Free Lance Star Letter: History No Excuse for Hobbling Development
2009-06-29
I tend to look at the proposed Wal-Mart in eastern Orange County in terms of the economic impact.
Is Robert Duvall or any of the other critics of the Wal-Mart who are suggesting that it will impinge on the ambience of the Wilderness battlefield willing to pick up the tab for the $500,000 in revenue the county will derive from this facility?
Will they pay the 2.5 percent per year of the tax rate this facility will offset for the 25,000 property owners in Orange County?
Will they send each of us a check each month for the $1 per trip it will cost us to find a similar facility to fulfill our shopping needs?
I would be the first to speak out against an affront to the hallowed ground that resulted from others trying to impose their will on those who had economic justification for the way their lifestyle had developed.
This facility will not be visible from the battlefield site; and if Gen. Grant had not stopped at the Wal-Mart site, there might never have been a Battle of the Wilderness.
Certainly, after nearly 150 years, the wounds have healed for most of us.
Let us not use history as an excuse and justification for hamstringing economic development in the eastern half of Orange County.
Doug Chidlow
Orange
