Keeping it Real

"I don't believe Bible-believing Christians should participate in the mainstreaming of Mormonism." -- Brian Bigelow, Fayette County Delegate (and Huckabee voter) to the West Virginia GOP Convention on February 5, 2008, as quoted in USA Today.

Is this what our party stands for? Mindless sectarian fear of another faith as a basis for electing (or not electing, in this case) the President of the United States?

I don't know who Brian Bigelow is, except that he originally supported Rudy Giuliani. So, for Mr. Bigelow it's more important to defeat--gasp!--a Mormon than to defeat someone who supports abortion rights and the gay agenda? Is that what "Bible-believing Christians" stand for?

I more than realize that the issue is more or less moot with the exit of Governor Romney from the presidential race, but this is something that we--as a party, as a conservative movement--must confront and defeat. Someday there will be another Mormon running for president. Someday, a Mormon will run for your county commission, or for the legislature, or for a statewide office. Are we going to allow this same hate to torpedo those future candidacies as well?

Will evangelicals of Mr. Bigelow's ilk require future candidates to sign off on a particular creed or statement of religious beliefs? Does a candidate have to be a young-earth creationist to get his OK? What about a rejection of UPC bar codes? Mark of the beast, you know.

Maryland, what a neighbor

I have had a couple of run-ins with the state of Maryland and I am growing more and more irritated with MD's state government.

The first happened shortly after my tags expired on my vehicle. I had moved in the time period that property taxes are calculated (July 2006) and thus had not received my property tax bill from Harrison County, and did not have records on file for Mineral County. I knew that I needed to renew my tags, but had neglected to do so as I hate paying my property taxes 2 months early just to renew my tags. The Sherriff's office helped me to find my bill, but phone payment was not an option. I was going to be passing through Harrison county in the next week, so I decided to pay in person on my way to Charleston. While I waited to get the highly coveted paid receipt so that I could renew my tags my wife had a baby. I drove my vehicle between Keyser and Oakland in order to watch my daughter at home and be with my wife and new baby at the hospital. On the final trip I was pulled over by a MD state trooper because one of my three brake lights was out. He noticed that my tags had expired earlier in the month and wrote a $60 citation for expired WV tags. I took the ticket because, like most, I am an easy target for the police to pull over and fine. I still don't understand why I should pay MD $60 when I had been working on the issue, which in WV is not as easy as going to the DMV and paying to renew your tags. It takes several steps and visits to the assessors office, the sheriff's office, and then the DMV to get your tags renewed. I believe that a WV trooper would have understood and possibly cut me a little slack since my wife had just had a baby 2 days prior.

Next, a recently discharged employee and WV resident filed for MD unemployment. I questioned why the filing was in MD and asked how this could affect me since I don't have a MD unemployment account. I was given a phone number to call and proceeded to do so on 3 occasions. After 1/2 hour wait times I would hang up in order to continue working. Today I was called by MD Unemployment and threatened with a fine if I did not immediately fax the form that I received back to them. Correction: a staff member was told to pass this message on to me and direct me to immediately return their call. I explained why I had not already done this ( I needed to know what, if any affect this would have on my payroll withholdings and whether this would create a MD unemployment account), to which I received vague answers of "it won't, don't worry about it", and an explanation that wait times for their division are usually fairly long. I went ahead and faxed the form to avoid a fine and penalty from our neighbor to the north. Yet another unpaid obligation that is levied against small business people. It took roughly 1/2 hour to complete the form and fax it, plus the 2 hours of phone calls. I am tempted to send an invoice to MD for services rendered. Perhaps I can get my $60 vehicle fine back.

Senate candidate Howell signs no-tax pledge

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gary Howell

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 304 790 9292

Senate candidate Howell signs no-tax pledge

KEYSER — Gary Howell, Republican candidate for the 14^th State Senate District, today announced he has signed the State Taxpayer Protection Pledge, promising to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

The pledge is promoted by Americans for Tax Reform, which was founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan.

“Promising to oppose taxes is an easy call for me,” said Howell. “The people of West Virginia are already over-taxed and over-regulated. Burdensome taxation stifles growth and smothers entrepreneurship. By reducing and cutting taxes, our economy will grow and good jobs will come to the 14^th District and the rest of the state.”

