Posted on 05/10/2002 6:28:54 AM PDT by sauropod
Action is at bottom of article!
Parkway Road Opponents Spreading Misinformation
We need your help. We are in another comment period concerning the New River Parkway, and people who live outside our area are working hard to determine the economic future of our community. They are doing so by spreading misinformation.
We need for you to write letters, sign petitions in support of the New River Parkway, and attend the May 7 meeting at the Summers County High School between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. As a community, we need to speak up about the future of Hinton. It is our future. In the past we have not voiced our support for the road and have contributed to delay in construction.
Those opposed to the New River Parkway are using the Internet to spread inaccurate information about this project and secure negative comments from people all over the country. Negative comments have come from as far away as Colorado and California. There will be more coming.
There is an article in the May 5 Gazette by a Tom DeWeese, publisher of the DeWeese Report headquartered in Warren, Va. that opposes the road and depicts it as a land grab. His article is based on outdated information that must have been pulled down the Internet.
The information is inaccurate. Where we are with this project is construction of a two-lane road from the I-64 exit at Sandstone to Hinton. Actually, the name parkway is a misnomer. This project will only upgrade the existing road and link it to I-64. This will provide easy access to Hinton and let the traveler enjoy the scenic beauty of Sandstone Falls. Many travelers are intimidated by the Route 20 access to Hinton from the Sandstone I-64 exit. Individuals interviewing for our technology companies have made comments about the present road.
This is an issue of fairness. Relatively new projects such as the Coal Field Expressway are proceeding at great speed while this eighteen-year-old project is being impeded by outside interests.
All around us communities have prospered and flourished. It is Hinton/Summers County's turn to prosper. The driving force behind economic development is infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. That means roads.
We have a three-pronged vision for Hinton/Summers County's economic development--technology, tourism, and retirement destination. The New River Parkway is an important part of our development and, yes, our survival. The Visitor's Center is well under construction at the Sandstone I-64 exit. We want to draw as many visitors from the Visitor's Center as we can. The new road will help us do so. We need a more user friendly approach to Hinton. We will follow up with appropriate signs describing Hinton attractions.
We are willing to work hard as a community to make our area grow and prosper. The City of Hinton City Council recently committed to a $1.8 Million loan in order to secure a $1.1 Million grant to finance a technology center. We are trying to clean our town and make it attractive to visitors and would-be residents.
While we welcome newcomers to our area, we hope they will help us rather than undermine our efforts to keep our town alive. We would not presume to go to communities to undermine economic development efforts.
Hinton is an economically depressed area. Most of our businesses are struggling to keep their doors open. Businesses in our community must make enough in the summer months to keep the doors open through the winter. This issue is all about our local economy.
What do people who do not live or work here know about Hinton and other small towns struggling to survive? Will they contribute anything to our local economy that will ultimately pay the $52,000 budgeted for street lights in Hinton? Will they spend any money that help fix the streets damaged by recent rain storms? Have they tried to keep a business going in the Hinton area?
It is easy to sit in Warren, VA. and read someone's personal views and personal agenda on the Internet and create publicity detrimental to a community. I ask the outsiders (people who don't live here) to be fair and let us try to survive. I ask them to learn of our struggles.
Hinton is the only municipality in Summers County. We have the responsibility of keeping Hinton up and running for all of Summers County.
Hinton is a beautiful place. God gave this beautiful place to all of us to share with others. The rivers and falls belong to all of us.
We hope the people of Hinton and Summers County will rise to the occasion and speak up for the road. We can't let outsiders' (people who don't live here) negative comments outnumber our positive ones. How can they know what is best for the Hinton area?
Petitions to be signed in favor of construction of the New River Parkway are available at City Hall and J. C. Penney Catalog. I will be distributing petitions to other places this week. Please help. If you want to circulate a petition, pick one up at City Hall or J. C. Penny Catalog in Hinton. Remember, the future is what we make it.
End of Mayor's missive
The rest of this article has no bearing on the New River Parkway, and I have deleted it.
Some things to be considered while reading the above article:
The land base of Summers County is 65% federally owned. (And increasing daily!)
The land of which the roadway will be built for the 10 mile stretch, (not including the bridge) is in Raleigh County---thus Raleigh County will lose residents and families and tax base, not Summers County.
The land owners of Raleigh County spend their monies in Hinton. During the summer, the lands are packed with visitors to the land owners, and all of these folks shop in Hinton during their stay.
