Prince Edward County Wants to Sell Water To Places That Don’t Want or Need it

Prince Edward County, in their quest to build a water system even though they have only one customer, has in the past tried to justify the project by claiming they could sell water to other regional communities, such as Burkeville and Crewe.

Over and over again in the last year, Buckie Fore and his Merry Band have insisted that the water project was needed in order to help guarantee water to the other communities. It was also said that it was needed in order to provide backup for the Town of Farmville, which turned down an invitation to throw their money away alongside the county.

Back around the time of the election, I was made aware of an article from the Courier Record from Blackstone which reports on a discussion at the Board of Supervisors meeting to hear a presentation from Dewberry and Davis, a civil engineering firm.

Of course, time got away from me, and I am now presenting it, because I just ran across the article. Under a headline of “Abundance of Water for Towns, says Study”, the article reports on the future plans and the present state of the water systems in their communities.

A few choice graphs: (From the Thursday, November 5, 2009 edition)

A state required ‘water inventory study’ shows that there is sufficient supply for the towns of Blackstone, Crewe and Burkeville to meet their present and future water needs.

~snip~

The study shows that of the three towns, Blackstone, which gets its water from the Fort Pickett Reservoir–by far has the most capacity.

Blackstone has reserved up to one million gallons per day to serve Crewe and Burkeville, but the three towns’ water systems would have to be interconnected for that to happen. It also reserves one million gallons a day for nearby Fort Pickett.

It looks as if those towns have their water needs covered. Prince Edward County will continue to pour money down a rathole, including the recent $2m contract for studies, tests, and more design work on the water plant. Certainly these towns can interconnect their systems easier and less expensively than they can pay for water to be pumped to them from Sandy River Reservoir.

That leaves the Manor, a development barely hanging on at this point after ten years of failure, as the only customer of the water authority formed for this venture.

Did I mention there is a dump underneath the reservoir that is known about and being ignored?

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Talks to Republicans

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse tells the Republicans and teabaggers how the situation looks according to him. Recorded during Sunday’s debate on health care.

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Eminent Domain to be Used in Prince Edward County for Non-Existing Project

The legal process of eminent domain will be used to acquire land for the Granite Falls Inn and Conference Center in Prince Edward County. The land in question, which is situated across from Lowe’s and the Industrial Park, will be used to benefit the developers and owners of the Granite Falls project.

The project has no discernible financial backers, no equity investors, and no persons other than Robert Fowler comprise the Prince Edward Development, LLC. I have documented on this blog numerous times the county’s misdeeds and problems concerning this project and the cash sucking Sandy River Reservoir water treatment plant.

Prince Edward County Supervisors, except one, continue to rubber stamp approval on plans and expenditures that are not in the best interest of the County or it’s citizens. They have proven over and over again to be bereft of ethical behavior.

The fact that this land (which belongs to someone who grew up in the house on the property and maintains it to this day) may be turned into a road to benefit only the developers and owners of a single non-existent project is mind-boggling. Instead of a route that was suggested by the owner in order for him to get the best value from his land, now the owner here will probably benefit better financially if he pursues a court settlement for the land taken and its value. He loses his land, and it damages his ability to develop his land the way he had planned to.

It is not only the value of this owner’s land, it is that the County seems to think that they can do whatever they want to make special ‘midnight’ deals for favored developers and every stupid project that comes down US 460.

The County will pursue this, at taxpayer expense, and the Granite Falls deal might fall through. Then what? The county has spent a million dollars for a couple of acres of land? This is backwards thinking. This is why I claim that Prince Edward County is corrupt and should be looked into under the racketeering laws.

Land that might have cost them $100k or $200k, will now cost everyone in the county over a million dollars. Just think what a million dollars could do.

I haven’t even started about the connections interwoven between this project and other, near-failing projects done this exact same way 10 years ago in Prince Edward County. I also haven’t started on the folly that is eminent domain. This situation is a great example of abuse of that process.

Once Again, A Republican Politician Confuses Declaration with Constitution

There have been a lot of statements and interviews of prospective and actual candidates for the Congressional seat in Virginia’s Fifth District. These statements never fail to amuse me, and I have to laugh at the amount of buzzwords in each of these statements.

There is one thing that doesn’t change though. For some reason, from Minority Leader Boehner in the House on down, a Republican will confuse the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution of the United States.

Photo Courtesy of Ron Ferrin for Congress website.

Ron Ferrin, a candidate for this seat, was interviewed recently, and in the opening question, he was asked what made him decide to run for this seat. Here is a snippet of his answer:

“The constitution does not guarantee our needs will be met. Food, shelter and caring for our family is up to the individual citizen. The constitution only guarantees the chance to pursue happiness.”

Wrong, my conservative teabagging friend. The Declaration says:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This is the first line in the second paragraph. This phrase does not appear in the Constitution anywhere. I am not identifying the website this came from, because they don’t need any traffic, and I don’t promote Republicans unless I like them.

I would think that to be a successful congressional candidate, one should know the difference between the two historic documents.

