Letter to the Editor: Sheree Leach

I would like to congratulate the people responsible for rubbing the salt into the wounds of the families on Snow Creek Road.

They have succeeded in making our lives just a little bit more challenging.

Congratulations to the people who have nothing better to do than to look for any potential property violations of the opposers' of the proposed biodiesel plant may have.

They are doing a fantastic job of wasting the taxpayers' dollars with ridiculous and petty complaints that satisfhy their own amusement.

For those who find it funny to squeal your tires and kick extra dirt on the neighboring driveway that belongs to the owners of the newly rezoned property, thanks for the extra kick in the teeth.

Congratulations to the ones who recklessly drive on the edge of my property right in front of my face. They really know how to push buttons. Some of the people involved are teenage children.

Do we really need to involve them?

Congratulations to the hunters who were permitted to use this same property to hunt on.

They succeeded in making my son's fourth birthday one we will never forget. We were really impressed with how clever they were to park their ATVs with armed men and teenage boys 15 feet from my property line and shoot doves into my yard.

Thanks for that cherished memory.

I will admit, I have lost some sleep since we opposed the plant. If that was the intended goal, it has been a success.

Not only have the ones involved affected my quality of life, but the way I see it, their own integrity has been compromised.

It seems like integrity has been the issue for the supporters, not rezoning.

With the recent complaints, it's apparent that the threatened repercussions have begun.

We were served wit ha property violation and threatened to comply or have to tear my mother's home down. We were silly to assume we could actually occupy both pre-existing dwellings on our own property.

Grow up, people. We are still neighbors. Can we at least be civilized?

Sheree Leach
Statesville

Letters to the Editor: Audrey Abshire

Please stop suggesting a biodiesel plant at the old FCX. Some people in the community have worked hard for almost 20 years to get the place cleaned up.

Now we are seeing some success, and another company is spending lots of their time and money cleaning up Burlington Industries, which is behind FCX.

You may consider us a heavy manufacturing area, but we have lots of homes all around. A lot of this moved in on us.

We don't just have school buses going by and others driving to school, we have a school with hundreds of children only a couple blocks away.

I'm glad you have researched these plants. I know it is a chemical plant and a flammable product. I know much more about cleaning up FCX. Research on FCX might be a good idea before it is suggested as a site.

You only have county commissioners to work with, who are responsible for this.

We had to work with the federal government.

I know you don't want this plant, I don't blame you, but think of other people, their property and families before you suggest another place.

Audrey Abshire
Statesville

Another opponent faces complaint

For the second time in a week, a member of the Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life received a zoning citation spurred from a complaint to the Iredell County Planning and Development Department.

In a Notice of Violation dated Sept. 13, Bryan and Sheree Leach were informed that Sheree’s mother, Dorothy Carney, was living in a home in their back yard that violates the county zoning ordinance.

For the full story, click here.

Letter to the Editor:Loraine Watt

Two recent letters have prompted me to finally write concerning the proposed biodiesel plant in Iredell County. I am a member of the group Iredell Neighbors for Rural Life (INFRL) which recently dropped the word “North” from its name.

The group believes that this issue is a county issue, not a Snow Creek Road issue or a North Iredell issue. This is a belief I have had from the beginning. I do not live in the Snow Creek Road area.

I spoke at the county commission meeting in August, expressing my objections to placing the plant in a residential area. It concerns me greatly that the county commissioners, with little thought and deliberation, rezoned a R20 residential area to heavy manufacturing. This is the area where the local residents had fought hard to get zoned R20 in 1998. The commissioners also ignored the County Land Use Plan, which states that this area is to remain residential.

I am not opposed to a biodiesel plant in Iredell County. I oppose a plant in a residential area on a narrow two-lane road where school buses, high school drivers and bicycles travel, and where the infrastructure is not in place for a chemical plant.

I have researched biodiesel plants and am in favor of them. I want such a plant located in an appropriate location, where danger can be minimized and where zoning can be respected. After all, don’t let anybody be fooled: a biodiesel plant is a chemical plant with inherent dangers.

I agree that the FCX Plant might be an appropriate location, but there are several other appropriate sites in Iredell County. This plant does not need to be located in a residential area.

I have not only expressed my objections to the location of the proposed biodiesel plant but have also committed financial resources to fight this battle.

Loraine Watt
Statesville

Letter to the Editor: Cindy Reavis

We live on Snow Creek Road. We decided to raise our family there because of the beautiful countryside, friendly neighbors and because we defintely did not want to live in the city near commercial property and industrial parks.

Now it seems that it doesn't matter where you live, it could still become an industrial site.

Last month, with the planning board recommending against it and 72 neighbors there in opposition, the Iredell County Commissioners voted 4 to 1 in favor of spot zoning eight acres of land on Snow Creek Road from residential to heavy manufacturing for a biodiesel plant. Commissioner Steve Johnson stated after the vote that you should be able to do whatever you want on your land. If that's the case, why do we have zoning laws?

Phil McLain stated in a recent R&L article that he was disappointed in his neighbors. Has he ever thought that his neighbors may be disappointed in him?

Our wonderful community is not what it used to be. There is bitterness between the neighbors that has not been there for the 20 years we have lived here. I just can't see how the McLains think this is such a great idea for the community when it is already causing such strife and the facility is not even in operation yet.

Cindy Reavis
Statesville

Letter to the Editor: Paul Sink

Has the editorial staff gone off the deep end? The editorial in Sunday's edition was almost threatening in nature.

I have appreciated much of the reporting on the Snow Creek controversy over the proposed biodiesel plant, but this commentary was way over the line. The lines about people living in glass houses made the hair stand up on my neck.

For your words to imply "friends in high places" and then recommend the Iredell Residents for Rural Life "be prepared to invest in bulletproof windows" makes it sound like a threat on the lives of those residents. If the R&L cannot report or comment on hot issues without sending no-so-veiled threats, perhaps the staff should let someone else cover this sort of story. If I lived on Snow Creek Road, I would be worried. My prayers are for all the residents of this area, that a peaceful resolution come in this controversial situation. It would certainly help if the editorial board would stick to factual reporting and steer away from threatening jargon.

Paul Sink
Statesville

Editorial: Playing hardball

Members of the Iredell Residents for a Rural Life, the group waging a court battle against the Iredell County commissioners and a North Iredell family that wants to build a biodiesel manufacturing plant, better get used to playing hardball.

The fledgling group got its first lesson in public relations this week after Randy Bridges, the group's de facto spokesman, was forced to start cleaning up his property off Snow Creek Road after the county planning department received an anonymous complaint about his illegal collection of junked vehicles.

When contacted by the R&L, Bridges said all the right things: His wife had been after him to get rid of the cars and he really wanted to be a good neighbor. The complaint provided some timely motivation, he added.

If you're going to put yourself on a pedestal as a champion for the environment and protector of property values, you better have your house in order. A group that claims to cherish clean groundwater and worries about the effects of pollution has to be squeaky clean or its public statements and court pleadings start to look self-serving and more than a little bit hypocritical.

The critics of this group - and it has some in powerful places - will be searching high and low for ways to damage its credibility.

There's an old saying about people living in glass houses and throwing stones. The Iredell Residents for a Rural Life should get their act together or be prepared to invest in bulletproof windows.