Comment: When was this discussed before the board without the citizens and how was it voted on? Is Ace seeing things occurring behind closed doors? Is this legal? Is this board taking taxpayer money and the park could become a uranium mining or have a uranium mill with taxpayer’s money? We do not want uranium mining or milling in our county! Demand our Board of Supervisors to ban uranium mining and milling throughout our county but it must be done at the Mega Park now or give money back to the citizens!
By John Crane
Published: January 11, 2010
RINGGOLD — The chairman of the Regional Industrial Facility Authority board said Monday the group has no plans to pass a resolution banning uranium mining at the Berry Hill Road industrial megapark.
“It hasn’t been brought to us,” said Coy Harville, RIFA board chairman said after the RIFA board’s meeting Monday.
Karen Maute, an opponent of uranium mining and milling, asked the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors in November to pass a resolution prohibiting uranium mining within a 25-mile radius of the proposed Berry Hill Road industrial megapark site. She also wants the Board of Supervisors, Danville City Council and the RIFA board to sign the resolution. The Board of Supervisors voted to table the idea during its meeting in December.
Pittsylvania County and Danville hope to attract a major manufacturer to the site. Pittsylvania County Administrator Dan Sleeper said last month that installation of roads, utilities, erosion control, grading and making the site into an industry-ready park will cost $222 million.
Maute proposed the resolution because the 3,700-acre megapark site includes historic Marline mineral leases. Marline Corp. had plans to mine and mill uranium in Pittsylvania County in the early 1980s. Maute’s resolution points to at least one former Marline parcel covering 504 acres. RIFA owns the leases.
The Board of Supervisors voted to table the idea during its meeting Dec. 15, but not before Staunton River Supervisor Marshall Ecker urged the board to pass the resolution to protect county taxpayers’ investment.
“I believe that this board should step up to the plate,” Ecker said last month.
But Dan River Supervisor James Snead made a substitute motion to table the matter and the board, by a narrow 4-3 vote, passed it. Snead, Tunstall Supervisor Tim Barber, Banister Supervisor William Pritchett and Westover Supervisor and then-Board Chairman Coy Harville voted in favor. Ecker, Chatham-Blairs Supervisor (and current Chairman) Hank Davis and Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram opposed Snead’s motion.
Snead said after the December meeting that the resolution should come from the RIFA board since it owns the park.
Coy Harville, who was chairman of the board of supervisors last year, said after the December meeting he would discuss the proposed resolution with the board and RIFA before commenting on it.
“We’re taking it under consideration,” Harville had said after the December meeting.
But after Monday’s RIFA board meeting, Harville said, referring to Snead’s assertion that the resolution should come through the RIFA board, “that was one supervisor’s statement, not the board’s.”
The proposal was brought to the board of supervisors, not RIFA, Harville said.
Any items to be considered for the RIFA agenda must be brought to the board’s clerk, he said.
Maute said: “If Mr. Harville says it should be brought before RIFA, that’s where the request would be placed.”
However, Maute said, “I still think it’s a county issue,” since the megapark is in the county.
RIFA has no intention of mining uranium at the Berry Hill megapark site, he said.
Read more:
http://www2.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/board_doesnt_plan_uranium_mining_resolution_at_megapark/16962/
