After Action: Page County BOS Meeting on Fibrowatt

I’m a little behind posting these last few days. To my delight, I was very happy to be able to join my Page County friends and neighbors at the Board of Supervisors meeting. By now, local readers have seen coverage of this in the PN&C or talked to someone who was there – so my post will be a formality. I’m including some photos of the crowd in attendance.

There is a group in Page County that formed informally around the conviction that there is no place for a plant like this in the Shenandoah Valley. Their blog is at Page County Citizens - there's a link in my blog list.  Especially as it applies to Page County, I agree with them, as has been evident in my past posts. But this team wants to go further with the idea – that this technology isn’t suited to Virginia – or anywhere for that matter. As I’ve spoken with them, I guess my views on the technology are a bit complicated – but at the end of the day, it’s just a difference of opinion.

They made their point with a booth at the door, and flyers for all who entered. Once the session got started, I think that about 90 percent of those in attendance had on a “No Fibrowatt” sticker or was carrying one of the signs. And that group worked very hard to put a brochure or further information in everybody’s hand. They really were prepared and well mobilized!

All due respect to Terry Walmsley and the Fibrowatt team. Terry presented for more than two hours – I have to do that in my job sometimes and I can’t go that long without a break. Much of the information that he presented is what I summarized in early posts about Fibrowatt, but he added some details here and there as he talked about the plants and the processes.

Once he finished speaking, the supervisors referred to their list of more than 80 questions, asking a few of them that they didn’t think were covered in Terry’s slide show. It seemed like a good example of early due diligence to me, until the closing remarks. That’s when the surprises came out, and three of the supervisors said they weren’t likely to support a plant like this in Page County.

I’ve got a video embedded here, from the group I mention above, that repeats the closing remarks from the supervisors. I’m still surprised to hear this again, but I am also glad about it. And I am very happy that I was part of the meeting last night.

For more coverage, follow the links to the "Page County Citizens", “Luray, VA” or “JKSTech” blogs in the bloglist to the right. The Page County Citizens blog especially has some good photos of the materials they prepared, and is the source of the video embedded here.