"Many people don't like when their land is taken."

Ya think?!

County Commissioner John Howard asked one of the attorneys for Elba Express Company whether he thought landowners' objections to the proposed pipeline were motivated by money, or by aesthetics, or by something else. His response, "Many people don't like when their land is taken," is a ludicrous understatement of the infringement this private pipeline company would impose on the rights of landowners from Savannah, Georgia, to Anderson, South Carolina.

Nowhere along that route has the pipeline met such opposition as it has right here in Wilkes County. It's not the money - or as the lawyer himself said, there would have been counter-offers. It's not that pipeline construction would leave an eyesore on the properties - once it's all done, the land will look much as it did before the pipeline encroached.

Much of the land in question is timber land. It is a renewable, income-producing resource and asset that has supported families for decades. Elba would take that land, claiming eminent domain, and deny those landowners the use of it for its intended purpose - forever - for a one-time payment granting a permanent easement.

So it doesn't take much to deduce that "people don't like when their land is taken" - especially for a project that is not necessarily and publicly beneficial. (And once constructed, the pipeline will provide no income or service to anyone in Wilkes County.)

The statement was made amid one more plea to get the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners to grant permits for the pipeline company to cross numerous roads in the county during construction. Once again, the commissioners said no. There was never a suggestion that a motion to grant the permits would be made. Lawyers for the pipeline were noticeably frustrated as they continued to attempt to sway the board. They even "promised" that a lawsuit would be filed against the county within a week or two.

Chairman Sam Moore said that as long as there were Wilkes County taxpayers actively fighting against the pipeline, the Board of Commissioners would not change its stance. Anything else, he said, would seem like the commissioners were siding with the pipeline.

Elba Express has bullied its project all the way from Savannah and it may indeed bully its way through Wilkes County as well. But you never know - sometimes the little guy wins

While big shots, bullies, and their lawyers continue to find "legal" ways to erode the rights and liberties of landowners, it's comforting to know that people like the members of LEEP (Landowners for Environmental and Economic Protection) and the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners are still out there standing up to them, that they are resolute in their convictions, and that they aren't willing to sacrifice unjustly.

When this bully finally leaves Wilkes County, either with or without its pipeline, it's going to have one big black eye.