On March 1st, a meeting took place where the citizens were not heard. Marion County Commissioners sided with the developers and not the local citizens who will be affected by commercial and industrial development if the amendment continues to a final vote.

It will begin a precedent in the county for years to come causing irrecoverable damage to the land, the natural resources, the wildlife and families who have farmed the land for over one-hundred years.

One family that will be affected is a Pioneer Family who owns sixty-acres on 318 and I75. They will be surrounded by a massive industrial park that will harm their environment and their way of life, forever, should the final vote go forward.

Meet Dollie Strong. She is the matriarch of her family with her sister, Almetta Mitchell. They live on their family farm in Marion County. The land has been in the family for over one-hundred years. They have never known anything else but a peaceful existence. Today, they worry that their family of children, grand-children and great-grand children will everlastingly be affected.

She stepped up to the podium at the County meeting on March 1, 2022 and gave an emotional argument why this amendment should not be passed.

“I’m here to vote no to the zone change,” Dollie Strong said. “The agriculture area has been agriculture for over a hundred years. We have a farm there. We raise our cows, we raise our animals. We don’t want a change! We have our family structure, our own property, our well water. If you put all of these things in there, you are going to contaminate our well water. It is a hazard to our health. We have children; we have grand-children and great-grand-children. I don’t want to see a change; we don’t want to see a change.”

“I had a petition that has been turned in with over 69 concerned citizens that don’t want a change in our area,” Strong said. “We have seen what they are proposing, what they want. Because what? They want to buy their way in to do what they want? But that’s not what we want! We want to live our lives, comfortable, happy and loving. Please don’t’ change our agricultural area. Let it remain the same. It will benefit our children, your children, your grand children in the years to come.”

Meet Dollie Strong and the Land she will lose: https://youtu.be/u6RsIcGx-_s

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