And what we can not get Cleo Mathews to understand is not only are we and all the "out-siders" trying to protect our homes, we are trying to keep Hinton safe!
The population of Hinton is approximately 3,433. The approximate number of families is 1,774. taken from http://www.pe.net/~rksnow/wvcountyhinton.htm
Action:
The website for the town of Hinton will not open, is not available? I can not find a mailing address for the Mayor's office so:
Cleo Mathews
216 8th Av
Hinton, WV 25969
Home phone: (304) 466-1515
Also, i noted that she claims the "Parkway" will be part of the Hinton "architecture". This contradicts the NPS purpose for the road. Silly woman. 'Pod
The folks using the parkway will be more likely to go into Bluestone (going straight at the intersection w/ the Hinton bridge) rather than turning left to go into Hinton.
Ms. Cleo is wrong if she thinks this monstrosity will be a boon to her town.
Governor@wvgov.org;
jsothen@dot.state.wv.us;
ralcom@cwv.net;
(Subject: I OPPOSE the New River Parkway)
As tax payer I am strongly opposed tothe New River Parkway and ask that no further federal / state tax dollars be spent on the project. I have completed the petition herein and ask that it be made a part of the permanent record of decision.
New River Parkway (WV) "NO BUILD"Petition
Whereas the New River Parkway Authority consistently and maliciously has misrepresented the facts and mislead the public as to the true intent of the New River Parkway project and,
Whereas the National Park Service has demonstrated its intent to forcibly seize all the private property along the full length of New River Road and,
Whereas the actions of both agencies have completely destroyed the faith of the people, we the undersigned endorse and urge the reinstitution and adoption of a true "No Build" as the only acceptable assurance that the right of the people to the private ownership of land will not be violated.
Name:
Address:
Date: May 10, 2002
And while we need access to remote places, we can't even get New River Road fixed and Route 20 on the east side of the New River is a well-paved beautiful "scenic" drive DIRECTLY into Hinton.
WHY would one now need one on the WEST side of the New River that COMPLETELY by-passes Hinton and will take all the (thriving!) businesses eventually on the Hinton By-pass?
:-) Let me answer that.....IT'S A NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAND GRAB SCHEME TO TAKE ALL THE LAND ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE NEW RIVER....
They've even referred to "Hinton" and it's bridges as "eye sores"
Hum, me thinks tis is a government land grab? :-)
Guys, No wonder Summers County is so ready to sell out the residents along the New River for federal bribery and extortion money {blood money}. They have given up their property tax base, AND the income and sales taxes of folke who might live and work there if allowed. And, Hintonwill NOT be "saved" with a bypass highway. These highways ALWAYS destroy sideline communities. ALWAYS!! Either the Mayor is "silly" and vastly misinformed, or she agrees with the federal land grabs for "all of us". More likely the latter. Peace and love, George.
Free W.Va from the grips of the ignorant! 'Pod
Well we sure have pulled down material from the Internet such as from the Federal Highways Administration, WV Codes, The Federal Register, etc. and so on....I tried to present this information to Cleo, and was rudely and basically told to shut up! She shut me up because she does not want to hear it or and I suggest she did not wish for her small pathetic group of do-gooders to hear the truth! She is hostile towards any of us! Ask Sauropod! She has a Nepoliaonic (sp) complex and it is her way or the highway---no pun intended of course!
This project was introduced to eventully be apprx. 40 miles. We are the first phase. However, No studies have been done whatsoever on the last 30 miles, and no plans to have any done anywhere in the near future (define near future???).
Cleo thinks that she can simply put a sign on the scenic parkway (which is forbidden under the rules) requesting travelers to "Turn Left" into Hinton---not going to happen once the visitors get off I-64 and stop at the new NPS visitors center complete with bathrooms, eateriers, and gas station----drive across the bridge, get out to see the falls, walk the boardwalk all the way to the falls and back, and then even think of turning left again off their path of heading south! Or getting back on I-64. She will not accept the fact that Hinton is in the view-shed and a town as small as it is, it will be no problem for the feds to displace them all.
The carrot was the idea it will help Hinton and the Mayor has grabbed it, when in reality the NPS is going to jerk that carrott and the pieces left in her mouth back out once they get control of the land! Remember this puppy has a NEW land management system to go along with it! Yeah, 500 ft. each side, not counting what they will need to protect that 500ft..aka cooridors and buffer zones!
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