Worktoplay,
Your's is an impressive background and post. I admire the first and appreciate the latter.
The corrections we need to make in our thinking about EPA approvals and the states' roles in water and wastewater treatment will be made, but I don't believe it will cause me, at least, to change my support of rcc/iws.
The giants you speak of, it's true, are the models for rcc/iws to emulate as they attempt to rise from a small Montana-founded company to become one of those already established companies you cite as being much more successful than rcc/iws at this point in time.
It seems to me that future wastewater treatment requirements of our planet will support and demand the participation of small companies such as rcc/iws. Growth will come or not come as a result of their efficiency and professionalism.
All I've seen and heard makes me believe that rcc/iws is well respected in the field, that Claude Smith, its President, is a well respected businessman.
The question mark seems to hover around Gene Newton, the CEO of rcch, the holding company Smith decided to go with as a way to introduce rcc/iws to a larger theater of expansion than to stay serving only the people of Montana and Idaho.
Newton has had a secretive past, conducts business in an eccentric way, but is diligently trying to do justice to the wishes of both him and Smith, and to us the shareholders.
Therein lies the crunch. It doesn't matter how big rcc holdings becomes, or how successful rcc/iws performs, from an investor's standpoint, if the stock becoms too diluted, then it becomes an unsuccessful investment.
Newton says he has not sold shares to retail, used them only for making deals, and that shorters have sold so-called phantom shares.
If one believes Newton, as I do, then one supports his efforts here. If one does not believe Newton, I really don't see why that person is even here, except for that altruist who simply can't help himself.
I make exception for that investor who once was enthusiastic about rcch but has through his own due diligence turns a now-jaundiced eye toward educating current investors and newbie potential investors to his findings. He belongs here as much as those of us do who haven't lost our enthusiasm.
RCCH is a gamble, as are all penny investments. But this country needs new small companies to create employment, and new wastewater treatment companies to meet the damand of the future.
I will continue to support it, knowing full well the gamble I'm taking financially.
There will be others who continue to pour negative energy onto this board. It is the easiest thing in the world to do.
Thank you again Worktoplay, it good to see you haven't lost your ability to use the English language as well as anyone I've met on these boards.