Our Statement To The Board of Supervisors on December 14, 2006.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Grayson County Board of Supervisors, members of Grayson County Management, Grayson County residents and guests. The people here tonight represent concerned citizens, those who oppose the site location of a prison on the New River (in Cox's Chapel Community) and those who want and need economic development and good jobs for Grayson County.
We also share a common interest in that we all want better schools, services, and jobs for future generations and jobs for the present. It is right to want a job that pays well for the services we render. It is right to want a job that provides health insurance, benefits and security for families and for neighbors. In short, we want and desire to earn a secure and good life for all of us!!!
Our people say this is good! Our Churches say this is good! Our heritage and history virtually demands these results because our forefathers have given life, limbs and devotion to guarantee these freedoms.
We will not secure our future as a divided and disrupted community!
The proposed location of a prison on the New River begins this division. The misunderstanding of our goals and purposes strengthens division. The selection of the site on the National Heritage New River fuels the fires of division and disruption locally, nationally and even world wide when we invade the rights of the second oldest River in the world.
The lack of knowledge and communication provided for affected citizens has created a stage of mistrust that has permeated and disrupted the lives of people throughout Grayson County and far beyond. People, who love, admire and live on or near the New River are saddened that this has occurred.
Although probably unintended, the recent activities have not created good will. Those of us here tonight are, in many ways, the victims. We feel the threatened loss of historic and natural beauty which is unequalled anywhere.
We feel the anxiety of trying to gain good jobs and economic benefits.
The New River should not be blamed. Why punish this National Treasure?
The Board of Supervisors did not cause our problems. In their way, with the tools available they are trying to solve problems. We can break our straws, one at a time, or we can bundle them in unbreakable unity.
Jobs? Yes!!
But the ill considered location of a prison on the New River, with all the extra expense involved, could be the straw that breaks the camel's back, or, in real terms, the future of historic Grayson County!!
Tomorrow, the prison's private developer will, as we understand it, will formally recommend the New River site for the prison to the Department of Corrections. That's why tonight we request that you, as those elected to protect the interest of all our residents, schedule a series of public meetings to discuss this site and how selecting it affects the future of Grayson County.
We also ask that you schedule these meetings independently of the Department of Corrections or the private developer. The issues we need to address are best discussed among those of us who must live with this decision for the rest of our lives.
We are not asking you to change your position on jobs and economic development, but that you recognize the value of the New River to the future of Grayson County.
Finally, we ask for your leadership to heal divisions and guide us to unity and progress because we truly believe we can resolve this issue in a way in which everyone will benefit.
Virgil McBride, Chairman of the Cox's Chapel Grange Committee to Protect the New River. |
Our Statement To The Board of Supervisors on January 11, 2007.
Tonight, I am very concerned that we are well on our way to creating a deep division and long-lasting resentment in our community over the proposal to locate a prison on the New River.
This division can be avoided if you, as supervisors, will support efforts to find another site in Grayson County. A site that is better suited for this facility.
Mr. Chairman, I do not understand the continued assertion that if the prison facility does not go on the New River in the Cox's Chapel Community it will go to another County.
I can find no support or evidence for that assertion and, to the contrary, I find ample comment by the Department of Corrections that they have no preference for a site as long as itsatisfies their needs.
To me, this indicates that another location in Grayson County would be acceptable, maybe even more economical for the taxpayers, than the New River site.
Bringing the County back together, stopping all of the conflict that is yet to occur, most certainly will achieve your most honorable goal of bringing jobs to this area.
This can be accomplished.
All you have to do is be proactive in efforts to find another site for this facility in Grayson County.
The only reason the prison has to be Cox's Chapel or nothing will be because that's the way you want it to be.
Virgil McBride, Chairman Cox's Chapel Grange Committee to Protect the New River.
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