Letter to the Editor: Tammy Bridges

There is an air of humility surrounding the proposed zoning change on Snow Creek Road for the purpose of a bio-diesel plant. It is as though it is being pursued for the good of the county and mankind as opposed to one family's pocketbook.

Iredell County has plenty of commercial property zoned for industrial use available without destroying one of the few beautiful North Iredell residential areas remaining. To read the news articles, you'd think those pursuing this change cared about the community and weren’t going to make a dime. That's preposterous!

It just so happens that building on land they already own would cut overhead quite drastically. How can someone claim to care so much about helping everyone else when they blatantly have no regard for their own neighbors? What about the toddler who will be playing along the same driveway where the tankers are coming and going?

I'm definitely for growth, capitalism, and, of course, helping the farmers, but to what extent? If we so desperately need a biodiesel plant, let's put one somewhere that would make sense! A site for an industry takes time and diligence to find and investigate. It doesn't just happen to be one's own land in a residential neighborhood where people have purchased land hoping to raise their children and enjoy their grandchildren.

Even those who look over the dangers of 6,000 gallons of methane right in the middle of a residential neighborhood by comparing them to a small propane tank must know what risks it poses and how it will destroy this community. For anyone looking in, it makes no sense whatsoever. It really removes a lot of trust for our local government in protecting our property values and what we've worked our entire lives to save.

Do the numbers of those who might "benefit" outnumber those who will suffer every single day with the worry and danger of living right next door to a plant that produces highly flammable fuel? Isn't there another site already in the works in Statesville in an industrial area? Those who are for this change must be mighty relieved that it won't be across the street from their own property. In my opinion, this is how the destruction of communities must begin.

Tammy Bridges
Statesville