Hernando County- I find it my duty to respect and honor all Veterans and their families. As usual the government, local this time, is attempting to advocate that MONEY supercedes respect and honor! PLEASE read the following. Our assistance is greatly needed! Further info to follow- a meeting time to be announced as we gather to FIGHT city hall once again! Thank you and GOD bless! ~ Diane Oriza--a member of our team here at Neighbors Against Mining--has advised me of her contact with you. We are seeking to help protect the Spring Hill African American Cemetery, home to many World War I & II veterans, from damage as a result of the new CEMEX mine on Cortez Blvd in Brooksville. Our group is seeking to stop the CEMEX comp plan amendment to allow the mining. This email will provide additional information and resources to you and we encourage you to get involved. We had contacted Paul Douglas, the Hernando County NAACP chair, last spring to enlist the NAACPs support in stopping the mining proposal. They have a campaign against coal that worked on reducing emissions from the local coal burning CEMEX concrete plant that will receive all the new lime rock from this mine, if approved. In his email to me, Paul said: And, because you mentioned the Historic African American Burial Site, that has been thoroughly addressed with a plan in place to secure the cemetery for the next hundred years. I cannot divulge any more than I have. Well, at the Dec. 9th county commission hearing on the CEMEX mine application, Paul testified that the organization will not get involved in stopping the mining. And to address the threat to the historic Spring Hill African American cemetery, he said he agrees with plans underway to protect it. He is cooperating with the property owners, CEMEX and the county to take the cemetery from its rightful non-profit board, the Spring Hill African American Cemetery Association, Inc. After Paul addressed the commission, Chairman Wayne Dukes called up the CEMEX representative who was asked how he would protect the cemetery from damage from blasting. He testified that he would agree to a buffer of 250 feet. Then he went on to say that he had offered to make improvements to it but Alyce Walker, the trustee, had not accepted. Well, it was because the improvements were premised on her signing a letter that she had no objection to the new mining all around it for the next 20 years. Mining would do tremendous damage to the cemetery vaults from the blasting, not to mention the erosion that would result from excavation down 45 on several sides of it. The cemetery is entirely contained within the parcel of land to be mined with only a dirt road leading to Fort Dade Avenue. Alyce said NO to their letter of support. Since Alyce would not sign it, Jim Morris, a CEMEX representative, said he would wait for the next management team to make that offer again. In the meantime, Jim noted that CEMEX has been working with a professor of anthropology at Un. of Florida to survey the cemetery. They have used ground penetrating radar to identify additional vaults and have written up plans to move the cemetery road, cut trees down near the fence and repair it. Then, County Commission Chairman Wayne Dukes actually said, I think we as a county should take the cemetery over, change the entrance and pave over the access road. Now we know what Paul was alluding to. CEMEX, Paul Douglas and the county have designs on the cemetery. They want to take it away from Alyce Walker as trustee. She had testified against the project and was in the room and heard all this. Yet she was not even given the courtesy of being involved in this discussion nor was she asked to comment on their take-over. I think she was just shocked. I find it appalling. The live testimony of the meeting can be found at: hernandocountyfl.iqm2/Citizens/SplitView.aspx?Mode=Video&MeetingID=1455 . Paul Douglass comments begin at 7:21:20. Also, Viennesse Black, who lives behind Alyce, testified regarding all the veterans who are buried in this cemetery, including her father. Attached is her testimony and the list of names that supplements the World War I names that Alyce provided and which are also attached. Her testimony begins at 6:59:23 on the above link. The commission voted yes to transmit the CEMEX application to the state for review. It will come back to the county commission for a quasi-judicial hearing in the spring sometime, possibly in April. Barbara Behrendt of the Tampa Bay Times has done a great job of covering this issue and is aware of our concern for the cemetery. The county is in the process of designating the cemetery as a state historical cemetery, in cooperation with the Hernando County Geneology Society. See their letter attached These docs are part of the offical record in this application. The cemetery has a sordid past and Alyces grandfather, a Baptist minister, was among those lynched and buried there. She testified to this at the Dec. 9th hearing. I think that if the public were aware of the backroom deals being cut to deprive Alyce and other African Americans in Hernando COunty of their rightful cemetery, it would create a huge public outcry. She has 7 generations of family buried there and as noted, there are many veterans buried there. We should let them rest in peace.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 11:08:58 +0000
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