Wackier and wackier
The arguments just get wackier and wackier.
The majority of commissioners now seem ready to consider Multiple Use (MU) zoning for Cooper’s Gap and White Oak. The planning board had tried to sell a new Family Farming (FF) plan. But it appears they didn’t make the sale to the guys who actually make decisions. Family Farming was just a nice name, intended to calm. Very little actual difference. The majority feels the county staff already administers MU in Green Creek, and it has worked fine for eight years. That’s reasonable.
In response, two planning board members resigned, making vague, oh-so-scary charges about “a special agenda… lurking in the shadows, taking away the freedoms we’ve expected our entire life.” Wow!
Planner Lionel Gilbert, who kind of supported Family Farm, in an odd way, now throws this bomb.Yet in the very next breath he says “action necessary to protect our communities is some 15 years late” and could provide “long-lasting positive effects for neighbors, family.”
Bob Jarvis, who also resigned, states his avowed support for zoning, yet he assails “the process,” absurdly characterized as “cramming down the throat.” Never mind that people have been debating the need to protect these mountains for decades. Brave souls are finally taking steps, but for Mr. Jarvis, like Goldilocks, it’s just not quite right.
Then there’s the desperate politics. Commissioner Tom Pack never has liked the holdover board members. Protecting ridgelines, what’s reasonable, factual, none of that really matters. Beating Jack. That matters. To do it, Pack now pressures swing vote commissioner Harry Denton, presuming to shame him for “not listening to the will of the people.” Fact is, there is no sure way of knowing “the will of the people.”
That Mr. Pack claims some special knowledge is just arrogance. In the end, there are only reason and conscience. Use them. – JB
posted by The Curb Reporter @ 8:03 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
It is easy to tell the owner of this newspaper is for Zoning Coopers Gap and White Oak. It is a shame that he uses the power of the press to impose politics on the masses. Boasting he has the smallest newspaper is no wonder, if this is the type of “news” that readers are subjected to read. Belittling elected officials who respect the wishes of the people who elected them and volunteers who work on the planning board is poor reporting.
I noticed in your blog nothing was mentioned about the two short timers on the commission board. One did not even make the run offs and the other knew better than to even try to run. If you are going to discuss three out of five commissioners on the board, it would seem reasonable to report the shenanigans of the other two. Reading the last two articles in your paper written by Jack Linga-felter, makes him appear to be a spoiled little boy who jumps up and down and cries until his mommy gives in. In his first writing he admits that zoning is not the answer. So why is he trying to put pressure on the other commissioners when he only has a couple of months of his term to go? Could it be that he really does have an agenda? There is no other explanation for such behavior and attitude.
To make such a statement, “Fact is there is no way of knowing the will of the people”, is a total disregard of the facts. The people of Coopers Gap and White Oak have to work for a living and then come home to work their gardens or small farms plus see that the kids make it to the after school functions. It is a chore to go to a county commission meeting on a weeknight but there was a tremendous turn out to let their elected officials know how they feel about the changes that were proposed on their community. They had a petition with over 1,000 signatures indicating their opposition to zoning. Where is the petition with more than 1,000 signatures or turn out of more than 300 in favor of zoning? Only a few speakers for zoning were present and most of those were from Tryon and other areas of the county. What even gives them the right to force an issue on people that is no concern to them.
If the editor still thinks there are more people for zoning than against, then he should stand behind tabling the whole thing and let it be a campaign issue. What better way to learn the "will of the people". The very fact that no one would second Mr. Linger-felter's motion indicates the willingness of the commissioners to listen to the people they represent.
Just because something is working in Green Creek, (I have yet to see that one proven either), does not mean it is a good thing for another community. Please Mr. Editor, stand behind all the people of Polk County and not just those from Tryon.
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