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.

More anti-economic development propaganda sent out

Last week I got more e@mails from the anti-economic development group that is trying to stop windmill based jobs, tax revenue and lease revenue from coming into our community.

This time I got a story about why they are bad in Great Britain. Well I’m not real worried about what is best for Great Britain, but I am interested it what is best for my country. Well let’s look at the differences between the UK and the US.

First the UK power grid is much smaller than ours. We actually have three semi separate power grids in the US and we are in the largest of the three. Now the article states, “In 2006, according to U.K. government statistics, the average load factor for wind turbines across the U.K. was 27.4 percent.” Again what does that have to do with power generation in the US? Nothing!

Consider that the Isle of Great Britain is a little less than 600 miles top to bottom. The east coast power grid (which includes part of Canada) is over 2000 miles from top to bottom. While the UK power grid is small enough for the wind to stop blowing over the entire country, which is almost impossible in the US. While the wind may stop here in Mineral County for the day, the odds that the wind stops in Florida, Maine, Michigan, etc at the same time are not likely. The article even states, “Wind turbine advocates have claimed that this can be avoided by the geographical spread of wind farms, perhaps by creating an international ‘super grid’.” Well we already have the ‘super grid’ in place, so we are ready.

The article also talks about the need for gas turbines to back up the wind energy when the wind doesn’t blow. In the US we will have less of a need to back up the wind turbines, because of our large power grid and if when we do need back up it is locally produced coal firing our generators. We already have the system in place.

The article goes on to talk about tax breaks. These are UK tax breaks, not US tax breaks. Our wind generation industry has much less tax breaks than the UK. The facts are our local tax revenues to the county and state will increase when the wind farms are installed.

You have to be careful when making comparisons. You must have all the facts and details. You must compare apples to apples; Great Britain is not the United States. The anti-economic development group doesn’t want you to use your common sense, but when you do our community wins.