Letters for the week of April 3

staff reports
Published: April 1, 2008

A thank you

I am writing to thank the many local partners who made the Temperance Elementary School Watershed Improvement Schoolyard Habitat possible.
John Petchul and Greif Corporation at Riverville Mill deserve great credit for their generous donation of several tons of compost and truckloads of bark mulch.
Amherst County Schools provided much needed construction help; Boxleys Piney River Quarry offered us a good deal on the sand and stone needed for the amended soils and channel aprons; Saunders Brothers and The Patch provided discounts on plants; Mays Farm Service in Amherst donated seed and fertilizer for the surrounding sod areas; and Bob Cash gave us a good price on a collection of various artful paving stones of his own creation. Individual volunteers who helped are too numerous to name here, but we thank them all.
In these times of attention to test scores, it is nice to know that there is still community support for giving students a chance to learn in the engaging world of nature, where something is always happening and nothing is predictable.
The aforementioned organizations and individuals should be commended for helping create a place that benefits students, recharges the groundwater table, and helps protect the Piney River as well.
Though the project’s main funding came from a grant from the Virginia Department of Forestry and support from the Robert E. Lee Soil and Water Conservation District, the local partners are what will sustain this outdoor classroom through the years.
Thanks to all of you for taking a long view on education and contributing to a project that puts children and the natural world first.
Judy Strang
Project Manager
The Pedlar River Institute

A worthy cause

As a former resident of Amherst County, I wanted to write to let the people in Amherst know that I still keep up with what is going on in my home town.
I don’t get up that way much, but when I do I know I am home when I get to the Circle in Amherst and see the Beautiful Mountains towards Mount Pleasant that are about to greet me as I head that way towards that area I know I am headed home.
But Amherst County has something special there—its sheriff’s office.
Last year, three of the officers road bikes during the Unity Tour to Washington to pay honor to their fallen brothers and sisters who had died in the line of duty.
I found out about it and sent a donation to support them.
The department is doing it again this year, but this time 10 of Amherst County’s finest will be making that three-day trip. To me, that says a lot about the spirit of the group of officers in Amherst County.
Again this year I have sent a donation because I want to support my former home town.
I lost my best friend who was a deputy on May 17, 2002.
I think of him very often. To lose a friend in the line of duty take a bigger toll on someone than just someone dying of natural causes.
I encourage the Citizens of Amherst to take the time to send the Sheriff’s office a donation to support their ride to Washington and to support the Memorial in Washinton to keep the memory alive of our fallen heros.
So as time goes on the Memorial will be a tool to teach our young people the real meaning of the memorial.

The address to send donations is below.

Amherst County Sheriff’s Office
PO Box 531
Amherst Virginia 24521

Gracie Mays Gunnell
Danville

Credentials?

Where are the credentials? On March 24, 2008, I went to the reassessment office as a concerned citizen of Amherst County about the higher tax assessment on my home and land only to find that no one from the Blue Ridge Assessment Company was there to answer my questions.
Amazingly, the panel included a retired Commonwealth’s attorney, a retired game warden, an attorney, and another retired person in the community with no history, education, or background on land and home tax reassessment.
I was disappointed that no one from the tax assessment company, which set this new price on my home and land, was present.
As an airline safety professional for 30 years, what I encountered on March 24, was equivalent to someone on that board attending my intense eight-hour annual airline training and not knowing one thing on the subject matter.
Where are the credentials of those on this board to decide my livelihood?

Elizabeth “Betty” Massie
Amherst

In response

Mr. Robert Fener’s recent article stating that the proposed changes to the zoning and subdivision ordinance would not affect my farm is simply erroneous.
At the planning commission meeting on Nov. 8 and the recent article in the Amherst paper “County Planning to Focus on Zoning and Subdivisions” it is apparent that these proposed regulations would forever alter and limit what I am allowed to do with my farm.
Mr. Fener, this is not a misconception on my part. Refer to the planning commission minutes.
I have attended these meetings and will continue to do so as time permits.
I am simply saying that my farm, my land, represents the single largest source of my family’s financial well-being, my children’s and grandchildren’s.
Mr. Fener stated that the Planning Commission actions and ordinances go from the immediate to 100 years in the future.
I understand this concept within reason.
The problem is that this concept often results in regulations and ordinances that have no basis in today’s realty and the process destroys my property value and severely limits what I can do with property.
In 100 years, I am dead; my children are dead and possibly my grandchildren. So please, let’s be reasonable.

Levi Canada
Clifford