Howell knows about growing a small business. For more than 17 years, he has been the owner and operator of Howell Automotive in Keyser, a leading supplier of auto parts. In 2003, Gary was named “Exporter of the Year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration. He was honored by the West Virginia Motor Sports Council in 2005 for promoting West Virginia across the country. Last year, he was honored with the Governors Commendation for International Market Entry, recognizing his success in completing sales with the Philippines, South Africa, Aruba, Belgium, Greece, Spain and Sweden.

A lifelong West Virginian, Howell received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from Frostburg State University's School of Business in 1990. He is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Jon Blair Hunter.

The 14^th Senate district covers all or parts of the counties of Barbour, Grant, Mineral, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor and Tucker.

Rob Kessel

As many of you know local business man Rob Kessel perished in a plane crash last week. I served with Rob Kessel on the Mineral County Planning Commission and got to know him.

He served the community in many ways that were seen and many that were unseen. When he served on the County Planning Commission he had a good eye for looking out for the public welfare. His various housing and commercial projects around the area greatly benefited the local economy.

May God bless your family and friends. You will be missed.

You never get a second chance

Keith Funkhouser addressed the Keyser Lions Club last night. He is the GM for Allegheny Balistics Lab here in Mineral County. This was the first time I had learned about ABL and what they do. It is amazing that an organization like this exists here in Mineral County. The engineering is astounding. Keith, a native of Mineral County, cares deeply for the area and it is impressive to have him at the helm.

The question was raised about how ABL would fare in the post-Senator Byrd era. The answer was fairly in depth, but centered around the idea of building relationships with the new politicians in Washington to make sure that money keeps coming out to Mineral County. What strikes me the most is that by the time the post-Byrd era comes about, there is planned to be so much investment in the facility that it's role is critical and the contracts facility will continue to expand and grow. The ownership/lease structure of the property is set in such a way to hopefully continue the planned growth of the facility.

Keith also brought up some politically correct challenges to Mineral County to invest in our infrastructure and development. His challenge came with an "If you build it, they will come" tone when discussing the people that they are recruiting and the expectations of people looking to re-locate to Mineral County. This was the second time I had heard this same concern. Earlier in the day, Heather Ack from American Woodmark, spoke of the challenges that her company has when recruiting management candidates away from more urban areas. Come to think of it, Mineral County Schools have expressed similar struggles when recruiting teachers to the area.

My wife and I found this to be true when we recently relocated to the area. Mineral County simply does not make a very good first impression. When re-locating, many people like to go on a self-tour of the area and see where they would be living. My wife and I tried this, we drove up and down 220 and looked around the only housing areas we could find which were just off of Main St and West End. It can be daunting to take the cut off road, or head out on 46 not knowing where you are headed when you don't know the area. We also drove around the other side of the border and found the Cumberland area much closer to what we were used to seeing in our home towns. It isn't that those areas don't exist, you just have to know where to look in Mineral County.

Our plan had been to find a couple of neighborhood's we liked, then return home and pull up home listings on the computer to find a place to live. We knew that we would only had one planned visit to the area before buying a house and our self tour was going to be the key in finding the neighborhood that we chose to move to. We were determined to live on this side of the border, so we made some un-scheduled trips back and toured with realtors and other locals who showed us all of the areas that are just out of sight. Each one was progressively better and we found ourselves excited about re-locating to Mineral County and the neighborhood that we found. Turns out, our home is only about 1/8 mile off of 220, but without guidance, we never would have seen our neighborhood. Our experience is not unique and I have had discussions with several clients who re-located to the area and found this same challenge.

Perhaps we could establish a welcome website through the Chamber of Commerce that could help potential movers find the communities and hometown features that make Mineral County a great place to live. The site could also have a cost of living calculator to help people understand that their pay cut can actually be net gain. Recent movers/residents could suggest restaurants to try, places to go, etc. There are some unique attributes to this part of the country, and a welcome center or website could help to give our potential future neighbors a true first impression of the area.