Editor, the News-Herald:

As the widow of William W. Hill, who was one of the original founders of the Hall Place Community Association, I wish to comment on the two recent letters you have printed regarding HPCA.

On May 6, 2005, Sonny Lynn explained the happenings of the April meeting in perfect detail – every word was true, as I attended that meeting for the first time since my husband’s passing.

I am in the same category as Mr. Lynn as I reside in Hall Place, and had also not been advised of any &uot;Historic&uot; plan that is apparently being pushed on the residents.

Those attending the April meeting were prepared to hear how things had gotten so far along on this issue, with so few residents knowing that the paperwork had already been sent to Richmond for approval. This is totally wrong and unacceptable. We as residents, taxpayers and property owners, are entitled to know all the facts and particularly with a subject of this magnitude.

At this meeting, no one was allowed to even discuss this topic, as the president stated it was not on her agenda. There were a number of people wanting more information and to introduce a motion, but were not allowed to discuss their concerns over the Historic District situation, nor vote on the motion that had been made. The president and vice president were both rude, disrespectful, and made uncalled for remarks, pointed their finger at people and used questionable language.

Now, what does all this accomplish?

It tells the members we must replace these two officers.

These two individuals are acting like dictators to the good people who reside in this community.

On May 8, you printed a second letter from T. Stainback, who I have just learned is the vice president in question.

In this letter, she threw out a lot of numbers, but what she failed to say was that the overwhelming majority of Hall Place residents had not been properly notified.

I was one of those people who were not notified, and this upsets me greatly.

Hall Place is currently working under a conservation district plan, which took much work and planning.

It was approved by the city council in 2002, and appears to be serving the community quite well.

It took 7 years to have this plan executed, and now these two people want to lead the charge to unfairly implement this new plan in less than a year, without people fully understanding what it will mean in the way of fees and other restrictions that would be imposed on the residents.

I would like to congratulate our HPCA secretary, Elaine Eason, and treasurer, Walter Eason, for the fine jobs they have done through the years.

They have been models of integrity and enthusiasm for our association. Now, it has come to my attention that the current president and vice president are trying to totally reconstruct our HPCA bylaws from an effective two-page document into a 16-page document, and appoint themselves directly to the board of directors, leaving the members with very little voting power.

I doubt if General Motors has such a complex document. This is certainly not necessary for a local community association that is getting along just fine with the current bylaws. I urge all the members of the HPCA and other residents to attend our next meeting, Tuesday, May 17, at the Farm Fresh meeting room at 7 p.m.

I can assure you that, with your support, the president and vice president will be encouraged to step down and the issue of the historical designation will be settled.

Please do no judge HPCA by our last meeting and the negative events that took place.

We will return our association to a position of respect and dignity, just the way our founding members wanted it to be.

Dee Hill

Suffolk