Letter to the Editor: Sheree Leach

I live in the closest house to where the future site of the biodiesel plant will be built off Snow Creek Road. It will be 500 feet from my home.

We are a middle-class family with three children. My husband and I found Statesville on the Internet when we decided to relocate two years ago. We didn't know anything about Statesville, but fell in love with Snow Creek Road. We bought our house in hopes of living the rest of our lives in a beautiful community. Well that all changed the night my back yard was rezoned for a biodiesel plant.

How does this kind of thing happen in America? Isn't this supposed to be the land of opportunity? Or does that only apply to the people who have the right connections or a large bank account.

Why are predetermined zones allowed to be changed? Aren't these zones thought out carefully and put in locations where public safety issues are considered and addressed? I'm a little confused with this decision. Did they base their decision in hopes that nothing will go terribly wrong, like recent explosions and fires at the biodiesel plant in nearby Lenoir. My children's lives are just as precious as any of the people who were involved in this decisions. Why do they not care that they are putting our lives in jeopardy?

I just want all the involved people who put my family and the other families on Snow Creek Road to know how scared we are for our future.

We are not a bunch of angry Americans who want to stop progress and prevent someone from fulfilling their dreams, but this is our future and possibly our lives we are fighting for.

I wonder if the commissioners really know or even care how much they changed our lives. We have chosen to put our home on the market in hopes that maybe someone, for whatever reason, won't mind living next to a biodiesel plant. The people who made this decision still have there peaceful homes with full property value. The families on Snow Creek Road had that taken from us with this thoughtless choice to rezone. How American is that? I would like to invite anyone involved in this decision to please contact me and help me decide which direction to go? Should we stay in our home and endanger my family's health or should I just abandon our home and just pray it sells. Please tell me how to buy a safe place to live if we can't sell the one you the commission has essentially condemned?

How do the commissioners who approved this sleep at night after making such truly thoughtless decisions? When it's not your family's quality of life a stake, I guess it would be easy.

It's obvious with such an outpouring of letters in disbelief in the recent weeks since the rezoning had been approved that we, the citizens, are not going to just give up. I personally can't. I have no choice but to fight not for just our neighborhood but for yours as well. We need everyone's help in the fight to preserve our rights.

We need help funding our mission. If anyone can help, please contact us at our e-mail address ninfrl@yahoo.com.

Sheree Leach
Statesville