The "LULU" in Mathews, VA

 A "LULU" is a "Locally unpopular land use." That's what the strip mall was in Mathews, VA, where Jon and Barbara became "NIMBYs." That is, "Not in my back yard!"

When Barbara, Casey (our dog), & I arrived into the county 20 years ago, Mathews Court House (our village) was beginning to look like the typical West Virginian's smile, i.e. a blank space every two or three places (where a tooth should be). The attrition of businesses from the Village may have been related to the efforts by a local developer to put a 'strip mall' at the corner where the two major roads come into the county (from the west and from the north) [our 'Village' is a mile or two south of this intersection]. (In the rural parts of this part of our country, the residents are classified as 'born 'ers; been 'ers; & come er's). So....at least the come er's got our 'collective' backs up and decided to resist this effort for a 'strip mall' in 'our' county. In the first place, the developer wanted to service the 'strip mall,' sewage-wise, via what was called a 'mass-drainfield,' i.e. the drain lines lined up like graves in a graveyard. One of our fellow opponents is a retired NOAA engineer and documented how this would be a bad idea environment-wise. At the second attempt by the developer, I and others were gathering petitions at our two existing grocery stores to protest the positioning of a Food Lion store as the 'anchor store' for the new 'strip mall.' Our leader sent the petitions to Food Lion headquarters, and.....guess what!, they agreed and declined to go to the 'strip mall.' Instead, they purchased the property of the smaller food store, an IGA (like Curt Emery's on the west side of 101), and the energy started to flow back into the 'Village.' Our little county seat seems now to be brimming with energy (very few empty business spaces). Here are a couple of 'come 'ers (maybe at 20 years, we might be 'been 'ers') who are proud of our part in this. Jon & Barbara