By John Crane
The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce recently nixed a request from a state delegate to form a uranium-study work group with its eastern neighbor.
Delegate Clarke Hogan, R-Halifax, asked the Danville Pittsylvania County and Halifax County chambers in August to form a committee and gather questions from the public regarding a uranium-mining study. The study would determine whether uranium could be mined safely in Pittsylvania County.
Despite the local chamber’s decision to reject the idea, the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce is forging ahead with a group of its own, the organization’s president said.
“We’re just going to move forward with our task force,” Nancy Pool, president of the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce, said Monday.
Uranium mining has been banned in Virginia since the early 1980s, but Virginia Uranium Inc. seeks to mine and mill a uranium deposit at Coles Hill about six miles northeast of Chatham. A proposed study to determine whether it can be mined safely in the county was tabled by a legislative committee in the General Assembly earlier this year.
Hogan could not be reached for comment Monday.
Laurie Moran, president of the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, said the board of directors decided against forming the workgroup during a meeting on Sept. 4. Moran said the chamber, which supports a uranium-mining study, will seek input from chamber members if a study is approved.
“That’s not to disregard the community’s input,” Moran said Monday. “Our primary constituency is our members.”
Pool said the Halifax chamber respects the Danville Pittsylvania County chamber’s decision. She said Halifax’s task force will include members and non-members, who will ask residents what they want to learn from the study.
“We’ll take questions from anybody that lives in Halifax County and has questions they want answered,” Pool said, adding the Halifax chamber has not taken an official stand on the study.
http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/chamber_says_no_to_mining_group/6211/
1 comment:
Once again...residents of Pittsylvania County have to look to Halifax for protection. We've been abandoned and ignored by local government and now, Et tu, Chamber?
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