Well I thought my letter writing days were over but after attending the Blowing Rock Planning Board meeting on July 11 and viewing the most recent videos from the Blowing Rock Civic Association (BRCA) I felt another one was necessary.
A little background, at the top of Green Hill there is a communications tower that allows the police department, fire department and public utilities to communicate with each other. Over the years the trees that border the tower have grown to a height that blocks the signal and creates disruptions in communications for these town services. The police chief, fire chief and public utilities have all publicly and emphatically stated that this creates a serious safety issue for all citizens of our town. Just imagine the police or fire department not being able to communicate with each other and how that could put any of us at risk. Now to alleviate this issue the town wants to put a taller tower in place of the current one to maintain a strong signal throughout our community.
That brings us to the Planning Board meeting. At this meeting we learned that a group of Green Hill residents and BRCA members have formed an LLC called Protect Our Neighborhoods to try and halt the installation of this new tower and it appears their main issue with the tower is it will hurt their property values, it won’t, and they don’t want to have to look at it. At the meeting their attorney stated that if the town goes forward with the tower this group of BRCA members will get an injunction and sue the town in an attempt to halt the project. This suit could continue this serious communication issue between those that keep us safe for many years to come and cost the tax payers of Blowing Rock tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Now take a breath for a moment and let that sink in. In my opinion it all boils down to this, these BRCA members under the guise of an LLC will put at risk all of us and potentially cost us a great deal of money just so they don’t have to look at the tower even though there is one there already! Now you might ask why has this group formed an LLC? Basically, there are two reasons 1-so they don’t have to disclose the members of the LLC (what a shock!) and 2-if in the future their law suit is deemed frivolous they are not personally liable for the town’s legal expenses. Also, at this Planning Board meeting the two members most adamantly against the tower are BRCA members, Greg Bergstrom and Tom Barrett. Barrett is on the BRCA Board of Trustees and a member of its Executive Committee (more on him later). Mr. Bergstrom even appeared to push for moving the water tank from Green Hill even though this water tank supplies water for every single resident of Blowing Rock and at a potential cost of tens of millions of dollars and a probable large tax increase. Why you might ask would he suggest this, I guess so they don’t have to look at it.
Finally, if you go to the BRCA web site and view their spokesperson Tom Barrett’s videos you will note that they say they are “a strong voice for the homeowners of Blowing Rock” but in my opinion, and that of most others, the BRCA is only a strong voice for their entitled members and a group of “clubbers” and they mask this with misleading information. If you watched Mr. Barrett’s posturing and veiled comments at the Planning Board meeting it’s clearly evident to all that he and the BRCA do not represent all Blowing Rock homeowners, just a select few and appear have little regard for the safety of all of us. And lest we forget the BRCA is the bunch that supported Hunt Broyhill for our town council and failed to mention that he didn’t even live in our community, he lived in Hickory. Their publicly stated reason was to get a majority on the council, they also supported Jamie Dixey, so they could run our town. Anyone seen Hunt lately. And coincidentally, did you know that Tom Barrett, yes, the same Tom Barrett, was Mr. Broyhill’s campaign manager! The voters of Blowing Rock saw this sham and defeated these candidates in a landslide.
I stated in an earlier letter that when someone reveals their true identity one should pay close attention. Pay attention Blowing Rock.
Wayne Miller