As a citizen of Iredell County, I would like to take a moment to thank my community for the warmth and love I have received over the last 14 years. I consider Statesville my home and a place with people that I admire and respect. Most recently, however, I have been embarrassed by commentary in the editorial section of the R&L.
Often times, as neighbors there are issues that we will not see eye to eye on. One such issue is the development of a biodiesel plant by a leading family in our county, the McLains.
Whether or not you agree with the introduction of this technology in rural Iredell County, hopefully you will agree that the argument should be based on facts rather than a personal attack on the integrity of this family.
The McLains are a warm, loving, generous family with values that have made our country great. They have served this community unselfishly and with the highest moral integrity and honesty. They have given their time and resources not only to our fellow North Carolinians, but also throughout our country, and the world that we share.
To suggest an impropriety regarding the McLains receiving a farm subsidy, please allow me the opportunity to share the facts. An agricultural subsidy is a financial government assistance paid to farmers to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the cost and supply of such in an international market.
These programs date back to the 1930s and are a common practice that is by no means underhanded or illegal. In a 10-year period from 1995 to 2005, North Carolina received $2.8 billion in federal farm subsidy. Our state ranked 21st out of the 50 states. In this time frame, the McLains were ranked No. 53 of those farms that received a subsidy in our state.
Please reflect on how you would like to be treated when you find yourself involved in an unpopular position and let us strive to keep our community unique by treating our neighbors with love and respect regardless of our opinions.
Bobby P. Kearney
Statesville
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Neighbors hold press conference
Sheree Leach and her family are already feeling the effect of the McLain biodiesel plant, and it hasn’t even been built yet.
Leach said she tried to get her house appraised after commissioners rezoned eight acres of land next door from single-family residential to heavy manufacturing.
For the full story, click here.
Leach said she tried to get her house appraised after commissioners rezoned eight acres of land next door from single-family residential to heavy manufacturing.
For the full story, click here.
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
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
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Neighbors sue county
North Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life and 23 other plaintiffs filed a civil complaint and petition Wednesday seeking to nullify the Iredell County Commission’s decision to rezone eight acres of McLain Farms, which cleared the way for the construction of a controversial biodiesel plant.
For the full story, click here.
For the full story, click here.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Fire Marshal looks at Lenoir plant
Iredell County Fire Marshal Lloyd Ramsey took an educational trip to Foothills Bio-Energies LLC to get an idea what a biodiesel plant required.
He said the trip was informative, but he still needs to see the plans from McLain Farms before he knows how to procede.
The Lenior Fire Chief Ken Briscoe said the fire at the Bio-Energies plant is still under investigation. He is still awaiting the lab results from the soy bean oil and chicken fat that caught on fire two weeks ago.
He said the trip was informative, but he still needs to see the plans from McLain Farms before he knows how to procede.
The Lenior Fire Chief Ken Briscoe said the fire at the Bio-Energies plant is still under investigation. He is still awaiting the lab results from the soy bean oil and chicken fat that caught on fire two weeks ago.
Letter to the Editor: Bill Pitt
At their regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 7, Iredell County commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a zoning change request for an eight-acre portion of a farm on Snow Creek Road. The request was to shift the eight acres from R-20 ( Single Family Residential) to M-2 (Heavy Manufacturing) Conditional Use, for establishing a biodiesel refinery.
The request was approved over the objections of 72 of the neighbors to the site who attended the meeting and felt that it would be safer for all concerned to locate the refinery in one of the many already established industrial parks in Iredell County, where appropriate roads and other infrastructure are already in place.
According to the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Idaho, as of January of this year, there were approximately 100 commercial scale biodiesel refineries in the United States. Within the last 12 months there have been at least three devastating fires or explosions and fires at such facilities, some involving loss of life, some completely destroying the biodiesel operation. Catastrophic fires have been set off by static electricity, by welding, by a spark from faulty wiring, among other causes.
A chance that such a fire would take place at one of every 33 refineries or better sounds like risky odds. Just imagine if we were considering which of 33 gas stations was going to blow up next.
The odds become riskier still when you consider that the closest volunteer fire department to the proposed site is Trinity, which is approximately four miles away. The nearest full time fire department is Statesville Fire Station No. 2, 12 miles away, and the nearest hazmat team is at Mooresville Station No. 3, 34 miles away.
How long would it take Trinity or either of the others to muster a properly equipped team and get it on site in the event of a fire? How much loss of life or property could result? In the event of a fire and explosion, how much hazardous material would be spilled into one of Iredell County's most important watersheds before help could arrive to control the flow of liquid pollutants?
The fact that the proposed refinery won't be manned 24/7 only increases the potential for a disaster.
Accounts of the biodiesel plant fires were entered into the public record at the commissioners' meeting, but the commissioners chose to ignore them in their decision-making process.It evidently appeared to them perfectly reasonable to locate a refinery using volatile materials in a non-industrial, remote part of the county, far removed from the safety infrastructure which could provide assistance, when it was needed.
It does not, however, appear perfectly reasonable to the neighbors to this proposed refinery, who believe that Heavy Industry should be in industrial parks , which are designed to best meet the requirements of such applications.
