The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Vote was rushed, magistrate says




To the Editor:

This is District Two Magistrate Terry Adams giving you my point of view on a special meeting of the Letcher Fiscal Court held on Friday, January 30.

The meeting was called to discuss changing the lease on county property at the Swanee Tipple at Isom so a company, whose name is apparently top secret, could put a wood processing plant in there.

The court was given very little time to process the information. The county judge and the company expected the fiscal court members to make a spur-of-themoment decision without talking to the families in the surrounding homes directly affected by this plant.

This company will be grinding logs and processing day and night, causing noise and dust, not to mention congestion for the neighboring residents. I asked if we could search for a more remote location, but that idea wasn’t even acknowledged.

This plant moving into Letcher County will undoubtedly provide much needed jobs for our county, but very little concern was given to our residents who would be adversely affected. Take a moment to think about trying to go to sleep with a wood grinder operating outside your bedroom window with no end in sight. The county judge probably wouldn’t be so enthusiastic to pass such measures if this plant was in his front yard.

I, as well as Magistrate Wayne Fleming, voted against this lease change. I think the court needs more time to consider the good and bad of this location, but the court did vote, four to two, to change the lease.

I guess if the next company coming into the county wants to store nuclear waste at Colson or Eolia or Linefork that will be okay too, as long as they provide jobs and the radiation doesn’t affect too many Letcher Countians.

TERRY ADAMS
Magistrate, District Two



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