Editor:

Cumberland citizens and Virginia citizens need to be up in arms, outraged, disgusted and more.

Did you know Virginia is the second largest importer of out-of-state waste (trash) in the nation? How did this happen to a state as beautiful as ours? The very things that make our state so beautiful and attractive to homeowners and tourists are the same things that make us the target for big business waste companies to try to move into a county.

Our rural and agricultural landscape, plus small county governments who cannot or will not attract good business, are an open sore just waiting for big waste companies to swoop in, offer big payoffs, and dupe a county into accepting them. Add a little greed on both the county’s and the waste company’s part and you have the perfect recipe for disaster.

Citizens in Cumberland are being sold a bill of goods to scare them into accepting a mega-landfill in Cumberland that will become one of the largest mega-landfills in the United States. We are being told our taxes will go up drastically if we don’t get this infusion of cash. Some even think our taxes will be lowered by a new landfill. The truth of the matter is our taxes will stay the same as they are now. The landfill mega-bucks won’t materialize. The county is hoping the citizens will be quiet and help them out of a financial fiasco of their own making.

For years Cumberland has been mismanaged, been fiscally irresponsible, even negligent, and when that is pointed out to our board of supervisors their only response is to blame the citizens. The fact is this board, and previous boards, have made disastrous decisions, spending money they don’t have, building schools without financial backing, paying salaries to county workers that far outpace corporate and state government salaries. The citizens of Cumberland should be very angry, but many remain complacent. They seem to be willing to buy the bill of goods they are being sold by our board of supervisors.

Years ago I recall hearing residents saying they wanted Cumberland to remain rural and agricultural. The county’s Comprehensive Plan states repeatedly that Cumberland should remain rural. Folks, there is nothing “rural” or “agricultural” about a 1,200 acre mega-landfill. Wake up.

Beverly Speas

Cumberland