To the editor:
I would, first, like to invite any and everyone that would like to see Louisa remain an actual rural county of cool forests and farms, quiet homes and small businesses, a delightful draw for tourists and not a roasting hellhole of eroded soil and industrial solar plantations to show up and let the board of supervisors know your thoughts on Sept. 7; better yet, call them before then and still show up.
Next, I would like to ask (and for you, too, to ask) our board of supervisors, planning commission and Economic Development Director Andy Wade just how many thousands of acres of trees will be felled, how many millions of solar panels will be installed before your plan is complete, our economy developed, our “tax base” sound but our county a giant heat sink, a solar parking lot, and ruined. How many acres? What is your plan? I see NO PLAN, just more greed for a few and nothing for the good of all the residents of this county. Nothing! Zip!
As another slap in the face, you are hiring an Israeli company to do the install. Are there no American com-panies that can put a rack of solar panels on a pole and wire them up? Has anyone looked into at least using an American company to ruin our county?
As a reminder, Israelis have already cut down all their trees, created a desert, are fast running out of water and while quick to scream “antisemitism” at the slight-est insult are even quicker to steal from and oppress their neighbors in the Middle East. This company’s lack of concern for the residents of School Bus Road shows us that their long-term concern for the quality of life in Lou-isa County is zero; their only goal is money to Israel.
It has long baffled me that the railroad that runs the length of Louisa County never comes up in develop-ment discussions. Plans are currently in the works for passenger service from Rich-mond to Charlottesville (I’d bet there will be passenger trains through Louisa before there is water leaking out of the James River pipeline). The train used to stop in Louisa. It could again, to take commuters back and forth to RVA or C’ville or bring tourists here to access Mineral, Louisa or Lake Anna, or wander the trails of Cooke Forest Park.
Call and ask Andy Wade if he’s working on any of that? Ask him or your board member what their plans are, or if they have any actual plans. Just how many trees will it be ok to destroy? How will they clean up Northeast Creek Reservoir when the tap water is orange from solar plantation sediment. How long will the power be out when the next storm takes the lines down? And remember, with solar panels on your roof, you’d still have power.
Hope to see you at the meeting Sept. 7th – we all deserve better.
Lew Holladay
Louisa
This letter was previously published in the latest edition of the Central Virginian newspaper and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.