Monday, January 05, 2009
Editorial: Protecting the New River
Land on the banks of the New River once marked for a prison is now protected from development.
From the RoundTable blog
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Grayson County's prison saga has concluded with a happy ending.
Grayson County residents were in conflict when the prison was first proposed.
Many residents wanted the jobs and other economic activity the prison would create. But many others thought the prison at the proposed location would do the county more harm than good. The land was along the New River, surrounded by property protected from development by conservation easements.
There were many reasons to oppose the selected location. It had no infrastructure serving it. Sewer lines and a $10 million bridge would have been required. Nearby roads would have needed to be upgraded to handle the traffic generated by the facility.
Neighbors and groups who had been working to protect the scenic beauty of the land along the New were appalled by the idea of a prison on the river's banks.
People working to enhance the tourism potential of the New feared a prison might dampen the enthusiasm of visitors wanting to float down the river.
Then in 2007, the private company building the prison announced it had found a better location just off U.S. 58, east of Independence.
It was a great outcome. The county will still get the 300 jobs that go along with the prison without sacrificing the scenic beauty of the New.
But the risk remained that the landowner who had hoped to sell his property could still offer it for development. That risk is now gone -- permanently.
A preservation-minded neighbor, 91-year-old Buster Osborne, bought the 170 acres of land and recently finalized a permanent conservation easement for that land and several hundred acres more along the New.
"We have children and grandchildren, and they're interested in farming," Osborne's wife, Norma, said. "We want to preserve the land."
The prison is scheduled to open in 2010. The New is open for scenic business now and into the future.
