CHATHAM — A proposal by a Pittsylvania County resident to prohibit uranium mining at the Berry Hill Road industrial megapark site has hit a dead end.
The Board of Supervisors voted to table the idea during its adjourned meeting Tuesday night, but not before Staunton River Supervisor Marshall Ecker urged the board to pass the resolution to protect county taxpayers’ investment.
“I believe that this board should step up to the plate,” Ecker said.
Dan River Supervisor James Snead made a substitute motion to table the matter and the board, by a narrow 4-3 vote, passed it. Snead, Tunstall Supervisor Tim Barber, Banister Supervisor William Pritchett and Westover Supervisor and Board Chairman Coy Harville voted in favor. Ecker, Chatham-Blairs Supervisor Hank Davis and Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram opposed Snead’s motion.
Karen Maute, a uranium mining opponent, asked the board last month to ban uranium mining within a 25-mile radius of the proposed industrial megapark site. Maute also wants Danville City Council and the Danville Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facilities Authority to sign the resolution.
Snead said he proposed the substitute motion because the park belongs to RIFA.
“I think it (the resolution) needs to come from the RIFA board,” Snead said after the meeting.
Maute proposed the resolution because the 3,700-acre megapark site includes historic Marline mineral leases. Marline Corp. had plans to mine and mill uranium in Pittsylvania County in the early 1980s.
Maute expressed consternation during an interview after the vote.
“If they’re not going to pass a resolution to protect the megapark, what are their plans for the park?” she said.
Maute’s resolution points to at least one former Marline parcel covering 504 acres. RIFA owns the leases.
Harville said last month that RIFA purchased the property with the condition that the previous owner could not have the mineral rights to the leases. RIFA has no intention of mining uranium at the Berry Hill megapark site, Harville said.
City and county officials hope to attract a major manufacturer to the park site. County Administrator Dan Sleeper said installation of roads, utilities, erosion control, grading and making the site into a park will cost $222 million.
In other matters, the board voted to schedule a public hearing on a proposed policy to authorize the transfer of animals from the county animal control facility to licensed agencies inspected by the state veterinarian.
The board also voted 6-1 to request that county departments propose 10-percent lower budgets for the 2010-11 fiscal year than those for 2009-10. Harville opposed because the reduction may need to be higher, he said.
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