Fill would take farm

Surry residents support owners

DOBSON (Winston-Salem Journal) - The Surry County Board of Commissioners listened last night to an outpouring of support for a family whose farmland is being condemned for the county landfill...

...More than 20 people packed the commissioners’ meeting to express their concerns about Donald and Faye Terrell, who are being ordered to leave their 95-acre farm this month to expand the county landfill.

Neighbors and relatives asked that commissioners give the Terrells more time to move. They also asked that the purchase price be more than the $653,000 the county paid for the property.

Last week, a Superior Court judge ordered the Mount Airy couple to leave by Nov. 28, ending a 10-year battle in which the Surry commissioners fought to buy the property under its eminent-domain authority.

But Donald Terrell, 69, who retired from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and used to raise cattle on the farm, has said he will not leave.

Commissioners told residents that they are still reaching out to the Terrells and trying to come up with something both sides can live with.