Opponents have heels dug in too deep in fight over dirt
By Scott Sexton
Winston-Salem Journal
It’s nearly high noon for the Land Grab Showdown at the Surry County Landfill.
On one side we have Don and Faye Terrell, who could be ordered Friday off their 95-acre family farm near Mount Airy. On the other side sit elected officials who say that they had no choice but to flex governmental muscle and take the Terrells’ land.
Rather than clawing for leather and shooting it out Old West-style, the parties are handling this dispute the modern way - with lawyers. Both sides are scheduled to file into a conference room Friday for a court-ordered mediation, a last-ditch attempt to avoid the ugly spectacle of physically hauling the Terrells off their property.
“All five commissioners hate the fact that we had to exercise eminent domain on this property,” Craig Hunter, the chairman of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, said after a judge sided with the county earlier this month. “It was a very, very painful and gut-wrenching action.”
If the saga was gut-wrenching to commissioners, it’s downright stomach-turning to the Terrells.
“They just thought they weren’t going to get any flak, and that we were just simple country people who wouldn’t fuss,” Faye Terrell said.
Winston-Salem Journal
It’s nearly high noon for the Land Grab Showdown at the Surry County Landfill.
On one side we have Don and Faye Terrell, who could be ordered Friday off their 95-acre family farm near Mount Airy. On the other side sit elected officials who say that they had no choice but to flex governmental muscle and take the Terrells’ land.
Rather than clawing for leather and shooting it out Old West-style, the parties are handling this dispute the modern way - with lawyers. Both sides are scheduled to file into a conference room Friday for a court-ordered mediation, a last-ditch attempt to avoid the ugly spectacle of physically hauling the Terrells off their property.
“All five commissioners hate the fact that we had to exercise eminent domain on this property,” Craig Hunter, the chairman of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, said after a judge sided with the county earlier this month. “It was a very, very painful and gut-wrenching action.”
If the saga was gut-wrenching to commissioners, it’s downright stomach-turning to the Terrells.
“They just thought they weren’t going to get any flak, and that we were just simple country people who wouldn’t fuss,” Faye Terrell said.
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 7:59 PM
2 Comments:
“All five commissioners hate the fact that we had to exercise eminent domain on this property,” Craig Hunter, the chairman of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, said after a judge sided with the county earlier this month. “It was a very, very painful and gut-wrenching action.”
Liar.
I doubt they (the commissioners) lost any sleep over it.
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