As transpires in nearly every election, whether it be local, state or federal, things are told that are either misconstrued or simply just not true altogether. Such seems to be the case in Dulcie Mumpower’s re-election bid this year in the Wilson District in Washington County for the Board of Supervisor’s race.
It seems that her opponent and his workers are telling people that Mrs. Mumpower and the other supervisors are turning down good potential jobs or running them out of the county. That is simply not true. The example that is being mentioned is that they, and Mrs. Mumpower in particular, kept an ethanol-producing plant from being located here. Not true.
I am familiar with the project and had occasion to view the plans for this in its early stages. The ethanol that would be produced would come from garbage. While I commend these folks for being progressive and think it is a good idea, the location that they wanted was not a good one for the neighbors involved. Oak Park Center for Business and Industry is located near an upscale subdivision and already houses several other businesses and industries within its boundaries. Traffic has been and still is an issue with the road going into the park.
Any time you mix large trucks and cars on a busy two-lane road, you are inviting trouble. As I said earlier, the plant in question would involve transporting huge amounts of garbage into it to make it economically feasible. The company intended to do this via rail and truck. Most of the garbage would be shipped in from other localities as well as possibly some local waste. Oak Park is simply not the place for this.
What Mrs. Mumpower’s opponent and his backers fail to mention is that the county did make other sites available for their consideration. The company would not consider them, even though they had rail and the other necessary services available to them.
Should Mrs. Mumpower and the other supervisors be criticized for protecting the citizens and existing industries in this community? I think not.
I served on the board with Mrs. Mumpower for 12 years. She has always done everything possible to bring new jobs to Washington county and has been successful at it. I would encourage people to think about what they are told during this election process and to choose wisely. Talk is cheap. It’s easy to tell part of the story for your own benefit sometimes, but you need to, as Paul Harvey always said, “hear the rest of the story.”
Bobby D. Ingle
Abingdon, Va.
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