We can?t afford to keep out any more businesses

I would like to say amen to the question-and-answer segment James Clark put in his ?Scoop? column dated April 21 about the tire recycling plant not coming to McMinnville. I am a business owner in McMinnville and was sick when I heard the McMinnville Board of Zoning had turned down an opportunity for us to have a new business come into this town that was going to create 100 to 700 jobs.

Folks, we have lost company after company and we need to desperately get every new business we can to come here. I understand the reason the Board of Zoning turned this new business down was because of the possibility of a noise or odor problem that might be incurred in that area.

Come on now. If you move near an airport, what are you going to encounter ? airplanes and noise. If you move or buy near a business what are you going to encounter ? noises or odors from that business. If you don’t want to hear it or smell it, sell and move.

It?s totally ridiculous to think the needs of the few should outweigh the needs of the many but that?s exactly what happened.

If we are to ever have a thriving community here in McMinnville we are going to have to change our way of thinking and not be worried about everyTom, Dick or Harry living close to a business.

The businesses that are still here are suffering greatly from the loss of all these companies closing and the jobs going away and it will continue to get worse and worse if the businesses here do not stand up and demand that the officials work together to become a growing and thriving town. Here we had a local official go all the way to China to get this company to look at coming here and the Board of Zoning shoots it down.

James Clark said it right when he said our elected officials are dedicated to making sure we have peace and quiet, but pretty soon they may have more peace and quiet here than they bargained for if they keep this up.

Randall Dunn
Tennessee Credit
Chancery Street
McMinnville