ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607190004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
AS A MEMBER of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors for eight years, I often grumbled about the Code of Virginia (1950 as amended) as it pertained to local government. I felt the code was unduly restrictive in that it thwarted innovation by those closest to the problems. However, I am having a change of heart.
For many years in Floyd County, some Republican lawyers have been casting about for candidates to represent their interests on the Board of Supervisors. In January, they struck pay dirt. A gang of four has taken over Floyd County. I don't know what standards the lawyers used in their selection process, but some of their candidates appear to have suffered head trauma as a result of falling off the turnip wagon.
Imagine, if you can, four newly elected supervisors taking office, serving for five months, and advertising a proposed budget without making efforts to determine the county's financial status. Then, quite by chance, they discovered that the county has a general-fund balance.
Now Floyd County is using its savings to pay for day-to-day operations of government. The supervisors' version of tax equity is to soak property owners and subsidize mobile-home parks. These supervisors speak of selling the county's new industrial-park land for residential development.
The Republican lawyers are ecstatic. They don't care about budgets or industry. It's county ordinances that intrigue them. The lawyers are confident that their supervisors will gut the subdivision ordinance and do everything in their power to tax farmers off the land. The lawyers will then get rich turning Floyd County into a paper street subdivision.
In the dark days that lie ahead, I take some comfort in the Code of Virginia. It will place some limits on what this gang of four can do to our beautiful county and its fragile economy. Long live the Dillon Rule!
HOWARD DICKERSON
WILLIS
Consider the source on insurance advice
IN RESPONSE to Mag Poff's article, ``Knowing when to replace your insurance policy'' (June 24 Money Page):
I've found past columns by Poff both informative and unbiased. Unfortunately, this article was neither. All of her quotations came from the cash-value industry. The policies in question generate their highest commissions and profit margins, so one shouldn't be surprised that they would advise against changing.
As a service to your readers, I think the following quotations from people not in the insurance business should be given equal space:
* ``Agents also like to point out that universal life products pay a competitive interest rate. Remember that interest rates are selling points. They can be manipulated to attract a buyer, while other expense elements can be hidden. Just like whole life policies, the three basic elements (interest rates, expenses, mortality charge) come into play. Only in universal life, expense costs can be hidden even more easily.'' - New Jersey State Buyers Guide, 1988, page 17.
* ``Historically, the percentage of returns for cash-value life insurance policies has been lower than what would have been earned had the same money been invested in bank passbook savings accounts. So always take the projected earnings with a heavy dose of skepticism. It is only there to induce you to buy.'' - ``Winning The Insurance Game,'' Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith, page 310.
* ``The biggest problem with whole life insurance is that it tries to be both insurance and an investment vehicle. And it does both poorly. The insurance portion is typically overpriced, whereas the investment part provides anemic rates of return.'' - ``Bulletproof Your Financial Future,'' Bruce Lefavi, page 106.
* ``If you're saving the money from your premiums on a lower cost term policy and investing it, you have unquestionably made the right choice.'' - Adrienne Hardman, associate editor, Financial World magazine, CNBC-Money Talk.
HENRY REESE
ROANOKE
Editor's note: The Money Page article pertained to replacement of cash-value insurance policies when the holders have already paid the high first-year commissions and accrued cash value. Whether to buy such policies in the first place is a different question. Money Page articles have recommended repeatedly that people buy term policies and save outside of insurance vehicles.
Get on with change at VMI
REGARDING the Virginia Military Institute decision:
Regardless of how we Virginians feel about tradition, it's time to change. VMI's role of producing citizen soldiers is no longer the same as it once was.
Admit women now, and use this educational experience as an opportunity to better learn how to get along together with women. This is required in today's workplace, so let us do what we can to prepare for it.
GREGORY FREEMAN
ROANOKE
Fire station's closing makes sense
I'VE HEARD so much recently about the closing of fire station No. 11 that I think I could choke on it. Over and over, it has been asked: Why choose that particular station to shut down?
I'm glad they chose this particular station. It shows that someone in the fire administration is using his or her head.
I reside in Garden City, and I feel very secure in the fact that this station was chosen to be closed. The reason is that not only are we served by this particular station, but we also have the luxury of having two other fire stations within a four-minute response time. These are stations No. 6, which is at 13th Street and Jamison Avenue, and No. 8, which is at 24th Street and Crystal Spring Avenue.
Station No. 6 also has an ambulance in house and is staffed 24 hours a day. The area served by station No. 4 (on Aeriel Way Drive off Brandon Avenue) doesn't have that same luxury. That area is pretty much secluded, with the closest station on Memorial Avenue and the closet ambulance at 4th and Day avenues Southwest. Several long-term-care and nursing facilities are in that area, and it makes perfect sense that the city would want that area properly served. I don't think City Council thought of a select few members of city administration when this decision was made.
I also question the loyalty of city personnel when they go behind their chief's back to lobby City Council members and prominent citizens against their own department. If these department members are so concerned about citizen safety, why did they leave before their stations were adequately staffed?
DONA ALTMAN
ROANOKE
Must city import consultants?
REGARDING your July 2 news article (``Mill Mountain incline placed on wish list'') on the feasibility study of a tram system going from downtown Roanoke up the old incline route to the top of Mill Mountain and other possibilities for a tram system:
The real clunker was that the feasibility study would cost Roanoke approximately $90,000. This study would be to see if the city needs to hire an out-of-town consultant for a consulting fee of $90,000.
I'm not against progress in Roanoke, but why do we have to get our consultants from out of town? Why can't we utilize competent people from Virginia Tech or Virginia Military Institute to do the consultant work? Why not select 1,000 citizens from Roanoke and have them answer questions as to why and if this tram should be built?
To feed the poor and provide housing for them, $180,000 would go a long way.
RAYMOND J. HICKMAN
ROANOKE
Roanoke Valley is a cultural wasteland
I AM 23 and have lived in Roanoke all my life. In the past four years, I've been away at college, but have returned for the summer to rest and relax before entering the job market.
I roam the city and surrounding Roanoke County to see what changes have occurred. To my surprise, the only new things are Talbot's, Nine West and The Gap. Roanoke lacks so much.
We have the room and resources to make this a thriving community full of shopping and culture. Why must I drive to Charlottesville to shop and gain culture? Local theaters here even refuse to show some four-star films.
As the world changes around us, so must Roanoke. This community cannot survive much longer in the direction it's going.
ANNE K. METCALFE
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Long : 156 linesby CNB