Sunday, March 01, 2009
Stimulus for the New River Valley
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Baptists might leave downtown Blacksburg
- A theater rises between town and campus
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
From the RoundTable blog
The federal dump trucks full of stimulus cash will pull into Richmond any day now, and Gov. Tim Kaine needs help spending the billions. He wants Virginians to pitch ideas at the Web site stimulus.virginia.gov.
Already Virginians have suggested thousands of ways to boost the economy and save state services, including dozens of suggestions for the New River Valley worth more than $500 million. We are, after all, a region accustomed to government subsidies.
The most popular requests for the New River Valley are trail improvements.
Many people want the Huckleberry Trail extended further into Christiansburg, including a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Peppers Ferry Road near the New River Mall.
Other visionaries seek a regional, interconnected trail system that links Pulaski, Radford, Christiansburg, Blacksburg and even Abingdon.
Another trail advocate wants to reroute the Appalachian Trail with a bridge over Interstate 77.
It is hard not to like their proposals. Virginia and the New River Valley too often shortchange transportation and recreation infrastructure. If it does not involve an automobile, it often does not get much love.
Residents are keen on transportation alternatives, though. Some want passenger rail extended to the New River Valley and beyond. Sidewalks and bike lanes also received a much-deserved mention.
The New River Valley did not forget cars. Plenty of people suggested road projects -- highways, bridges and local streets. Many have been in the works at the Virginia Department of Transportation for years, but always money has been lacking. For example, widening congested Peppers Ferry near the mall has considerable support.
Local parks are popular, too, but a new visitor's clubhouse, umpire's locker room and concession stand at Calfee Park in Pulaski might be a stretch.
Schools are another common suggestion. Judging by the suggestions, facilities are crumbling around here. New roofs, new classrooms, entirely new schools made the list.
One person is more worried about teachers than schools, though. Sparing you the all-caps and multiple exclamation marks, someone suggested for Blacksburg, "Do not build more schools. We can't staff the ones we have now!" There is some truth in that when the commonwealth is slashing education budgets.
Such projects hew to the spirit of the stimulus package's ancestors, the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. If it were not for those, we would not have the Blue Ridge Parkway.
For every smart project, though, there is at least one that leaves you scratching your head.
Towns and counties want funding for projects that other communities pay for themselves -- sewers, jails, the Montgomery County Courthouse, painting water tanks, and more.
Uncle Sam cannot pay for every pet project.
One geographically challenged person thinks it would be good for Pulaski County if the stimulus included a subsidy for the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. They have overfished the bay and now cannot harvest as much as they would like.
"This is not time for 'pork' projects," this person writes, apparently missing the irony that he is advocating for a special-interest, local subsidy. I just cannot figure out how his pork spent on crabbers would help Pulaski County.
The most entertaining request is to boost the region's tourism potential. It is not the idea that is entertaining -- tourism is an important economic engine. It's how someone pitched it.
Someone wants to spend $1 million on VDOT tourism signs, information kiosks along all major roadways, an information CD and systems to blast information onto GPS devices, cell phones and laptops.
"The average traveler has a 'Deliverance' fear of Southwest Virginia," he wrote to justify the expense. He lists the project as being in the planning stage.
Keep planning.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
