I am a resident of Red Level Lane, which is a proposed site of the Lunenburg Planning Commission’s trash convenience center, and would house six dumpsters and two trash compactors.

The majority of residents living on this quiet road in Lunenburg County oppose the site due to the increased traffic, noise and animals that a center such as this will, in all likelihood, bring to the area. There are homes in the immediate vicinity of this proposed site. To the individual who recently responded that sacrifices have to be made: Would you sit quietly by while a trash convenience center was developed next door or immediately across the street from your residence? I highly doubt it.

It’s OK for others to think it’s acceptable for sacrifices to be made, so long as it doesn’t impact them personally, or their quality of life.

My understanding is that the goal of these convenience centers is to eliminate open trash containers where county residents throw all sorts of unacceptable trash; that the convenience centers will have attendants during the hours of 7 a.m.-7 p.m. and offer recycling. I visited one such center this weekend which is open 24 hours, and not manned, as we have been told by the planning commission.

Residents were dropping off all types of trash, including some unacceptable items, like carpet. Already the guidelines for these centers are not being adhered to. And, I might add, there were no homes in the immediate vicinity of this trash site.

It’s hard for me to believe that in all of Lunenburg County there is not a better, more remote, possibly a commercially zoned property to develop a trash convenience center. There are many remote areas along Oral Oaks Road which may be suitable. And now the planning commission advises that it is our job, our responsibility, the residents of Red Level Lane, to find an alternate site.

Did the members of the planning commission even consider the impact of their proposal on the area residents, or are they merely wanting to check the box and just move on? What about the quality of life for the residents of Red Level Lane? Who is going to stand up for us? We pay our share of taxes to support the county, and we should have a say in what happens in our county with those dollars.

A trash center on our road is not something we can or will support. It is also noteworthy that the owner of the property who is willing to subdivide his acreage for the county is an absentee landowner and lives nowhere near the proposed site.

We have been advised that he is unwilling to sell the proposed acreage to the residents of Red Level Lane, that he will only agree to sell his entire 30-acre parcel to the residents; whereas, he is certainly willing to sell only 3.5 acres to the county for the proposed trash site.

Karla Sickerott is a resident of Lunenburg County. She can be reached at karlakay13@cox.net.