hot potato, those at the Department of Human Services in Enterprise refused comment and directed all questions to a totally unreachable official spokesman in La Grande. Not the bashful type, I was transferred from Enterprise and left a message on the spokesmans voice mail. I went through the systems front door the following day, and twice weathered impersonal, taped prompts referring callers to websites that computerless poor likely could never access. Finally, the taped message said if I knew the name of the person I wished to speak with, I should type in his name.

But the official spokesman wasnt there, either.

Im a big boy, and if a dreamer nixes me from his $500 million project I can take it. I simply covered the Obama bumper sticker with a sticker from a Christian rock radio station.

But reducing food benefits to more than 1,000 persons from Wallowa County with no one to talk to about it is wrong.

Where are we heading?

Jabberwock II columnist Rocky Wilson is a reporter for the Chieftain.