| GoDanRiver.com
Published: October 01, 2012
Published: October 01, 2012
CHATHAM --
Embroiled in infighting, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors declined to vote to support a resolution against Virginia lifting its three-decade-old ban on uranium mining.
Instead, the board referred it to the legislative committee for work to begin drafting another resolution Oct. 16.
The resolution was drafted by Marshall Ecker, Jessie Barksdale and Jerry Hageman and distributed to board members Friday evening with the usual pre-meeting packet.
However, other board members cried foul that they had not been included in drafting the non-binding resolution.
Ecker lobbied hard in a lengthy presentation of findings from the National Academy of Sciences and Chmura studies to persuade the board of supervisors to act. He compared the timetable to the General Assembly’s consideration of the mining issue to the “doomsday” clock.
“We haven’t taken a stand at all,” Ecker said. “It’s time for Pittsylvania County to take a stand.”
He added, “We should have been setting the example a long time ago.”
“The governor’s directive was to take the citizens’ concerns. What they have taken, they have tried to mitigate around,” Ecker said.
He added, “It’s a done deal if they approve the governor’s working group. We’re sitting on a powder keg.”
Ecker received a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance, of which just three in a packed house at the Pittsylvania County Courthouse spoke in favor of uranium mining in the county.
After wrangling over the contents of Robert’s Rules of Order, which govern the proceedings, Ecker added an amendment to the substitute motion in compromise, asking that the issue be referred to the legislative committee before the Uranium Working Group’s work is released Dec. 1 — specifically asking work on their resolution to begin Oct. 16.
Only Bowman and Harville voted in dissent.
