GOOCHLAND AT A CROSSROADS

This posting is the first installment featuring Goochland County residents sharing their hopes and dreams for the future of the place we call home. All of those who share our committment to Keep Goochland Beautiful are encouraged to speak your mind as well. Send your story to jfredhale@comcast.net. Our first contributor is Sandra Randell, seen with her husband Mike.

Being residents in the locality of Centerville Village, my husband and I have nervously tracked recent news regarding the proposed strip mall adjacent to Satterwhite's, and the "Peace Palace" located behind the Goochland Bank. Being placed across from each other, both projects will have an immediate and tremendous impact on those of us using the intersection of 621 and Broad Street. Other Goochland residents will be affected by the long term ramifications should either (or both) be pushed through without proper thought and planning. Firstly, addressing the strip mall.

If the strip mall is granted a B1 commercial status, (meaning a very broad interpretation of the word "business"), our little "Village" of Centerville will be reduced to a glut of fast food merchants and small businesses already seen at the shops off Parham and Broad, as well as at the Short Pump intersection with Broad Street. A steady flow of traffic exiting from I-64 will turn the area into an offshoot of Midlothian Turnpike, as already published in correspondence to the editor of the "Goochland Gazette". My husband, a retired City of Richmond Detective Sgt, is only too well acquainted with the high crime rate associated with such traffic corridors and low rent industries. One only has to look back 30 years to the area of Midlothian Turnpike and Cloverleaf mall. Once a charming neighbourhood of upscale shops and modest homes, now a blight of violent crime and derelict malls. Not something we want to wish upon our future in Goochland.

Regarding the "Peace Palace". While living in the UK, we had first hand experience of what such an edifice and its followers would create. The very well funded, and close knit groups associated with the Maharishi will quietly and efficiently meet all requirements to become elected officials. It may take a while, but when a majority of his followers are in a position to make it so, laws will be changed to accommodate their own agenda. Those living in localities affected will either join the newly created majority, or leave. I hope current elected Goochland officials will take the time to thoroughly research all the long term ramifications created by their actions today. Also, I ask each Goochland County resident to use the privilege of their vote and be active citizens in this wonderful democracy we live in. My husband and I earned this privilege, and as Citizens of The United States we eagerly exercise our right to do so.