Issues like the last two to three years don’t usually pile on as they have for Bladen County.
It seems we get hit, begin recovery and then out of nowhere something else slams into us. We’re reminded of the blues the fellas in overalls were singing on a television show in the 1970s, that went like this:
“Doom, despair and agony on me. If it weren’t for hard luck, I’d have no luck at all. Doom, despair and agony on me!”
There were a few groans mixed in there as well.
For a time, it’s been apropos for us.
Two hurricanes in 23 months were crippling.
Our hog farming industry is being used to fatten the wallet of a Texas litigator and expose weakness in our federal court system.
Residents near the Chemours plant have fear for their water now, and for what they didn’t know for years.
We drew national attention after an election for all the wrong reasons.
And a prized natural asset, White Lake, has been to the edge of a cliff we wish never to see again.
None of these are over, not by a long shot. But solutions are coming, and we’re encouraged for the days and years ahead.
Our recovery from not only Florence last September but Matthew in 2016 is not happening fast. In Kelly, we have tangible reasons in front of our eyes to wonder if it will happen at all, and we look into the eyes of the people there and know that if ever there was a resilient community that would overcome the greatest of obstacles, this it it.
We believe an appeals court will see the bad judgments in the hog lawsuits. Our friends and neighbors in our county, as well as Sampson and Duplin, are hardly being judged by a group of peers but that’s subjective criticism. The instructions and restrictions applied are more clear, as we saw in one case with a different judge.
The $75 million thermal oxidizer, calcium fluoride system and cooling tower being built by Chemours won’t change the past. But it does promise to have an impact on the future.
We’re close to having a new county of board of elections, and a May 14 date should bring two county elections to a close. Because of arrests, the legal system gets a crack at helping solve Bladen County’s corrupt voting practices. But there’s more to be done.
And this week we learned the results of three year-long studies of White Lake. Questions remain, but we’ve got far more data and answers than we had last year when it went green, fish died and the rumor mill went nuts.
No, not all is fixed. Far from it.
But yes, solutions are in the works. Some recommendations are in place. Plans are materializing.
Bladen County is strong, and she’ll show her resilience. There’s no other way forward.