Editor, The Herald:

The regular Supervisors Meeting of Prince Edward County was held on July 12, 2011. There was a motion made at this meeting to end the contract with Crowder Construction Company to build the Sandy River Reservoir Water Treatment Plant and Distribution System for approximately $25,000,000. In addition the motion stated to end the interim agreement with Crowder Construction Company for the engineering and design of the project at a cost of approximately $2,000,000 after insuring that all the deliverables which included an approved Preliminary Engineering Report and documentation of all work including drawings and multiple permits that were under contract in the interim agreement.

The vote to end this project was defeated by a vote of 6 to 2 with Fore, Gantt, Jones, Wiley, Simpson and McKay voting to keep this project alive and Campbell and Wilck voting to kill the project.

It is ludicrous to keep this project alive when the project cannot go forward. The reasons the project cannot go forward are as follows:

1. The size of the water plant, the scope of work, and the cost for this project was submitted using Crewe and Burkeville as customers. There were letters from Crewe and Burkeville stating that they would not participate in this project at this time.

2. The financial justification for this project was prepared using revenues from Crewe and Burkeville and also contributions to the project from these municipalities amounting to millions of dollars. There was documentation from Crewe and Burkeville that Crewe and Burkeville would not be participating.

These are examples of why I believe we need to change the makeup of the board of supervisors. Supervisors McKay, Jones, Simpson, and Wiley will have to face reelection in November 2011. This is the eighth time that they all have voted in support of this boondoggle budget busting Sandy River Water project, yet they claim they have not made up their mind yet on the project.

Supervisors McKay, Jones, Simpson, and Wiley have voted to spend approximately 5 million dollars for the Sandy River Water Project and we have practically nothing to show for it.

Supervisors McKay, Jones, Simpson, and Wiley also voted in 2010 to raise real estate taxes by 5 percent and to raise the vehicle decal fee by 40%

Supervisors McKay, Jones, Simpson, and Wiley are not good stewards, in my opinion, of Prince Edward County citizen's hard earned money that is paid in taxes to the county and they need to be replaced in the November 2011 election.

Sam Campbell

Prospect District