HomeNews landowners say auto plant won't locate in county
landowners say auto plant won't locate in county
Washington County, Va.,
landowners say auto plant won't locate in county
Thursday, Jul 26, 2007 - 01:00
AM
BY Debra McCown
Bristol
Herald Courier
ABINGDON – Some of the landowners whose property is being eyed for a Magna
automotive plant near the Washington-Smyth county line say they believe the
deal is dead.
"I have talked to a member of the Board of
Supervisors in Smyth County, and he tells me that it’s not a done deal … but
it’s not very likely" to locate in Southwest Virginia, B.B. Huff Jr. said
Tuesday. "They are afraid of the mud."
The company that’s been core-drilling soil
samples on his and neighbors’ property found pockets of mud in the clay soil,
he said, making the ground too unstable for heavy machinery.
"I just think the deal is off," said
Huff, whose property also would be part the project.
Washington County Administrator Mark Reeter would not comment on the mud or
the negotiations with the Canadian-based company.
"We have a fairly active rumor mill, as
all localities do," he said.
He also said Christy Parker, the county
economic development director and the official who is most heavily involved in
the project, is taking a few days off.
No announcements have been made, and no land
has changed hands from the owners to the Smyth-Washington Regional Industrial
Facilities Authority, which has an option to buy on several parcels of land
near Exit 32.
As of Friday, the company was reviewing
information submitted by engineers, a Washington County
supervisor said.
By Tuesday, rumors of the project’s failure
were circulating rapidly.
Ruby Clark, another landowner whose land is
under option to buy, said Wednesday she doesn’t think the plant is coming
either – mostly because officials are suddenly silent on the matter.
"I don’t believe we got it," she
said. "I believe it went somewhere else."
Two weeks ago, she said, officials were 90
percent sure the company would locate here.
"I haven’t heard a word now. I feel like
I’d be the first person to hear," she said. "They sure did work hard
for it though."
Huff said he’d suggested driving metal I-beams
into the bedrock to ensure the structure would support a large amount of weight
even if mud is deep in the ground, but he doesn’t think the company wants to
invest the necessary time and expense.
"Alabama
has offered them $20 million," Huff said. "Richmond
doesn’t spend that kind of money west of Roanoke."
He said he’d gotten word Tuesday morning that
the deal is not likely to go through.
"The patient is very ill, but not dead
yet," Huff said. "I don’t know what can be done to save the
patient."
