Editorials

Editorials

The hearing

What a relief it was on Monday to see that cool minds prevailed during a public hearing on a most explosive topic: zoning.

Like John Clark Jr. said so simply, so sensibly: “I don’t like being told what to do with my property.”

That sentiment runs deep, we suspect, even in those very much in agreement and support of the proposal presented Tuesday.

Yet, the debate was kept to just that: A battle of words. And it was mild battle at that.

Will the Supervisors make any changes in that proposed zoning ordinance before taking a vote to enact the document? We don’t know. Putting a crystal ball to local government officials is like trying to predict which way a squirrel will dart on the highway.

We’d like to think they will at least consider some of the recommendations and suggestions offered at the hearing.

The professional and mature and sophisicated manner in which they were offered Monday can only help in that regard.

Committee work

Serving on a committee for any project is a thankless job.

^ Anyone who haa volunteered for such a task knows that all too well.

But a special group of Rappahannock County citizens should be recognized for a job very well done.

The Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of Delbert Price made an outstanding, terribly thorough effort to relieve a problem they deeply wished to solve.

On Monday of this week, it completed its task to recommend to the county’s board of supervisors a plan to dispose of this county’s daily output of 14 tons of trash.

The group came forward on its own — and on the opposite side of the fence from the supervisors, we might add — to address a serious dilemma: The county’s landfill will be closed sometime in April, according to the best estimate.

The committee volunteered to help and offer to do the necessary homework to seek out alternative methods of disposal.

We rate that committee with having done “A” caliber work.