Southwest Virginia Blogs

I mentioned here that I did not think Clintwood was going to have any competitive local races, but apparently that has changed.

Roy Mullins just called and asked that we write him in tomorrow for Town Council. At first I laughed it off since write-in campaigns are so rarely successful. Then I realized, before his call, I was not even going to vote tomorrow. If I was not going to vote tomorrow - who was? Probably very few people, if any at all.

If he can call enough people and the other guy, Randy Davis (I think?), does not do any get out the vote effort, Mullins may just pull this off.

I guess I will go cast a vote tomorrow after all.

Former Virginia Tech Hokie and Clintwood stand out, Justin Hamilton, was drafted by the Cleveland Browns. Fellow Hokie, Marcus Vick, however was not drafted.

Congrats to Justin and his family.

Rex Bowman has this great article about a fellow named Clyde Colley who was from Dickenson County and recently passed away. Mr. Colley was an 84 year-old man who rightfully used force to defend his wife, Ruby, and himself from two guys who tried to rob them and threaten their lives.

It is a very impressive story and a reminder that although us Southwest Virginians are friendly, one should think twice before waving guns at us.

Paul Sullivan says “all the great canyons aren’t west of the Mississippi. There are some nearby as well.” I could not agree more.

Of particular importance, though, Sullivan said this about his recent trip to Dickenson County’s Breaks Interstate Park.

Oh, and anyone who thinks all the great canyons lie west of the Mississippi or in the Southwest–think again.

Just a few months ago, for instance, on a quick trip to Southwest Virginia, I stood on an overlook peering into the depths of the great gorge at Breaks Interstate Park, on the Kentucky-Virginia state line. It may not be a canyon in name, but a canyon it is for sure. Impressive, too.

Maybe I am bias, but I would take the Breaks over the Grand Canyon any day.

For some time now, I have been hearing about the “Litter Gitter” program. Now I see it and Dickenson County got a mention in this RTD article by Rex Bowman.

Bowman writes:

Litter gitters - that’s the unofficial job title for convicted criminals who, instead of being sentenced to jail, are sentenced to pick up trash along local roads. In 2003, Buchanan County judges became the first in the state to use litter gitters, punishing offenders by ordering them into the ditches in what officials called an “Assign-a-Highway” program.

Offenders are given a 2-mile stretch of road to keep clean as part of a probationary sentence. If they do a bad job, it’s off to jail they go.

The article goes on to say the program is spreading to other counties across the state.

This program sounds like a great idea to me and I am very pleased it originated here in Southwest Virginia.

Looks like Dickenson County’s very own Dr. Ralph Stanley will be releasing a new album.

From the AP:

Ralph Stanley will further the history of Appalachian music on May 30th, when D-M-Z/Columbia Records releases “Ralph Stanley: A Distant Land To Roam — Songs Of The Carter Family.”

. . .

Stanley is backed by his band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, and guest artists Mike Seeger and Dennis Crouch.

The album is executive produced by T-Bone Burnett, the same producer who won Grammy Awards for producing the soundtrack of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Last night I attended the Dickenson County Board of Supervisors’ meeting. The Supervisors covered several topics, but the primary purpose of last night’s meeting was to determine how to cover the roughly $1.5 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.

When the Supervisors approved the current budget, it included two new sources of revenue. One was the introduction of a new county sticker, which would have cost residents $10 per car. The sticker ordinance was passed, thousands were printed up, thousands were sold to residents, then, under pressure from a some citizens, the Board voted unanimously to retract the sticker ordinance and refund everyone’s money. Obviously, dropping the sticker left a gap in the budget and created new debt (stickers, postage for refunds, etc.).

The second perspective source of new revenue, I believe, was expected to be a fee on garbage collection. The county currently pays all the costs for every resident to have his or her trash collected weekly. The resident only has to carry the trash out to the curb. An ordinance that would create a small collection fee has been proposed, but after a lot of negative public comment, it appears to be on hold.

After both of these options for new revenue failed to materialize, the Board decided to look at raising the real estate tax levies from the current $0.60 to $0.65. Each penny of additional levy, if fully collected, would create $90,000.00 of new revenue.

The motion was made to approve the additional levy and put to a vote. Bobby Perrigan (R), Scott Stanley (R), and Gene Counts (D), voted against the proposed $0.05 increase in levy. The other two Board members, Scott Moore (D) and Paul Buchanan (D), voted for the new levy.

