Martin's Food Evacuated, but all clear sounded

UPDATE: 1:10 All Clear Given

Martins Food in Keyser, WV was evacuated because of a natural gas smell. Local Police and Fire responded and detection equipment detected explosive levels of gas in the structure. As of 11:40 Mountaineer Gas confirmed that the levels were dangerously high but had not located the leak.

Time for 3-lane between Saint Cloud and Lincoln Streets?

The center turn lane on most of Mineral Street and US 220 has really helped with traffic flow. It allows for turning traffic to get out of the way, but there is a 3 block section between Saint Cloud and Lincoln Streets that doesn't have a turn lane.

If your traveling north on 220, you find you get stopped a lot for traffic turning onto State Street or Fort Ave, especially when college is in session. The primary reason for not putting the center turn lane in this area was the needed parking for Potomac Valley Hospital. Now that the hospital has moved the parking is no longer needed. With a new paving project is ready to start, maybe it is time complete that final section of 3 lane between Saint Cloud and Lincoln Streets an improve traffic flow through Keyser?

Keyser past appears briefly

Keyser past came back to light for about a day this week. While grinding Armstrong Street for paving, the work crews exposed the original brick street that lies beneath.

Sidewalks Connect and Reflect a Community

I have been trying to get more exercise, so I have been walking several miles along the streets of Keyser most every evening. If you haven't taken the time to wander around your community, then I invite you to do so, because the sidewalk is a great way to meet your community. The sidewalks are your connection to your neighbors.

One of the first things you will notice is most of the sidewalks in Keyser were built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and that they were build in 1940 and 1941. The quality of the work and craftsmanship represents a time when we built things to last. After nearly 70 years in the ground they still bare the mark of the WPA (See right). This was a time when many were out of work, but they didn't just take money from the government. They took a job with government and gave something back to the community. A quality product that is still in use today as many of these sidewalks are still in great shape like the one to top and left left. The home owners take care of them and take pride in their community.

Unfortunately in some areas the sidewalks get abused. Not just in Keyser, but in other communities. Sidewalks were never built to be parking lots and as a result of being parked on many get destroyed. This reflects a change in attitude of people over the years. At one time most people had a respect for their community and the things it provides, like side walks. They didn't abuse the things that their own tax dollars provide.

Sometimes it is mother nature that destroys the sidewalks of a town making them hard to walk on. Tree roots are one of the hardest of mother natures tools for destroying a nice level sidewalk. Although the trees are now gone, their roots caused the damage to the side walk on the left. On the right below mother nature is reclaiming the the sidewalk with top soil and grass. There is a complete side walk under that grass although it is broken. Probably from being driven over or parked on through the years as it is now lower than the street next to it.

As the sidewalks are destroyed in our community, so are the connections to our neighbors. Gone is the smooth path where we greet and become neighbors. One of the judges of a neighborhood or a town for that matter is the condition of the sidewalks. Sidewalks are more than mere paths to walk on. They are a reflection of a community and the pride it takes in itself.

Imagine the sight of Keyser in 1941 when all the sidewalks were fresh and new. The community was fully connected and it reflected community pride and a strong work ethic. Perhaps Keyser should embark on a program of repairing and extending sidewalks into new areas of town. Let visitors know, no matter what part of Keyser they are in, it is a good section of town. Reconnect our community and reflect the pride we all feel of claiming Keyser as our hometown.

Keyser needs to look at helping downtown traffic

The fire that destroyed a downtown business on Friday night shows the need for alternative traffic patterns in the downtown area. One suggestion that is common sense is to make Water St. 2-ways between Armstrong and Piedmont Streets.

With all houses on Water Street between Armstrong and Piedmont now having close off street parking, parking can be eliminated to make 2-way traffic possible. This would allow traffic a different route to WV 46 East. While we hope there are no more fires on Armstrong Street this route would have allowed traffic to flow much better around the effected area. Also when Main Street is block for festivals in the summer this route will be available to improve traffic flow.

Also consider that with the upcoming replacement of Memorial Bridge traffic patterns on Armstrong street will be come a major problem and the simple act of making Water Street 2-ways for 2 blocks can be common sense solution to the problem.

Keyser Neighborhoods Show Changes in Middle Class Expectations

Look at the different sections in Keyser and you notice a wide variety of home styles. Like most cities, many middle class homes constructed early in the last century were relatively large. The dominant style featured three stories, ample living rooms, and a large basement. They may reflect the tendency to have larger families, but also the fact that the middle class had more money to spend.

Look at homes built in the 1960s and 70s. They got much, much smaller. Does this reflect smaller families, or less disposable income? Certainly in this time, the country saw the effects of our government's last attempt to steal, I mean, "redistribute the wealth." The economy fell into a disastrous tailspin as a result of Lyndon B. Johnson's socialist dreams and did not get righted until Ronald Reagan cut taxes and and restored prosperity.

Between Reagan and now, new home sizes have steadily increased. Middle class homes in suburban neighborhoods approached and even exceeded the house sizes from before the Great Depression. Now many included the large yards that became more customary in the time of smaller homes. You could have it all because you worked hard and could afford it.

