To the Editor:

I attended the May 11th Citizen’s Input Meeting and it was anything but. The agenda was so controlled by the county that there was never going to be any input by any citizen. We were asked to mark up a map the way we think the ISLE2040 should be. If any of us knew that, we wouldn’t need the county personnel to do it. It was a joke to ask us to do that — we are not planners. There is no way that what we tried to do would be accepted. This was just an exercise so that the county can say they allowed citizen’s input — which they did not do.

We are the first county in Virginia to have a Comprehensive Design Plan and now we are tossing the existing CP and replacing it with this new plan. This plan is what Anne Seward and the county want and not what the citizens of Isle of Wight County need.

I believe this is nothing but another try at justifying the water plan now in effect. We told the county several years back that it was useless as presented and needed to be reworked. They did not listen to us and now look what we have. We are putting good money after bad. Now those of us in the Southern end of the county are asked to subsidize this with our taxes, but yet the county will not do anything to help us as we have requested many times over the years. It is like taxation without representation.

It is my opinion that this ISLE2040 be added as a referendum on the next ballot and let the county citizens decide if this is how our money is spent. Or better yet, just do away with it.

Tom Gaskell
Zuni