The Shadow
In observance of the Labor Day Holiday weekend, I’m taking time off to be with family and friends. However, I’m leaving you in good hands with The Shadow’s article by Buck Rumpf for a small trip down memory lane. See you next week!
Now for the ones of you that don’t really know what that means, I will give you my version of the meaning. I will give you the good version of what it means first. If you do a good deed for a person, that will come back to you as a good deed to you.
Now I will give you the bad version. If you cause someone to have a hard time by a deed you committed, that bad deed will eventually come back to you, maybe not right away but for sure it will catch up to you.
Now I will try to explain just what I mean. We are all familiar with the MeadWestvaco deal several years ago when the paper company could not get the land it wanted in Alleghany County for the regional warehouse it planned to build and finally found some land in an industrial park in Buena Vista, and the city had gone as far as to shake hands on the deal.
Then some residents in a nearby residential subdivision complained that they did not want all the truck traffic near their homes and finally put so much pressure on the Buena Vista Council that they backed out of the deal.
MeadWestvaco sued Buena Vista for backing out of the deal and it went to court and the judge ruled that because the paper company did not get it in writing that they had a deal with Buena Vista, the city could back out of the deal.
Now let me refresh your memory about the deal. The regional warehouse would have cost $20 million dollars, which would have been taxable and it would have brought 70 jobs to the industrial park. To make things even worse, the deal falling through made the other two partners in the industrial park very upset, Rockbridge County and the town of Lexington. So Buena Vista then borrowed the money and bought the two partners out and dropped out of the Economic Authority they had formed with the two localities.
Since the time that the deal fell through, several plants in the Buena Vista area have gone out of business or simply moved to another area. That means that unemployment in Buena Vista is rather high now, and to make things even worse, the city had borrowed about $10 million to build a first class golf course. Now they don’t have the money to make the payments on the golf course. To make things even worse, they had pledged two public buildings to stand for the loan and may lose them also.
I have read that at first the companies that had loaned the money to Buena Vista had refused to make a deal on the loans but now I am also hearing that maybe they will talk about the loan a little further, but so far nothing has changed.
Now can you see where I am coming from. Buena Vista backed out after making a deal. Even though it was a hand shake, it is still a deal in my mind. If your word is no good, what good is a hand writing deal?
I am not going to even mention the fact that Alleghany County could have had the warehouse and the 70 jobs, but the Alleghany County deal did not get that far. I will say, with the present economy like it is, I believe that the Alleghany County deal would have passed with flying colors. But I will also say this, the property owners that refused to sell had every right to say no, that is what makes America so great.
Well the MeadWestvaco deal is now water over the dam and is gone, so we have to pick up the pieces and move on.
I heard Delegate Jim Shuler tell a group of businessmen the other night that the last General Assembly was very good in a sense but there are not enough funds to go around and things may not be much better next year because the state does not have income coming in to provide much more in projects that must be funded.
He said that Virginia roads are in need of repairs and the state must provide funds to make repairs before it can provide funds for new projects, He also noted that the governor wanted to sell the ABC stores to private owners, but he said that may not be a good idea, because the profit from the sale of alcohol goes to each locality in the state and helps the smaller communities with much needed funds.
He said that the Republicans and Democrats did a pretty good job of working together to come up with a pretty good budget with no more funds than what were available.
I have heard several officials locally report that next year’s budgets will be harder to balance because of the lack of funds coming from Richmond. I think what they are saying that the local people may be asked to carry more of the tax burden next year and I am not so sure that the lower income or pensioned citizens can afford to carry much or any more. You can see a little bit of the burden even in this year’s coming budgets July 1, with each locality saying no tax increase on real estate, but they are putting more on what I call hidden taxes _ water, sewer, car decals and food tax and other services that the public needs, and must pay, which relates to more cost of living with less income for many.
I have been closely watching the renovation work on the former Townhouse Motel on Main Street in Covington. I understand that the new owner plans to have an affiliation with a national chain, Quality Inn.
A Covington city councilman said he had seen plans for the renovation and they really look nice. He said the owner plans to have the motel ready in time for the Greenbrier Classic Golf Tournament in White Sulphur Springs, July 29-Aug. 1. Motel rooms in the area are already booked up for that weekend and adding a few more will help increase tourist revenue in the Highlands.
I understand that the voters in Clifton Forge in the coming November election will have a choice of five candidates to choose from for the three seats coming up in the council election. The three incumbents running are Mayor Don Carter, Vice Mayor Nellie Friel and Councilman Jimmie Houff. Newcomers are Gayle Hillert, and former councilman Carl Brinkley.
It should be an interesting race down in Clifton in November.
I am out of space, time and coffee, see you next week Remember you have a friend in Jesus, but you have to ask for His help…
