Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995 TAG: 9509250070
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia Department of Transportation wants to put a four-lane divided highway right next to the Blue Ridge Parkway by crossing Back Creek. After all the fuss over the knoll, the bowl and the parkway, our Board of Supervisors should send a very clear message to VDOT to keep the road where it is.
Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway and parkway officials are opposed to crossing Back Creek. If the supervisors don't take a firm stand now on this issue, then don't ever again bring up the issue of protecting the parkway in the future in Southwest Roanoke County or anywhere else in the county.
JOAN N. NEIGHBORS
ROANOKE
Power line isn't needed by Apco
IN YOUR Sept. 16 news article, ``Powerline study delayed,'' it's reported that Appalachian Power Co.'s vice president Charles Simmons said that because of the latest U.S. Forest Service delay, Apco may have to build several gas-powered turbines in Virginia. The truth is that Apco has been planning these facilities for at least six months.
The new plants would allow Apco to support more wholesale contracts outside this region, whether or not a 765,000-volt power line is built. The plants have nothing to do with Forest Service actions.
Anyone still believing Apco's power line is needed in Southwest Virginia should consider the following: Apco claims there will be a growth in electricity demand of 2,000 megawatts in its service area by the year 2010. Opposition groups dispute this projection, but even if true, Apco has plenty of transmission capacity to support it.
Apco has upgraded its transmission facilities by about 800 megawatts since 1990. Current wholesale contracts to power companies outside this region total 1,350 megawatts, including a 900-megawatt contract with Virginia Power that's due to expire in 1998. The new facilities Simmons mentions total about 1,000 megawatts. This yields more than 3,000 megawatts beyond 1990 levels available to the local service area, sufficient to meet even Apco's growth projections.
CLIFF SHAFFER
Chairman, Citizens Organized to Protect the Environment
NEWPORT
Let two little piggies stay home
ON SEPT. 13, you published the tragic story of a family that may be forced to remove pet pigs from their home (``Roanoke's no safe haven for family's porcine pets''). Possibly a few definitions are in order:
Pet - any domesticated or tamed animal that is kept [and] cared for affectionately.
Livestock - horses, cattle, sheep and other useful animals kept or raised on a farm or ranch.
Swine - a coarse, gross or brutishly sensuous person.
Scott Johnson, the neighbor who brought the complaint, said, `` ... they smell bad, they look bad, and we are just offended by them.'' Of course, he may fit the definition of swine better than Dinner and Jessabelle do.
Who said that ``beauty is in the eye of the beholder''?
JUDITH N. CATES
BLACKSBURG
Higher taxes are not the answer
YOUR Sept. 15 editorial, ``A race to save kids from smoking,'' once again calls for a ``hefty increase in cigarette taxes.'' Unsupportable, you state ``tax hikes would help suppress smoking, especially among adolescents.''
You just don't get it! Do states that impose substantial cigarette taxes have a lower incidence of teen smoking? I read an Associated Press article (Sept. 13, ``Teen marijuana use nearly doubles'') in your newspaper that reports teen marijuana smoking is again on the increase, despite the prohibitive price of $65 a quarter-ounce. To what level shall we raise cigarette taxes? Today's teens have substantial economic resources.
Don't you realize that teens smoke due to peer pressure and rebellion against the system, among many reasons? Education may be the answer, but not taxes. Wise up! The public is tired of taxes that are ineffective and regressive.
HOWARD W. SHAY
ROANOKE
by CNB