What were the commissioners thinking? They were thinking about the economic benefit of the few, not the safety of the many who live in the area of the proposed refinery.
If you believe that the commissioners, zoning ordinances, and the Iredell County Land Use Plan are supposed to protect the Health, Safety, and Welfare of the public, join us at North Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life as we oppose this narrow and short sighted decision.
For more information, write us at NINFRL, 991 Snow Creek Road, Statesville, NC, 28625.
Bill Pitt
Statesville
The request was approved over the objections of 72 of the neighbors to the site who attended the meeting and felt that it would be safer for all concerned to locate the refinery in one of the many already established industrial parks in Iredell County, where appropriate roads and other infrastructure are already in place.
According to the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Idaho, as of January of this year, there were approximately 100 commercial scale biodiesel refineries in the United States. Within the last 12 months there have been at least three devastating fires or explosions and fires at such facilities, some involving loss of life, some completely destroying the biodiesel operation. Catastrophic fires have been set off by static electricity, by welding, by a spark from faulty wiring, among other causes.
A chance that such a fire would take place at one of every 33 refineries or better sounds like risky odds. Just imagine if we were considering which of 33 gas stations was going to blow up next.
The odds become riskier still when you consider that the closest volunteer fire department to the proposed site is Trinity, which is approximately four miles away. The nearest full time fire department is Statesville Fire Station No. 2, 12 miles away, and the nearest hazmat team is at Mooresville Station No. 3, 34 miles away.
How long would it take Trinity or either of the others to muster a properly equipped team and get it on site in the event of a fire? How much loss of life or property could result? In the event of a fire and explosion, how much hazardous material would be spilled into one of Iredell County's most important watersheds before help could arrive to control the flow of liquid pollutants?
The fact that the proposed refinery won't be manned 24/7 only increases the potential for a disaster.
Accounts of the biodiesel plant fires were entered into the public record at the commissioners' meeting, but the commissioners chose to ignore them in their decision-making process.It evidently appeared to them perfectly reasonable to locate a refinery using volatile materials in a non-industrial, remote part of the county, far removed from the safety infrastructure which could provide assistance, when it was needed.
It does not, however, appear perfectly reasonable to the neighbors to this proposed refinery, who believe that Heavy Industry should be in industrial parks , which are designed to best meet the requirements of such applications.
What were the commissioners thinking? They were thinking about the economic benefit of the few, not the safety of the many who live in the area of the proposed refinery.
If you believe that the commissioners, zoning ordinances, and the Iredell County Land Use Plan are supposed to protect the Health, Safety, and Welfare of the public, join us at North Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life as we oppose this narrow and short sighted decision.
For more information, write us at NINFRL, 991 Snow Creek Road, Statesville, NC, 28625.
Bill Pitt
Statesville
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Letter to the Editor: Becky Mishoe
We heard about the fire in Lenoir at the site of a biodiesel plant. We weren't really surprised since we already knew of the dangers.
The owner of this facility spoke at the Iredell County Commissioner's meeting before this insane petition was approved by four of the commissioners. Sara Haire Tice was the lone common-sense board member who opposed locating a chemical plant in a rural area.
If this fire had occurred at the proposed location on Snow Creek Road, we can only imagine the catastrophic damage. What with the drought conditions and wind, the fire would have spread very easily. Would our homes still be standing?
The Lenoir plant is located in an industrial zone, not next to someone's home. And what about the firefighter who was "taking a walk" when he saw smoke and reported the fire? Was there no fire alarm system?
Oh well, the expert who testified at the Iredell board meeting said the dangers "are fairly benign" and we see how true that is. If you have been questioning what all the fuss is about, now you know.
This is just one hazard associated with a chemical plant. There are other safety issues which we tried to explain to the commissioners. The majority ,apparently, is not concerned with the impact this decision will have on the lives of many of the very citizens who helped elect them.
Please don"t stand by and allow this to happen. It is time to speak out and help preserve rural life. Our support group, North Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life, is working hard. Please contact us by phone at (704) 876-4603 for more information.
It is a good feeling to stand up for a just cause.
Becky Mishoe
Statesville
The owner of this facility spoke at the Iredell County Commissioner's meeting before this insane petition was approved by four of the commissioners. Sara Haire Tice was the lone common-sense board member who opposed locating a chemical plant in a rural area.
If this fire had occurred at the proposed location on Snow Creek Road, we can only imagine the catastrophic damage. What with the drought conditions and wind, the fire would have spread very easily. Would our homes still be standing?
The Lenoir plant is located in an industrial zone, not next to someone's home. And what about the firefighter who was "taking a walk" when he saw smoke and reported the fire? Was there no fire alarm system?
Oh well, the expert who testified at the Iredell board meeting said the dangers "are fairly benign" and we see how true that is. If you have been questioning what all the fuss is about, now you know.
This is just one hazard associated with a chemical plant. There are other safety issues which we tried to explain to the commissioners. The majority ,apparently, is not concerned with the impact this decision will have on the lives of many of the very citizens who helped elect them.
Please don"t stand by and allow this to happen. It is time to speak out and help preserve rural life. Our support group, North Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life, is working hard. Please contact us by phone at (704) 876-4603 for more information.
It is a good feeling to stand up for a just cause.
Becky Mishoe
Statesville
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