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CHET WHITE/THE NEWS & ADVANCE
Laura Ruffin-Skrypek walks with her 18-month-old daughter Emily to retrieve the mail. Ruffin-Skrypek moved to Evington from North Carolina in January 2007 to start an organic flower and herb farm. The 75-acre property she bought has pre-Revolutionary War roots and has been farmed organically for at least 10 years.
Standing next to a fading flower garden on Laura Ruffin-Skrypek’s 75-acre property, waves of wind rushed through distant trees and cities of insects buzzed while hidden in the end-of-summer grass.
Sounds from civilization aren’t audible, an amenity that just added to the reasons for purchasing the property in 2006, Ruffin-Skrypek said.
Related:
Digging deep in Lynchburg’s largest quarry, where the rock is about to run out
Boxley quarry proposal stirs neighbors’ fears in Evington
“Almost everybody who has been here to visit says, ‘It’s so quiet here.’”
Evington’s silence and abundant wildlife are just a few of many reasons its residents treasure the spread-out enclave with roots dating back to land grants from the British crown.
“We don’t have streets, we don’t have stop lights,” said Sara Wil Saunders, a former resident whose family owns more than 1,000 acres of one of the community’s first settlements.
“We just are remnants of the way things have always been.”
Residents worry a proposed quarry — which goes before the Campbell County Board of Supervisors tonight — will irrevocably change their community.
They have banded together to fight the proposal. Hundreds turned out to a public hearing in July, where the planning commission voted 5-2 not to recommend approval of the project. Signs protesting the quarry line roads throughout the area.
Boxley Materials Co. has owned 914 acres of land since 2005 and wants to mine about 100 acres for greenstone. The rock, company officials say, is crucial to its future business in the area and keeping construction costs low in the region. Company officials estimate Boxley’s Lawyers Road quarry has about 15 years of rock left and the Evington site would be a 100-year replacement.
Neighbors, however, fear noise, dust and traffic, and worry that blasting could harm their wells.
“People are living quietly, back in their own little place and suddenly Boxley has arrived and everyone is threatened by something they know instinctively will alter their whole community,” Saunders said.
Evington was named for late-1800s resident Miss Evie Smith, who donated land for a railroad right of way, a tiny railroad depot and post office, Saunders said. Within two miles of the proposed quarry are at least 15 homes and ruins with origins before the Civil War, neighbors said.
“People here know what’s important,” Ruffin-Skrypek said. “Keeping God in your life, really participating in being a family, instilling the values that are useful for survival, just knowing how to get by, knowing how to get through life and just being respectful of other people.”
Some residents even live off their land and hunt for food. Homes hidden off narrow country roads seem as if they are living in another generation, Ruffin-Skrypek said. “There’s a tradition, it’s sort of old-fashioned,” she said, “but people here are just responsible, respectable, good hardy people.”
Nuclear engineer Mike Savela purchased 14 acres about two years ago because he wanted to live in a tranquil place where he eventually could grow grapes and raise a family.
“We have the peace and quiet and the lifestyle that nobody in a subdivision in Lynchburg has and that’s why we’re here instead of there,” he said.
Jesse Keesee has ancestral roots to his property dating to the original king’s land grant in the 1700s. His children and grandchildren live on the same road. “My land, my children, my livelihood are here,” he said. “If you have a problem, these people will help you in any way they can. We’ll help you or our church will help you.”
Marie and Addison Mason purchased 15 acres and a house named Caryswood without much knowledge of the building’s rich history, only to be adopted by descendents of the Saunders family.
Over the years, Saunders descendents from throughout the country have visited the Masons’ house to refresh memories or to learn details of their origins.
“It’s not like a lot of communities, where families are not connected,” Marie Mason said. “People care about families and the ones growing up care and want to come back and learn about their
ancestors.”
“It’s been undisturbed for generations and it has been allowed to evolve into what it is, which is gradually becoming good subdivisions,” Saunders said. “You can’t find an area like this in very many places in Virginia. It’s disappearing.”
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Reader Reactions
evingtonfarmer, I’m really curious to know how you can possibly interpret In The Middle’s question about eminent domain as a threat???? The question was “isn’t a conditional use permit better than ... eminent domain.“ I can’t even begin to fathom how that could be remotely construed as a threat. It’s not like In The Middle can show up in the middle of the night and condemn your property.
Simple solution: Pool all of your money together, then buy the 914 acres, and Boxley to take a hike! What? They won’t sell it? Hmmmmmm, guess it’s thier land.
I did not say anything that comes even remotely close to being a treat, (evington farmer), but you statement that I should “be bvery careful with that one” could certainly be interpreted as such. It’s in the same vein as what (freedom) said.
