Pittsylvania supervisors pass resolution to keep mining ban

From the Danville Register & Bee
Reprinted with permission

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution Wednesday afternoon asking state legislators to maintain the 1982 moratorium on uranium mining and milling.

“I’m hoping we are not too late,” said Chairman Marshall Ecker. “Decisions are being made now.”

The board held a special called meeting at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Virginia Uranium Inc. hopes to mine and mill a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill six miles northeast of Chatham in Pittsylvania County.

Tandem bills are being sponsored in the General Assembly to create a 3 percent severance tax on uranium that would be shared by the state and locality where uranium is mined.

Another pair of mirrored bills proposed in the House of Delegates and the Senate would direct the state to write regulations for uranium mining and milling. The crafting of rules would lift the commonwealth’s 31-year-old moratorium on uranium mining and milling.

Dan River Supervisor James Snead requested the special-called meeting during the board’s meeting Tuesday night in Chatham.

Discussion of the severance tax was to be added to the meeting’s agenda Tuesday night. But a board member, Westover Supervisor Coy Harville, was absent from the meeting, so supervisors could not add the item to its agenda.

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Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor wants to put deputies in each PC school as a knee-jerk reaction to the CT school murders. Preliminary cost estimates are $1.6 million just to start this program plus salary, bens and gear for 20 additional Sheriff's Dept. personnel yearly.

How to pay for this project? when Pittsylvania County folks are already taxed out the yingyang, moreso than both comparable and wealthier counties.

Uranium revenue would go a long way toward starting and maintaining Mr. Taylor's proposal.

Sof us see it as what it is- an opportunity to expand his department using those poor kids to justify it. Granted, Pittsylvania is huge, but does it really need 20 more deputies?

Eh. Maybe the 20 extra deputies can control the zombie mutants resulting from mining uranium. At times I think the zombies are already in control of local politics.

- By powerhouse on 01 / 24 / 13

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And just what else is coming to this oh so attractive area for industry and business? Keep on keeping everything out, you will eventually get your wish. No jobs and more poverty. Halifax County is already a welfare county are ya'll trying to join us Pittsylvania??? Thought you all were smarter:-(

- By Now What?? on 01 / 27 / 13

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