Recent Entries
Appropriate response or overreaction?
Backing down on payday loan sharks
Monthly Archives
- June 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
RSS Feeds
Virginia
The view from above
Feb 13, 2008On Monday, I accompanied a group of Wise County residents to a large strip mining site near Appalachia. I was struck by the overwhelming sense of nothingness. The trees are gone. The animals are gone. It appears that an entire mountain is gone. There was no sound other than the coal trucks winding their way up the mountain
I am not passing judgment on this mine or others like it, but even proponents cannot claim that they are not making unalterable changes to creation. In the past, proponents have argued that strip-mined land can be put to beneficial use in a region with too little flat land for development. But how many golf courses and strip malls does Southwest Virginia need.
If this practice accelerates, it will change the landscape permanently. I’m not certain the change will be for the better. Some people will become very wealthy, but will the community as a whole benefit?
Posted by Andrea Hopkins Power plant politics
Jan 04, 2008On to a different matter, the proposed power plant in Wise County. I was never too sure that the plant would be a net gain for the region; now, I’m solidly opposed. My roots go deep in the coalfields. My great grandfather was a UMWA organizer. But I think coal’s time has passed.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission holds a hearing on the proposed plant on Jan. 8 in Richmond at 10 a.m. Those who wish to speak must arrive by 9:45 a.m. It appears that the period for written comments on the plant has closed, so this looks like the last chance for opponents to speak out.
Now, I realize that we all benefit from electricity (as a rather sarcastic caller to the newspaper pointed out Thursday). However, just because I use power doesn’t mean I must roll over and play dead for anything that the power companies propose. And this proposal is all the more odious because it won’t provide one lick of power to Southwest Virginia. It’s a high-cost alternative to meet the needs of Northern Va. If NoVa needs a coal-fired power plant, let them put it in their backyard.
For a more detailed cost-benefit analysis, see my column on Sunday in the Bristol Herald Courier or on TriCities.com.
The goods on the candidates
Oct 17, 2007Detailed information on the Virginia 2007 election is now live on our Web site. We are posting the candidate’s questionnaires as we receive them. Some candidates have elected not to participate (for reasons known only to them, in some cases). Some candidates are just tardy with their answers, which will be added as soon as we get them.
We sent questionnaires to the Washington County School Board and Board of Supervisors candidates in contested races. Also, the sheriff’s candidates and the Circuit Court clerk candidates received questionnaires. Questionnaires were also sent to Delegates Terry Kilgore and Bill Carrico and their challengers, Jerry Taylor and Susie Garner, respectively. Only Carrico has sent his responses back to us. Hopefully, the others will do so shortly.
I encourage you to check out the elections page and use the information to weigh the candidates before going to vote on Nov. 6.
Banning books in Washington County
Sep 20, 2007Actually, the School Board hasn’t banned Lee Smith’s “Fair and Tender Ladies” just yet, but they’ve sent it for committee review because of a single, unspecified complaint.
I haven’t read this book, but a number of my relatives are big fans of Smith’s works, which capture some of the authentic stories of life in Appalachia. Apparently, the uproar involves one or two paragraphs that describe sex in the vernacular, so to speak.
So what! This is an Advanced Placement English class - in other words a group of exceedingly bright, college-bound high school students. If parents think these youngsters haven’t heard similar language or haven’t been exposed to sexual talk, they are kidding themselves.
Memo to Washington County School Board: Don’t ban the book. Let the students study it and discuss it in an intellectual manner.
Salvation or boondoggle?
May 08, 2007The Washington Post raises troubling questions in a package of stories Sunday on the Grundy relocation project. Chief among them: Was it worth the cost?
In an article headlined, ”Counting on a Big Box Bailout,” the Post reports:
GRUNDY, Va.—With loads of dynamite and government dollars, the leaders of this struggling coal town in southwest Virginia set to work years ago on a bold project to engineer their way out of poverty and the flood path of the Levisa Fork River.
The “New Grundy” of planners’ sketches was an Appalachian version of an upscale urban village, with distinctive shops, apartments and high-tech businesses that would spark an economic revival of the town.
This grand vision didn’t fit in the canyon-like confines of the old Grundy (population 1,100). So with a miner’s disdain for the incommodities of geology, town leaders recruited the Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Transportation. They demolished dozens of buildings along Main Street and, to make room for the new town, blasted away a mountainside.
The $196 million project—costing more than $175,000 for every man, woman and child in Grundy—was scheduled to deliver the new town this year.
But it hasn’t worked out that way. Many owners of the razed businesses pocketed their government payouts and don’t plan to reopen. The original goal of a revived small-town community morphed into something quite different—a future now heralded by an empty lot with a solitary blue sign sticking up from the barren expanse.
“Wal-Mart Supercenter Coming Soon!” it proclaims—the punctuation a comfort to some and a needle to others. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring.
At a time when many communities are shunning the retail colossus, isolated Grundy has hitched its dreams of renewal to the big-box giant. It lobbied hard to convince Wal-Mart that the town has enough space, people and promise for a store—even offering to place it on a pedestal of sorts, atop a two-story, 500-space parking garage above the new downtown on the other side of the river.
