Planners owe property owners and county tax payers a Mega-apology!

"Letters To The Editor" do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Jefferson County Post nor any of its employees. The Jefferson County Post does not underwrite any of the facts or situations mentioned in the letters.

Letter To The Editor

Submitted by: David Seal

When the Megasite was announced in January, planners, consultants, and politicians had their fifteen minutes of fame. Public relations experts had a cash cow on their hands. The uninformed and naïve had visions of the “shinning factory on the hill”. The EDOC committee thought that Jefferson County Commissioners would trample the property rights of land owners and glorify their industrial size ego. Considered dead-last were the farmers that owned the property in the megasite area. At first, the whole thing seemed like an evil plot that was hatched by state, federal, and local officials to slam-dunk the tax payers of Jefferson County and force a quiet group of farmers off their land, add to this actions by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce to make the whole mess sound like a good investment of taxpayer money. Now the big nasty surprise has been revealed; and it is much worse than everyone had thought.

There was no evil plot, no real plan, no solid business plan, no slam-dunk, no manufacturer, no state funding, no help promised by TVA, no real economic forecast, no credible research, no respect for people, and no chance of success. It was just one professional hand-shaker/back-slapper, a chamber president, and a committee of big egos blowing smoke and spinning mirrors, no more than a web of stupidity woven among politicians, utilities, and schmoozers, a cluster of deception condensed down to one out-of-town joker that makes his living by fooling locals into speculating on large-scale, high risk land development. It was greedy consultants duping the gullible, slick public relations experts spinning tales of prosperity to the needy, and predators stalking the unsuspecting, most of which took place in secret meetings over the past two years away from the view of tax payers. Sadly, our county government swallowed the bait – hook, line, and sinker, disposing of taxpayer money in the process. Our county government was considering a three hundred million dollar expense based on the recommendations of one crummy-collar sidewinder from South Carolina; it was like the carnival man hoodwinking a group of tourists out of their silver dollars.

In order to expose this [explicative], an entire community had to organize and hire attorneys, conduct research, hold meetings, spend thousands of dollars on advertising, endure disrespect from real estate predators, organize publicity, and fear the loss of their property. Megasite planners owe an apology to every person in Chestnut Grove, Sager, Spring Creek, and Kansas-Talbott communities, all Jefferson County tax payers, and all county commissioners who fought for the truth and the property rights of land owners. I will be waiting for my apology, as will many others.

This county should reconsider funding for the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce until new leadership can be installed. Otherwise, the same type of small-town, small-minded, inflated egos will waste your money, insult the intelligence of county property holders, accomplish nothing, and continue flushing your money down the toilet. Your community may be next to suffer from the next hair-brained idea if you fail to convince the Jefferson County Commission to terminate funding for the chamber of commerce.

David Seal

Dandridge