Ramble On

Friday, May 7, 2010

Reprinting the PN&C letter - re: Mr. Baughan

While I've been on the road this week, yesterday I rec'd news on-line about a letter that was in the Page News and Courier, reprinted on the Lurayva blog (link in the blogroll on the right).  It gives voice to a lot of questions I've had over the last couple of years as I've thought about the EDA role.  Kudos to Jay for putting them so straightforward and succinct!  And a tip of the hat to Keith for putting it up on the blog...
---letter follows
 
Last week I opened paper to see a man’s face on front page. Lowell Baughan. I see his name in the paper connected with so many county dealings.

Who is this man? I don’t remember voting for him or hearing he was elected.

A friend told me he’s been head of the EDA for 30 years. He seems to have the ability to spend taxpayer money without direct citizen input.

Why? Is this some kind of untouchable second leadership?

Let’s just be clear. Mr. Baughan wants to spend $7.5-million for 210 acres of farmland (a.k.a Progject Clover), while the county is already struggling to balance it’s budget for this year. Remember the landfill fiasco that we’re still paying for? Clover will weight us down like the new landfill, if we allow it to be purchased. Everyone gets rich but the Page County taxpayers, who will pay for the next 40-years.

So let’s default. We don;t need to borrow more money. Each of us must live within our means and so should we as a county. We’re cutting the school budget to the bone, as well as other necessary services. There are already too many empty industrial parks along I-81. Let’s not add another one.

A friend told me that Lowell’s father was part of the “Byrd Machine“ (look it up on Wikipedia.org) when VA politics was run by a tight group of insiders. As a member of the new generation, those days of crony politics are over.

Mr. Baughan says we can’t default on this proposed loan to Rebecca Graves Hudson. But we only default if Mrs. Hudson sues. As a citizen who’s family has lived here for generations, she could also realize this purchase is a bad deal for the community. She could be a hero. As is, Rebecca will still be paid over $1-million for 38 acres of farmland. Do the math. She’s no victim.

We elect leaders. They make the decisions for us. If I don’t like their decision, I help vote them out of office. So who is Lowell Baughan? I can’t vote him out of office because he’s never been elected. Lowell simply has power to spend $7.5-million of taxpayer money that taxpayers don't want.

Jay D., Rileyville

1 comment:

Unknown said...

In my haste to publish, I left some spelling and punctuation errors in the original version of this - editors had since corrected them and I have now done that here as well.

Here is a link to the referenced Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrd_Organization