After a recess, Buchanan and Moore tried to compromise and asked the other members if they would vote for a lesser levy increase, such as $0.02. The response, however, was a motion by Stanley, seconded by Counts, to leave the levy at $0.60 and seek a loan to cover the $1.5 million budget deficit. The votes were as before, with Perrigan, Stanley and Counts voting to keep the status quo and Buchanan and Moore voting to continue the discussion.

I would have liked to have asked the three members who supported keeping the deficit how they intended to re-pay the $1.5 million loan, but decided they probably did not care anyway. And as was pointed out to me today, this is actually an improvement over the $2 million they had to borrow to close out last year.

I am certainly not suggesting we should raise taxes on people just because we can, but it would be nice to see my county pay its bills without having to borrow money. Someone has to pay it eventually, why not do it now instead of leaving it to future tax-payers?

Congratulations to Clintwood’s Ashley Rose for being named the Lonesome Pine District’s Player of the Year.

Here is what the KTN had:

Clintwood’s Ashley Rose was named the All-Lonesome Pine District Player of the Year on Sunday following a vote of the league’s girls basketball coaches.

The senior guard led the Lady Green Wave to a 15-8 record, losing to eventual Group A state champion Gate City in the LPD semifinals.

The article says that Kristen Mullins, also from Clintwood, made the “First Team” too.

I don’t think I know either of them, which is another sign I am getting old.

Thanks to Congressman Boucher, I see that local farmers are now eligible for some financial assistance due to crop losses.

From the KTN:

Farmers in Wise, Russell and Washington County who have suffered crop losses due to last year’s drought conditions may be eligible to receive financial help from the federal government according to United States Representative Rick Boucher.

. . .

While farmers in these counties were previously eligible for assistance by virtue of being located adjacent to other primary disaster areas, this designation will enable farmers in Dickenson County and the City of Norton to qualify for federal assistance.

. . .

Boucher noted that the lack of precipitation experienced in Southwest Virginia in 2005 resulted in substantial damage to crops and justified the need for federal assistance to the producers of these commodities.

Farmers in localities declared as disaster areas who lose 30 percent of their income are eligible to be considered for up to $500,000 in low-interest loans from the U.S. Farm Service Agency for losses sustained as a result of this year’s drought.

I hope this will be helpful to some of our local farmers. A guy was recently telling me about how he had lost part of his crop because of the drought and I intend to mention this to him in case he has not heard about it.

I see from this post by Doug that Dickenson County’s Haysi Tigers went to Blacksburg and gave the Floyd Buffaloes a run for their money.

Congrats to the Lady Tigers for their strong season.

Although I do not agree with everything Jerry has in this post, titled Let Them Pay Their Own Way, it mentions Dickenson County so I am contractually obligated to link to it.

The post is also getting some support on the Clintwood Connection where the poster says, “I can’t say I disagree with a thing this fellow at the “From On High” blog said in this entry.”

Generally, Jerry is saying that rural taxpayers should not have to endure a tax increase if the additional revenues are going to be spent only in Northern Virginia to address the transportation problem.

That is certainly a popular position here in Southwest Virginia for obvious reasons. Advocates for that position, though, have to proceed with caution.

In response to Del. Bud Phillips questions of the House Republican transportation funding plan, Republican Del. David Albo addressed this issue and said that “[if Phillips’ complaints persist], he warned, he will introduce legislation next year to distribute the state’s highway money predominantly on the basis of population, a move that would drastically reduce rural transportation dollars.”

Phillips, in response, said:

‘That threat doesn’t work on me,’ Phillips countered later in a news conference. ‘There are other rural legislators on both sides of the aisle - Republicans and Democrats - and if they roll that plan out, they’ll have a revolution in the Republican House caucus.’

I am glad Bud is standing up against the House Republican transportation plan and (seemingly) backing Governor Kaine’s plan (the better one). And on that point, I am sure Jerry will disagree with me.

My little county, Dickenson, has been the subject of some attention in the blogosphere the last few days.

It started with this letter to the editor, which was also printed in last week’s Dickenson Star, from someone in Xenia, Ohio. The Ohioan painted a grim picture of Dickenson County’s future.

Kilo discussed that here and used the letter as a basis for calling for change. Kilo might be letting politics color his objectivity a little, though.

Jerry was not fooled by the numbers. He says although the letter’s author embellishes the data, “[the numbers] are still depressing and indicate that Dickenson County is on a glidepath to being Virginia’s first ghost county.”

For obvious reasons I hope Jerry’s prediction is wrong too.

