To the Editor:

It was stated in the Publisher’s Notebook of Dec. 11 (“A bad reputation”) that “someone in an official capacity spooked Enviva away from its original preferred site (before Shady Brook Trail and the Turner Tract).

The citizens of Southampton County are getting painted with the brush of hostility to business while it was someone in an “official capacity” who actually “spooked” Enviva from its first choice. Was that “someone” so driven by his/her own self-serving agenda that he would jeopardize the community’s chance at a beginning economic recovery?

Enviva is a welcomed and compatible industry that will benefit the county on multiple levels — unlike the Navy’s Outlying Landing Field and E2 planes.

Citizens were justified in organizing against the Navy knowing nothing would be contributed to the tax base, knowing the potential for farmland to be taken and that people, homes and businesses would be negatively impacted.

This county’s citizens value and protect what they have:

• A stronghold of traditional values

• A deep sense of community

• A solid agricultural heritage that is well worth preserving for future generations.

The question lingers, why did county officials ever consider rezoning a residential area to industrial when there were at least two other choices — Enviva’s first choice (where was that site anyway?)

the Turner Tract that was already zoned industrial?

This question should be answered. The truth and apparent abuse of public trust will eventually come out.

Bill Hancock
Sedley