Dear Editor:

We are writing this letter in hopes of informing the general public of the heart-wrenching events occurring in one of the oldest communities in Washington Parish.

I speak of the Oak Grove Community, located in the heart of the parish, which is being threatened with destruction/extinction, once again by the a few money hungry individuals.

Their continued attempts to build an unnecessary and unwanted reservoir in the community would destroy and uproot the lives of some of the oldest families to have settled this area. Some have been here more than 200 years — the Moores, Jones, Resters, Carters and Williams — and many of their descendants still reside on the ancestral home sites unto this day.

The following URL links to a story written by a descendant of one of these families: http://washingtonparish.blogspot.com.

Read the entire blog, but scroll down to “A Community Lost” to get a sense of the value we place on our community.

Please, if you cherish your ancestral roots as we do, we ask for you join in our fight to preserve ours, by voicing publicly your opposition to the destruction of our community.

This will affect every resident of the parish by passing stringent and restrictive zoning rules regarding taxes, insurance, water wells and sanitation.

Don’t doubt that they won’t expect you to pay for maintaining this project through higher property taxes, sales taxes or what ever fees they can devise.

Written opposition is required by the Corp of Engineers by Dec. 26, 2014, and please reference:

#SYK-MVK-2012-1240

U.S. CORP OF ENGINEERS

VICKSBURG DISTRICT

4155 CLAY STREET

VICKSBURG, MS.

E-mail: regulatory@usace.army.mil.

Time is very short.

– Louise Rester Stewart

Karen Rester Daniel