Columns
March 18, 2010
Mayor seeks answers from APCO
he folks around Iaeger are hot. They are hot about being left in the cold and in the dark by Appalachian Power Company. They are even hotter because AEP wants a big rate hike. Everyone who is concerned is asked to attend a meeting at the Iaeger High School Gym tonight at 6 p.m. Iaeger Mayor Joe Ford said, “Rate increases, problems with power lines and power poles that have not be taken care of need to be addressed.” He is asking residents to “come and speak out and try to get some answers.” One town employee reported that she was without power for 19 days. Several elected officials are expected to attend tonight’s event.
Mayor Ford is on a mission to improve Iaeger. He wants to make some changes in the Board of Education’s plans concerning the Iaeger High School football field and its facilities. Ford said that there is no reason why the field cannot be preserved for use as a recreational and fitness center for the town, youth programs, and as a place to hold events, provide emergency shelter, have college classes, and use as a daycare center. Ford would also like to obtain the building being vacated by the Pioneer Bank in its move to a new location. Ford said, “That building would make us a fine town hall.”
Bluefield, Va., Mayor Don Harris commented that, thankfully, the flooding that recently occurred in the town was not as bad as it has been on numerous other occasions. Improvements in the downtown area to reduce flooding have made a difference. He also noted that town crews were out in the early morning hours opening drains throughout the town that were blocked by debris.
Last Thursday McDowell County Circuit Court Judge Rudolph J. “Rick” Murensky II signed an order dismissing what is most likely the last case involving the failed First National Bank of Keystone-Grant Thornton LLP v. Kutak Rock LLP. Judge Murensky concluded that “Regardless of the many different ways this court has reviewed this case, it all relates back to a common source, the failure of the first National Bank of Keystone.”
The “Appalachian Restoration Act” (S.396) is a bill sponsored by Senators Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., that apparently proposes to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act by including a definition of fill material. On the surface that bill seems reasonable. The definition does not include the disposal of excess spoil material described in the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in waters of the United States; or trash or garbage. Another bill that is awash in controversy is the “Clean Water Protection Act” (H.R. 1310) sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., that also proposes to define fill material. Opponents of the bills claim they would seriously curb strip mining.
Coal industry leaders are adamant that these bills will jeopardize the future of coal mining and cause energy price hikes. Opponents also claim that many thousands mining jobs could be lost. Apparently it only takes very few seemingly innocent words to heap significant costs and pile additional financial burdens upon American consumers and affect the livelihood of many people. These are probably two examples of seemingly innocuous legislation that could wreak havoc. The potential impact contained in these short bills on the mining industry, consumers, and our area is something that should be of concern and something that should be closely examined.
It seems that federal government is a proponent of inflation. The illusion is that debt can be paid off a lot easier with cheap dollars. The gold standard and paper currency began to part company in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated all gold certificates. U.S. paper money once bore the phrase “... dollars in gold coin payable to the bearer on demand.” After 1933 money became “Federal Reserve Notes” with the exception of “silver certificates” limited to $1, $5 and $10 denominations. In reality the gold and silver certificates had no more backing than the government’s promise. Herbert Hoover stuck to that promise assuring Americans that “the dollar is as good as gold.” After abandoning the “gold standard” FDR’s greenbacks were here to stay.
There you have it, a few comments on items of interest to the area. I hope that you have a blue sky. Please complete and return your census form. Our area cannot afford to lose any funding or representation. We need to go forward.
Wilson Butt, a resident of Bluefield, is a retired Department of Highways official.
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