Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991 TAG: 9103220877
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Five months after his inauguration, he had not spent a night in the governor's mansion because it was being redecorated. I wonder what that cost taxpayers?
Now Gov. Wilder has spared Joe Giarratano from the electric chair. That is going to be a big expense from here on out.
There is no limit to how much money the Department of Transportation can waste. It cost something over $2 million to put new lights in the Big Walker Mountain Tunnels on Interstate 77 last year, and some of them do not work now.
A news story says the department is going to spend about $225,000 playing around in the ditches along I-81 in Wythe County. It has something to do with grates. Over the years they have redone all of the drains along I-81 in Virginia. Contractors are now finishing a lot of unnecessary drainage work in Montgomery County where there has never been a water problem. In another area, I can show anyone where the Department of Transportation is throwing money away month after month after month, year after year after year.
Money shortage? Why is Shredded Products in Montvale getting away with paying just 15 percent of a fine that was levied against it? Then there is the fine that the United Mine Workers owes for law and court-order violations. A newspaper article says some outfit has been hired to try to collect the remainder of those fines after they have already been reduced. RALPH JOHNSON WYTHEVILLE
by CNB