ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512180003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: LETTERS
The newspaper reports the "smart" road as an "us-against-them" thing. Reason and compromise hold the key to a solution. People who are not keen about the road would be if some changes were made in the plans.
We are told jobs, prestige, prosperity await us if we would stop looking this gift horse in the mouth. Well, it is no gift horse. It will cost from a quarter to a third of a billion dollars to build the two proposed shortcuts to Roanoke [the first being Alternative 3A, the U.S. 460 bypass connector].
If I understand things correctly, Tech wants a two-mile, two-lane strip of paving for a field laboratory for Intelligent Vehicle Highway System research. What's wrong with that? Nothing, if it can be swung. To sweeten the idea, it proposes this test strip be only the initial leg for a second shortcut to Interstate 81, and thence to Roanoke.
The Virginia Department of Transportation proposes building this second bypass in stages. It will take 15 years to complete after the initial test-strip leg.
The smart road, as currently proposed, is simply not funded. There isn't a penny put aside for this job, estimated to cost $103 million. Even worse, there is also no money officially set aside for the initial test strip, now estimated to cost $27 million. Yes, Gov. George Allen promised the state will pay $10 million towards building it, contingent on outside matching funds. Nothing has come through yet.
But Alternative 3A, a four-lane freeway, is mostly funded and almost ready to go. Stop fantasizing about a useless two-lane connector. Build the best superhighway connector you can now, with the capability for widening in time. Combine the advanced-technology intelligent vehicle highway with this road. Smart highway research is targeted more for multilane highways, not for two-laners.
When we suggest this idea, the proponents chill at it. Why? Certain experiments could not be carried on in moving traffic. Would not the same problem manifest itself on the original proposed test strip if it is to be a leg of an extended road? How about a spur for such work?
We are told that if the smart road is not built, plans for Alternative 3A will have to be changed to take up the load of another 25,000 vehicles a day. Let's get real. If the smart road connector will not be finished for 15 or 20 years, as the state has said, you are going to have to do that very thing anyway, simply because the extra vehicle load will be here long before that.
Two minutes is all you will save, not that 27 minutes the transportation center says in its brochure about the smart road. I'll mention that dirty word "costs." Do you wish to ask taxpayers to pay the cost of this redundant, inadequate, two-lane road? However you figure, one superior dual-purpose modern highway is bound to cost less than two.
Leonard Uttal
Blacksburg
Democrats just don't care
I'm certain I heard Thomas Jefferson turning in his grave. President Clinton has vetoed another balanced budget.
Do you Democrats not care about balancing the budget? Do you truly wish to continue spending until America implodes? I thought you referred to yourself as the party of compassion and love. We pay, at this time, approximately 50 percent of our wages in taxes. If the current level of spending is allowed to continue, our children will be forced to pay approximately 82 percent of their wages in taxes. How many of you will be willing to work for 16 percent of what you make? Are you liberals truly wishing to destroy this great country, or does it even matter to you?
During this budget debate, I've heard you telling the American people that education was being destroyed and old people were going to be kicked out of their homes. Outrageous lies, when the truth is they are simply slowing the growth from three times the rate of inflation to two times the rate. This so-called terrible deed will raise Medicare payments $8 over the next seven years, $4 more than what the president wants. Education is continuing to rise at the same rate. It's not being cut at all. But you obviously don't care. You're willing to sacrifice our children's future and America, too, so you can accomplish your goal of regaining power.
Joseph Schroer
Elliston
An open message to ornament thieves
We, children in Mrs. Collins' fourth-grade class at Falling Branch Elementary, are worried about the situation of stealing outdoor Christmas decorations that is currently happening in Christiansburg.
We would like to sleep peacefully at night knowing our Christmas decorations are safe. We want the people who are doing this to stop taking and give back all of the decorations. Christmas needs to be merry.
Pupils in Mrs. Collins' fourth-grade class at Falling Branch Elementary School
Christiansburg
Fourth-graders: Lay off the lights
We are a fourth-grade class from Falling Branch Elementary. We are writing because of our concern about the "Christmas Light Caper" in Christiansburg. Christmas lights and decorations have been disappearing around town. Our class has many different feelings that include frustration, disappointment, confusion and sadness.
People took a lot of time, hard work and care to show the Christmas spirit. We hope the "Christmas Light Caper" will feel guilty after hearing about or reading this article. After all, Christmas is about giving, not taking.
Pupils in Mrs. Ford's fourth-grade class at Falling Branch Elementary School
Christiansburg
LENGTH: Long : 103 linesby CNB