Editor, the News-Herald:

I am proud to say that for many years, I have lived in the Hall Place section of Suffolk. Like me, many of the good people living here are retired. In our neighborhood, folks care about each other, and will help you any way they can.

For several years now, our area has been a conservation district, and a lot of good things have been done through hard work, without putting undue worry and financial strains on our residents.

During the last year, a few new folks to the area have been pushing hard to make Hall Place a historic district.

While these few people have tried real hard to shape things to meet their own needs, they seem to have, for whatever reason, totally overlooked the fact that a large number of our longtime residents are on a fixed income. Some of them own their homes and some rent. Either way, additional financial burdens on them, or their landlords, are strains that don’t have to be there and will cause money problems for many of these good folks.

Most everyone I have talked with sees no reason to make changes when our conservation district is working fine.

Also, the historic district would have sizeable fees and repair restrictions, and taxes would likely go up.

We are not wealthy people over here and we aren’t trying to be something that we’re not.

A lot of our folks would be hurt by needlessly having to pay out more money. We

also don’t like the idea of having to pay to get permission to make needed repairs, or the other restrictions that would also be included.

We don’t have any of those burdens with our conservation district.

Folks like it, respect it, and have seen its positive results, so they know that it works. Historic district status is not right for Hall Place.

It would cause a lot more harm than good, for us.

Wilson L. Lynn, Jr.

Suffolk