Pork-barrel Library in Damascus, Virginia

Damascus Virginia is getting a new library! Washington County Virginia is handing out $300,000; the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, that was supposed to provide jobs and health care, is porking-out $100,000; and the town of Damascus donated the land and is providing $30,000. To pay for the furnishings, etc. they are running a raffle with a prize is $2,000 in gasoline. The big side of pork was a $582,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Note the per capita income in Damascus continues to decline after almost $1 million has been spent on the Creeper Trail.

How did they get economic development grants and highway funding for a 6500 foot library? Because it "will double as an innovative tourism office for the town..." Like the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail, no verifiable jobs or income will be generated, other than a couple of government positions. But to quote VDOT spokeswoman Michelle Earl, "The big thing about this center is the tourism aspect because it's a tourism facility that will draw people to the region." So tourists already beat down the doors of the much larger county library in Abingdon? Not according to the people I talked to that worked there. They thought the idea was absurd.

Let me get this correct. They are calling it a "tourism facility" that will draw outside people to visit it where they can't check out a book? I believe I understand now. So they are going to stay at the Holiday Inn to visit the library? Oh excuse me, we don't have one in Damascus because they are not stupid enough to waste their money. Tourism development in this region means pork-barrel. In fact they had to hand-out corporate welfare just to get a supermarket to open there. These grants (VDOT) are being used to quote, "improve non-motorized transportation, enhance the public's traveling experience, revitalize communities and improve the quality of life..." So we are driving bumper cars down the library aisles?

A recent report from a blue ribbon panel for the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission has questioned the use of public funds in this manner. In other words, the money is being wasted and not producing the promised results. Virginia is in a budget crisis and is looking at raising taxes to pay for actual transportation projects. It also turns out from the tobacco commission annual report shows this tobacco grant was to promote education, not tourism. Nobody is questioning this misuse of public dollars. Ref. BHC July 25, 2008

August 2008
• Tennessee Deputy threatened to arrest 12-year-old girl for "unlawful photography"
• Economic Crisis in East Tennessee
• Controversy at the City owned utility: citizens will "starve to death"
• Good Old Boys Win Again in Bristol, Virginia

• Highway Pork and the Solar Hill Project in Bristol, Virginia
• "Innovative" Public Housing Not Available to Working Poor in Bristol, VA/TN
• Nicewonder property fiasco in 2008: $3 million wasted
• Tri-Cities region loses 439 jobs in first quarter 2008; cycle starts again
• 2008 Kids Count report: poverty on the rise in Tennessee, press ignores the reason why
• Appalachia Resents Label of 'Third World' but nothing changes
• $8 million for the Wise Inn and tourism attractions
• Buchanan County and the Virginia Employment Commission

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