News

How do concerned citizens feel?

Since PNB has fought so long and hard to keep from allowing public participation, people who have concerns about the Battlefield have begun to unite in order to affect some good.

Friends of the Petersburg Battlefield

SHAME!

THE NEW ENTRANCE TO THE COUNTRY CLUB, ACROSS THE LAND DEEDED TO THE CITY

When the property was transferred to the City of Petersburg, the deed calls for the preservation of the land, and for years no roads were allowed to cross the land. Yet, this road was quietly passed through with the blessing of a member of the PNB, who lent his support to the plan, as nothing major had happened here.

PNB, CWPT and "The Quarry"

What a tale of a proposed quarry in the Hatcher's Run area. PNB and CWPT were part of the original opposition to the siting there. CWPT collected donations from their members, and received a grant to purchase threatened battlefield lands. Somehow, while CWPT "was in negotiation" to buy the land, the parcel where the quarry had been proposed slipped away and was bought by the developers. CWPT subsequently bought some remaining land. When the plan for the quarry went before the Dinwiddie County board, CWPT had no objection, and PNB showed slides backing the premise that "the epicenter" of the battle somehow wrapped around the borders of the proposed quarry (it was quite a coincidence that the slides that supported this theory were a combination of period and modern maps, while other items, like the Bearss maps were not given the same treatment). Because of the concerned citizens who still opposed this quarry, the plan was withdrawn at the time.

PNB and the Deeded Lands

Would you look what the City Council did ...
19 Feb 2004 local newspaper -- Progress Index:

"Granted an easement to the Petersburg Country Club for construction of an egress from its property to
the South side of Flank Road, across former National Park Service property turned over to the city in
1973. The easement area was determined by [Petersburg] NPS historian Chris Calkins, to contain
no significant historical features, such as earthworks."

So much for PNB looking out for the Battlefield ...

When the Country Club was built, they had to put their entrance off Johnson Road because they were denied access from Flank Road through the battlefield. This area was important to the Veterans who consecrated the Park, it was considered important enough to make the Country Club entrance off Johnson Road then ...why now is it deemed by PNB unimportant? Gettysburg National Park snapped up the land recently occupied by the motel Home Sweet Home in order to enhance the integrity of their battlefield, how can the same National Park Service condone this! Who knows what will happen when the contractor who was denied access to build a development gets wind of this one ...

Why is PNB so interested in obtaining lands at Five Forks (scene of an important battle, but not threatened by development at this point), spending a lot of money at City Point (Hopewell), the Union supply dump instead of preserving and upgrading the state of historical resources along Flank and Defense Roads, where so many Union and Confederate troops fought for so long??

"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men."
--Samuel Adams