Kilo and Jerry are both right about one thing, though, we have to start doing more in Dickenson County or face the inevitable consequences facing the county.

The good news is that I think folks here in the county are starting to realize something has to change and I would bet they will effect that change by electing a new Board of Supervisors the first chance they get.

I just got back from Richmond a few hours ago. The weekend went great with the one exception of the Marriott trying to charge me $10.00 to use their internet, hence the lack of blog posts.

We drove up on Friday night because weather reports were saying Richmond was going to get a ton of snow on Saturday. I thought if we could get up there before that hit would be best. Fortunately for everyone, the snow held off and I got to attend some of Saturday morning’s events.

On Saturday morning, I sat in on the Central Committee meeting and then represented Dickenson County at the Virginia Association of Democratic Chairs’ meeting. As everyone knows by now, the Central Committee overwhelmingly voted for a primary instead of a convention to determine who our Senate candidate will be this year. Over the course of this weekend, I have discussed this with several folks and I think if we just have two candidates, a primary is probably best, but when we have more than that (like four), maybe a convention would be better. Plus, a good primary will help both our candidates introduce themselves to Virginia’s voters.

The VADC meeting was also interesting. The new interim Chair, Salome Baugher, ran the meeting and did a fine job, although I am not sure we accomplished much. Nevertheless, it was cool getting to meet all the other counties’ representatives.

The morning meetings were followed by lunch at the Tobacco Company with Jerry and Denise. We started down to Carytown to eat at the New York Deli, a place they had ate at before, but it was closed.

Next up was the JJ Dinner, where I got to meet several folks for the first time that previously I had only corresponded with via email or candidates I have been following. To name a few, it was nice finally getting to meet future Delegates Eric Ferguson and Bruce Roemmelt, their former campaign managers Joe Stanley and James Walkinshaw, Andrew Hurst, Harris Miller and his family, Sen. Mark Herring, Delegate Dan Bowling and his wife, Corey Hernandez, most of the Draft James Webb people, and way too many others to mention.

Governor Kaine gave one of the best speeches I think I have ever seen him deliver. I guess being in a room full of close friends makes it easier for an elected official to just “tell it like it is.”

Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell also delivered a good speech. He complimented Warner and Kaine on the great work they have been doing in Virginia and put in a few plugs for the work he is doing in PA. The key theme of his speech, though, was politics should be fun and I agree.

I was disappointed that Senate candidate James Webb was unable to attend the festivities, but I can say now that after seeing Harris Miller in action, if he does end up winning the primary, I think he will be a better candidate than a lot of folks first thought. I still think that Webb will win the primary and be the strongest candidate to take on Allen, but I was pleasantly surprised by Miller.

The best candidate that I got to hear speak this weekend, though, was Judy Feder. She spoke to the Central Committee Saturday morning and was really great. If this one speech was any indication, Republican Frank Wolf had better be getting ready for a fight!

Also, as Lowell alluded to here, I was fortunate enough to win the Grassroots Award for the Ninth District and be recognized at the Dinner. So not only was this my first JJ Dinner, but I got to go on stage at my first JJ Dinner. Now I just have to figure out a way to get back on stage next year. Otherwise, future JJ Dinners may not be as exciting, but that’s ok too. Thanks to Kenton, who snagged this photo of me up on stage with my award.

More JJ Dinner coverage here:
From Lowell
From Kenton
From J.C.
From the RTD
From DocDem

Virginia State Police credit Gov. Mark Warner for reducing the amount of methamphetamine being produced in Southwest Virginia.

Virginia’s restriction of a key ingredient of methamphetamine apparently is having the intended outcome: a reduction in home laboratories producing the powerful, highly addictive drug.

Since October, when then-Gov. Mark Warner ordered retailers to shift some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies behind pharmacy counters, police have found just nine meth labs. During the same four-month period from the previous year, 30 labs were raided.

‘It has definitely made it more difficult for (illegal drug makers) to obtain pseudoephedrine,’” 1st Sgt. John Ruffin of the Virginia State Police told The Roanoke Times.

. . .

Meth-lab busts shot up from 34 in 2003 to 82 the following year. The number dropped last year to 64.

Thank you Gov. Warner.

The bad part about this report is it bases “results” on the reduction of meth lab raids, but fails to consider the people may just be getting better at not getting caught. Also, folks here in Dickenson County seem to think we could be doing a lot better job cracking down on drugs and I do too. I would guess it is the number one priority for most people in the county.