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BEFORE the government of Spotsylvania County implodes, its elected officials should call on residents for help.
The seriousness of the situation became evident Tuesday night when Supervisor Tricia Lenwell abruptly resigned during a meeting of the Board of Supervisors.
She told the other six board members she would not be "party to a sham that is being played out in this county."
Lenwell read a prepared statement critical of County Administrator Anthony Barrett, who moments before had survived, 4-3, a vote of no confidence.
"I will not sit idly by and watch information twisted, staff manipulated, the public misinformed because decisions are being made be a select few--some elected, some not--but all outside the public eye," she said.
Perhaps Lenwell will be more specific at 10 a.m. today when she answers questions during a live chat on fredericksburg.com, the Web site associated with this newspaper.
In any case, there is a public perception that Spotsylvania County's government operates in the dark and that residents have no voice when decisions are made.
The Planning Commission--an advisory panel appointed by the Board of Supervisors--certainly gave that impression Nov. 6. After a four-hour public hearing that drew 300 people on both sides of the issue at hand, the commission quickly voted, 5-2, to recommend that the board approve plans for the proposed new Town of Chancellorsville.
Speakers on both sides of the issue had just said they wanted the county government to make no decision until it had thoroughly studied the potential impacts of the proposed development, which would bring almost 2,000 dwellings and up to 2.2 million square feet of office space to the State Route 3 corridor. Part of that development would be on land where Civil War soldiers fought on May 1, 1863.
John Adams was one of the people who stood at the microphone and said the board needed to make an informed, deliberative decision. I mention Adams, an economist, because he exemplifies a resource in this region that local governments too often ignore--residents with expertise to offer.
This is a commuter community. Among the couple of hundred thousand people who live here are many with perspective and knowledge attained in far-flung places.
Some of them are either too disinterested, too tired or too busy to get involved in local issues. Others who have tried to get involved have found that local governments do not roll out the welcome mat, and that officials are not always thrilled when citizens show up for public hearings or other meetings.
John Adams has been whistling into the wind for a couple of months. He believes the Dogwood Development Group has submitted a "flawed" and overly optimistic economic impact analysis for its proposed new town. Rather than generate tax revenue for Spotsylvania, Adams says, the development would be a burden on current taxpayers and on those in the future.
Why should anyone in county government care what John Adams has to say?
To start with, Adams has spent several decades working with economic issues in Third World countries. Not directly applicable to Spotsylvania, you say? Maybe not, but does that make him less qualified than people in a county government that does not have a staff economist? Here's a partial resume for Adams:
He is a professor emeritus in the departments of economics at the University of Maryland and at Northeastern University.
He is a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia's Center for South Asian Studies, and he will teach next spring at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Adams is not suggesting that county officials let him tell them what to do. He has rough numbers he uses to argue his points, but he would like the county to pay a consulting firm to conduct an objective economic-impact analysis of the proposed project.
If the county government does not want to spend money to do that, Adams suggests the board appoint an advisory committee of economists who reside in Spotsylvania. A couple of others also spoke at the Nov. 6 hearing.
No elected official or county employee has responded to Adams or solicited his opinion or advice.
Perhaps that's because he and his wife have been here only five years. They live in Sawhill subdivision off Route 3 near the proposed development.
I asked Adams why he should not be viewed as a Johnny-come-lately obstructionist who has his house and now wants to stop new development.
He replied: "That might not be an entirely unfair criticism, but it gets away from the heart of the issue, which is: Let's talk about all the people and the effect the development would have on them.
"It's not just going to be me. It's the bulk of the population that will be affected by more traffic, poor schools and more crime" caused by more growth that does not pay its own way.
LARRY EVANS can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; by fax at 373-8455; by phone at 374-5409; or by e-mail at levans@freelancestar.com.