Editor,
Preserve our Slogans!
During the 70s, I sat on the porch of my Ritchie Co. grandparents’ house in Ellenboro WV watching Corridor D being chiseled into the hillside overlooking US 50. The promise then was, ‘economic development”. In a lifetime since, all I’ve noticed is Pete’s Dairyette is gone, replaced with a Dairy Queen. The numerous locally owned glass factories, including MidAtlantic where my Papaw worked, have been shuttered for a corporate one whose profits flow out of state. The local diner has long since closed. You can, however, get a Big Mac without leaving town. Local unemployment in the years following completion of this four-lane highway was chronically in the double digits.
Fast forward to our current situation regarding Corridor H. Tucker Co. has already reaped the economic benefits of the road that brings countless visitors from the East Coast. Our current unemployment rate is 3 %, what many economists refer to as “baseline” –meaning everyone who wants a job, has one. So then, we surely don’t need more miles of a multi-gazillion dollar road to boost our economy.
In fact, one only needs to read the road sign welcoming an out of state traveler to our neck of the woods to know why they’ve come: “Welcome to WV, WILD and WONDERFUL!” [not, ‘asphalt and fast food”] We’re “ALMOST HEAVEN” [not, “almost there’]!!! Blasting more highway through this pristine part of the state that makes us unique is unbelievably short sighted, as well as wasteful. Tucker Co relies on tourism, and we have it! Our visitors don’t want to eat at Pizza Hut, Sirianni’s is iconic! Tip Top is cool, Starbucks is not. The Thomas hardware store is locally owned. Another Lowes won’t be. We have the Purple Fiddle, we don’t need a Hard Rock café! And on and on….
If Governor Justice and the federal government want to spend our hard-earned tax dollars so badly, how about providing things we really need, like modern water treatment facilities, readily available lifesaving EMS service for ALL county residents, affordable housing, and real investment in our schools. And if the road builders need something to do too, I bet our local DOH boys could give us a 219 passing lane or two and straighten ole Wild Maggie, rather that out-of-town contractors taking their contract money and leaving us with a four lane that is not even open [Elkins to Kerens]. You really want those guys whose bridges are slipping to be drilling pylons into the acid mine pools common in our area? How long will our trout streams stay Wild and Wonderful??
Bret Rosenblum
Davis