Obamunists will argue that this is simply greedy. Why do you people need all this space in your home? An American answers that it is none of the government's or anyone else's business. Furthermore, if buyers can afford large new homes, this puts more Americans to work for longer. More Americans work when our economy becomes more capitalist.

Obama wants us to expect less and pare down not only our dreams, but the rewards from our own hard work. He wants to create a permanent underclass for neo-Marxists to throw crumbs at so that they can get votes. Only through dynamic capitalism can opportunity be preserved and prosperity restored.

Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Lyndie England, Which of These Doesn't Belong?

National Geographic Channel, which now irritatingly refers to itself as "Nat Geo," will be shortly running a new special on evil people in history. Amazingly Keyser resident Lyndie England will be featured.

Let's see. Adolf Hitler murdered 12 million people because of their religion, lifestyle, and politics. Stalin murdered tens of millions because of their economic class and politics. Just this week we saw some demented man in Georgia decapitating female hikers. And Lyndie England is evil?

At worst she was unprofessional. She held a position of trust in a prisoner of war camp in Iraq. At the camp, terrorists were humiliated by being forced to be leashed and photographed. England's main offense was being in the pictures, enjoying the humiliation of these people whose lives were dedicated to blowing up women, children, and US soldiers. She was a young woman in a stressful environment who made a poor choice, so therefore she is evil. Incredible.

In the hands of the media, concepts most people take for granted get skewed. Any form of psychological pressure gets redefined as "torture." Torture is something we generally see as negative. There is a huge difference between US interrogators wiping red ink that they claim is menstrual blood on prisoners to get them to talk and when the Soviet CHEKA peeled skin off people's arms and fed priests feet first into crematoriums. Liberals love to try and establish moral equivalence to confuse the issue. This television program seeks to establish moral equivalence between unprofessional behavior in our army and the worst in human history. They hate the army and its missions. This is how they discredit it.

Of course this "evil" woman now has paid her debt to society. She now is a productive member of the Keyser community, having joined its Board of Parks and Recreation last year. I suppose she is hatching her plans of world domination using that base. Today North End Park, tomorrow the world.

Another ridiculous example of the liberal media pushing its agenda.

Commissioner's Report

One of our County Commissioners, Cindy Pyles, spoke to the Lion's Club about the various goings on in the County on Thursday, October 18, 2007. A lot seems to be happening, but two specific items troubled me and I am hoping to get some clarification.

Keyser Fire Department - When I moved to Keyser in April 2006, I knew precious little about the new bridge, except that it would take out the fire department and the building that housed the business I had just purchased. I assumed, wrongly, that the new fire hall near Airport Addition was to be the "new" home of the Keyser VFD. Apparently that is not the case as the Keyser VFD will be relocated to a new facility somewhere. I came from a town about 5x the size of Keyser that had 1 fire hall and a superb paid fire department. I was confused as to why Keyser needs two separate stations 1 mile apart? Several county fire departments are rated better than Keyser for insurance purposes (New Creek and Fountain as two examples). That means that your insurance in Keyser is rated higher than if you had the same house in the New Creek District or Fountain District. Confused as to why the fire department would use their resources to fund two separate houses I asked a fellow Lion why this was. The explanation was that the City owned the building downtown, but the fire department owns the one up by airport...? I don't get it, so I probed, if my house in Airport Addition (Keyser City Limits) catches fire...who comes to put it out? Well, apparently both fire houses would respond??? They are approximately 1 mile apart. The volunteers at one likely pass the other fire hall to get suited up and on the truck then backtrack to my house. Why don't we go to one fire hall, use the excess funds to pay a full time staff member or two, boost the fire department rating, and save everyone some insurance money? Keep in mind I am paid as an insurance agent a percentage of the cost of your policy, so this plan would result in a pay cut for me. But I feel that it makes sense. Can anyone better explain the need for two fire halls.

Second, talk turned to the 911 response center. I was still trying to get answers on the fire department, so I may have missed something, but it seems that the 911 center is being built up by Keyser High School. Commissioner Pyles was asked if this is being built on a cemetery. It was the one time I saw her transform into a politician and "To the best of her knowledge the only cemetery was down the road and not the site for the 911 center". I smiled. Then the question became, who owns that land. Obviously, the county, right...wrong! The response indicated that the county is building a county services building on land that they do not own and are not intending to acquire. huh? I am sure that with a 99 year lease and some other legal provisions this could make perfect sense. A lease would not require a capital investment for the purchase of land, it could save up front costs, it could be the difference in the need for a levy (tax) or a bond issue, if the county has enough to build a building but not to acquire land and build a building. It could be a lease with a purchase option to delay the need for purchase capital. A whole slew of possibilities, but no one pursued this, no answer came, and I did not feel the need to pursue the question. It could be the only way to locate near the school which likely already has the infrastructure needs to support a call center. Here's to hoping that the commission has done their due diligence before selecting this spot.

Overall, I will say that I was impressed by my first meeting with Cindy Pyles. She was knowledgeable about all of the projects going on, she held the attention of the room, was political when needed, and (despite a lack of sleep and teaching young minds during the day) seemed to be genuinely interested in the projects that were going on.

God Bless.