I have no connection with Boxley; I’m just an observer. I simply expressed an opinion and asked a question. Furthermore, I intend to keep on expressing my opinion!
In The Middle -
is that a threat?? “eminent domain”?? be very careful with that one…
as for the rock analysis, “independent” is not what we have… what we have is a scant report bought and paid for by a company seeking high profits. the findings and results are simplistic to say the least.
bottom line: rezoning for heavy industrial use is contrary to the published intent of our county.
(faces) I mean no offense, but aren’t you reflecting—no, beaming—the “not in my backyard syndrome?
Try to think objectively. Isn’t a cndtional use permit better than having to go through eminent domain?
Yes, rock is (almost) everywhere, but not everywhere is it suitable for mining. Is there any reason why we should not trust the independent expert geologists?
Maybe these Boxley supporters would like to live close to their quarries. We do and we know the truth. I have never met anyone who actually lives near their locations that thinks they are a good neighbor.
I’m sure people who live near existing quarries are eager for you supporters to make an offer on buying their property.
Henry County knows that the public water lines off the Boxley site are damaged by blasting. Think nothing else is affected???
Below are a few direct quotes from a Henry County Public Service Authority document.
“The primary problem with this part of the system is the blasting shaking the lines and disturbing the buildup resulting in orange water.”
“Also it should be noted that line trash in the Carver area can be related back to the quarry blasting.”
“Boxley must mine where the rock is, rock that will be essential to the entire region’s viability for the next century. And they have already proved themselves to be good neighbors everywhere they have an operation going. “
Rock is the most abundant natural resource on Earth. It’s found in Abundance everywhere on earth and is easy to get to.
Boxley has chosen this site not because it has rock, but because it has rock that due to its proximity to infrastructure can make Boxley another tenth of a cent a ton sold over the other sites surveyed.
The notion that this is the only place that has rock is ridiculous. It’s also just as ridiculous to demand that everyday people, who work hard for what they have, sacrifice their investments just so Boxley can retain its near monopoly over the local construction industry.
Boxley has demonstrated numerous times that it could care less about its “neighbors”. It has repeatedly insulted, insinuated and outright lied to the people of Evington, just as it has elsewhere with its other “neighbors” (Fieldale). Every single person who I have encountered that sings Boxleys praise as a “neighbor” is either a boxley employee or a Boxley business partner, not one of them an actual “neighbor” (just as I suspect you arent). In fact, when you do talk to any of Boxleys real neighbors you get an entirely different story and it’s not one that is positive.
But enough with you and your silliness.
Tonight’s hearing should be of interest to every resident of Campbell County because tonight’s decision will impact the entire county and everyone in it from this day forward.
If tonight the Board of Supervisors approves this request to rezone agricultural to Heavy Industrial, it will set a precedent. A precedent that regardless of historical relevance, regardless of community vision, regardless of the investment and plans of hard working everyday people like you and me; anyone with a few million dollars can come in, buy large tracks of property in the heart of your community and via the proxy of county government authority take it all away for the sake of one business (what a neighbor). There will be from tomorrow forward a mechanism established and already in place that will allow any mining company to move in right next door to you. People should remember that there is uranium here and that after tonight, perhaps, a green light to dig up your neighborhood for what some will claim “essential to the entire region’s viability for the next century”.
In the middle states “And they have already prooved themselves to be good neighbors everywhere they have an operation going.“
Oh, really? If this is your idea of a good neighbor, I’d hate to see your idea of a bad one.
http://fieldale.wordpress.com
“No man is an island unto himself. . .“
Do you remember this from English literature classes? Evington is not a island unto itself, never has been and never will be.
Boxley must mine where the rock is, rock that will be essential to the entire region’s viability for the next century. And they have already prooved themselves to be good neighbors everywhere they have an operation going.
No matter how much some of us long for a simplier and quieter time, it simply cannot and will not exist in a country that has tripled in population in only the past 40 years.
If people do not have jobs they will not be buying vegetables, organic or not.
Nice article, the section of Bedford County in which I reside is in much the same situation. Those of us who placed our priorities in life in purchasing larger tracts of land to sustain this type of lifestyle find our investments marginalized by subdivisions which place McMansions right up to our property lines. Lack of respect for private property finds that landowner feeling at times like they are subsidizing the view, pets and children don’t see markers for private property. the landowner feels like they are running a state park. Until our local governments see that development is not the end all to budgetary problems, the whole area will wind up looking much like Northern Virginia, where wall to wall development has created nothing but a money drain for the taxpayer. Go Evington, set the standard and say no.
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