they don’t like it
Brent Finnegan -- November 15th, 2006
Not surprisingly, the plan to close the Chimney Rock VDOT maintenance station didn’t go over well with the 200 county residents that showed up at the meeting yesterday evening.
Unfortunately, I doubt any of this will amount to much back in Richmond, despite Cuevas’ efforts to get the community to oppose it. VDOT Commissioner David Ekern told county residents he appreciated their input, but it doesn’t sound like there’s much that will change at this point.
Even Lohr doesn’t think the cuts are worth it. Sounds to me like this move to privatize (to keep taxes from increasing) may have backfired on the politicians that voted yes.
-finnegan
Well, anti-VDOT Republicans made this bed, and now it’s time for them to lay in it.
I suppose it really gets under all these conservatives’ skin that their way of life and standard of living is dependent on a government agency … so much for self-reliance and “wasteful” spending. I don’t hear Senator Obenshain complaining about VDOT stations being closed anywhere else … guess he doesn’t care about other school systems, other emergency response times, other public safety concerns?
This short-sighted, blindly ideological failure of leadership deserves retribution. Unfortunately, the hammer is falling on the citizens who don’t deserve it. Residents of Bergton, Fulks Run, and Criders will suffer for the utter incompetence of our state senator and his cronies.
I hope VDOT doesn’t close Chimney Rock. I also hope the voters remember Obenshain’s culpability for this crisis. My gut feeling, however, tells me that there will have to be hardship for innocent residents before this scion of Republican royalty gets his just deserts.
My money is on people forgetting.
Seems like a good time to be in the snow removal and road maintanance business.
The Chimney Rock location doesn’t have to close. The best option, in my opinion, for the workers is to get together with some investors and opt for a buy out. This does two things, it makes them partial owners of where they work and it shows Richmond how serious they are about it staying open. I don’t know how well this tactic works with government agencies but tends to work very well in the business realm.
I’m a fan of worker-owned cooperatives, but I don’t know if that would work in this case, simply because the snow removal part is a seasonal job (maybe 3 months out of the year).
The other problem is that there really is no money to fix roads anymore: the county only has enough asphalt money “for about five miles of roads in Rockingham County.”
I’m sure some contractor will fill the void, but we won’t know until next winter how well they’ll do. The whole thing is a mess. VDOT was a mess, and I think privatization will also be a mess.
They would definatly have to have a plan for other seasonal work.
Weather it be hauling dirt or running asphalt trucks for VDOT.
It’s not an easy solution but I would think it’s one worth taking a look at before going to the employment office .