Letter: Our city leaders deserve our trust as they battle fuel farm issue

What are your neighbors talking about this week?


  • By
  • | 2:00 p.m. September 18, 2023
  • Ormond Beach Observer
  • Opinion
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Public trust needed

Dear Editor:

The proposed fuel terminal has frightened and angered our community. Unprecedented numbers of residents have turned out at County Council and city commission meetings to voice their protests. There can be no rationale for the Belvedere Company's plan to locate a dangerous fuel farm which will transfer tens of millions of gallons of flammable petroleum products in the middle of the northern population center of Ormond Beach. The unimaginable scope of this operation is exponentially greater than the city vehicle fueling station and the airport fuel farm, so many of us were surprised when citizen Tim Grigsby and Zone 1 City Commissioner Lori Tolland first sounded the alarm in July, long before local newspapers reported shocking details.

It's unfortunate that some residents have directed anger, attacks, and threats at our City Commission. There has been no betrayal, no secret conspiracy to approve the fuel farm enterprise. The City Commission is our most effective and best hope to remove the threat, and the actions of our elected and appointed city officials to date have been proactive, creative, and persistent. We appreciate their professionalism in hearing the thoughts of hostile speakers and developing strategies to navigate the overlapping jurisdictions of four levels of government, myriad government agencies, and a tone deaf corporation. 

Our mayor and commissioners deserve our public trust and confidence. They will get us all home safely.

Jeff Boyle

Ormond Beach

Send letters up to 400 words to [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

 

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