Prince Edward County: No Grant Due to Lack of Regional Planning Commission

Sharon Carney, Economic Development Director for Prince Edward County recently discussed the option for getting grants for the folly known as Granite Hills Hotel Conference Center, etc. This ongoing saga is a great example of a county government run amok.

Carney has mentioned that Economic Development Administration grants are not likely, due to the fact there is no regional planning organization. The Piedmont Planning District, which existed until local politician Bill Osl got his hands on it and turned it into primarily an economic development cheerleader, was the regional organization such as what EDA requires. Now, the Commonwealth Regional Commission, which receives state funding, is failing in it’s mission, especially after several local governments dropped out of the commission.

Robert Fowler, the sole known person connected to Prince Edward Development, LLC, has stated that the conference center would need to be owned by the county’s IDA (Industrial Development Authority) in order to get grants that will help build it. There are no known investors for this project. Mr. Fowler has been asked repeatedly in public meetings about other investors or other persons involved, to which he always replies that there are none.

Prince Edward County has made an interim contract containing stipulations with Fowler in order to buy and develop 95 acres of the property known as the ‘quarry property’, just south of US 460 south of Farmville.

The county made this agreement before rezoning the land, which would have undoubtedly made it worth much more than the $3,000 per acre price in the interim agreement. This price is less than the county purchased the land for several years ago.

Some of the stipulations have to do with testing the property, for hydrology and other reasons. Timber on the property was to be appraised and valued, which has been done already.

The county seems to be falling all over itself to give away this land to someone who has been involved in the now-ten year old “Manor” project, next to the land in question here. The Poplar Hill CDA, which was created by the county ten years ago to administer the then “Poplar Hill Golf Course and Conference Center” were successful in attracting Tobacco Indemnification funds and other state and federal money to develop that property. The project has been going broke in the same location for ten years.

The company that now owns the Manor is Herberton, which was forced recently to move their sales office from a prime corner location in Downtown Farmville to a small cottage built on the Manor property. Earlier this year they were sued for non-payment of a $75,000 bill for work done by an Alabama company for conservation easements, which then afforded the company tax breaks.

The whole idea that Prince Edward County is shopping this around for free money reeks of desperation. The County should know it looks like a bunch of fools on a fool’s errand.

Health Insurer Wellpoint in Regulatory Trouble

Columbia Journalism Review is reporting that according to a Bloomberg News story, Wellpoint, the nation’s second largest insurance company in revenue, was slapped with a sanction from CMS, the organization in the government tasked with running the Medicare Services (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).

CMS released a letter to Bloomberg that they sent to Wellpoint that outlined abuses of administration of Medicare prescription benefit to seniors.

CMS gave Bloomberg a copy of the letter it sent to WellPoint which said the carrier has “demonstrated a longstanding and persistent failure to comply with CMS’ requirements for proper administration of its Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plans (MA-PD) and Prescription Drug Plans (PDP).”

So, seniors, who are generally vulnerable as it is, were mistreated by this multi-billion dollar company that pays outrageous salaries to it’s executives, and in my opinion, doesn’t give a shit about anyone that it insures, even its own employees.

Seniors, who sometimes need to make the choice between buying food or medication, or paying a payment for where they live and medication. Then they are hounded by the company when something appears wrong to the company, frustrating and threatening seniors with their very lives (medications save lives) if they don’t ’straighten it out’.

Seniors, who, if they are unfortunate enough to be in an assisted living or home care situation and depend on their Medicare benefits to continue to literally live, were mistreated by a company that values obscene salaries for its executives over regulatory compliance.

There is not a suitable punishment short of trial for the CEO and members of the board of this company. Of course, Bloomberg reported on what it means to Wellpoint’s stock price, as they should. They are after all a financial news reporting service. Beyond that damage to stockholders and to the image of the company, the very people who run it should face trial and punishment.

So what was the punishment by CMS?

So the agency slapped a penalty on the carrier: effective immediately, it cannot market Medicare Part D plans, which provide pharmaceutical benefits to seniors, nor can it enroll new plan members. Even though the general Part D open enrollment season just ended, carriers can still sign up seniors with low incomes and people turning 65 who need to find a drug plan. Seniors enrolled in the controversial Medicare Advantage plans whose sellers are being overpaid by the federal government, can still switch plans until the end of March. So it’s fair to say the sanctions are likely to pinch WellPoint’s profits. WellPoint said in a statement that it had made significant progress in addressing problems cited by CMS and that since it had been working with the agency, it was “surprised by this recent action.”

Nothing to see here, move along. Right Joe Lieberman? Right Evan Bayh?

SBE Tells Know Campaign to Disclose Source of Voter Data

The Know Campaign, which had planned on a mass mailing to voters in Virginia before this years elections, has been told by the State Board of Elections to identify the source of the mailing list by December 3, 2009. SBE officials said they would turn the case over to the Virginia State Police if the deadline wasn’t met.

The mailing campaign, which was scrapped after questions of its legality, was to collect information about voters’ voting habits, among other data. That constitutes information that is illegal to posses by anyone other than party officials, candidates, and elected officials.

The attorney for Know Campaign said they were cooperating, and also said that the list was actually the property of the mailing house.

This will be an interesting story to follow. A week from tomorrow is December 3, 2009.

H/T Daily Press