In Wednesday’s edition of The Tidewater News, and again in today’s newspaper, we published an ad paid for by a group calling itself Taxpayers for Responsible Development.

The ad expresses concern over the proposed redevelopment, for industrial purposes, of a parcel of land near Riverdale Elementary School in Courtland. If you turn the page, you can see the ad for yourself. I am including the top portion of the ad here with this column for your convenience.

As you can see, the beginning of the ad states, “Citizens of Franklin, Southampton County, The SAFETY of children is at Risk.” Beneath those words appears an image of a school bus and a truck that have been involved in a head-on collision. The ad goes on to say that there is the potential for 500 tractor-trailers a day on Camp Parkway near Riverdale Elementary School.

What the ad infers is that if the proposed rezoning and subsequent development of the Cutchins Farm goes through, local schoolchildren are at risk for being bulldozed by one of the 500 tractor-trailers that may travel on Camp Parkway as a result of the development.

What the ad doesn’t tell you is that three of Southampton County’s six public schools are located along a stretch of Rt. 58 in Courtland and Capron that already has five times as many tractor-trailers travelling it as what is projected on Camp Parkway. Five times.

The Virginia Department of Transportation conducted a traffic study in 2014, which concluded that of the 14,000 vehicles per day that traveled along the stretch of Rt. 58 from the Greensville County line to Southampton High School, 2,660 of them were tractor-trailers. And that’s okay, but to send children to school on another road with 500 tractor-trailers is somehow unconscionable?

The purpose of the ad is clear, to create enough fear in the minds of parents whose children attend Riverdale Elementary School that they oppose the redevelopment project.

In my opinion, this is a cheap tactic that is beneath the type of discourse that this development project, and the citizens it may impact, deserves.

I have been a vocal supporter of this redevelopment project for quite some time, but I’m an even stronger supporter of the safety of the children who attend our local schools.

Why?

Because two of those children are mine, and they each happen to attend one of the schools that has 2,660 tractor-trailers whizzing by it each and every day. And as a parent, I think attempting to influence people’s opinion by using the safety of their children as an emotional pawn is about as deep into the mud as you can get.

Tony Clark is publisher of The Tidewater News. He can be reached at tony.clark@tidewaternews.com.