THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602140154
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
I am writing to voice my disgust about our road conditions. As I write this, our schools are closed again for the fourth straight day. I blame it on the Virginia Department of Transportation or whoever else is responsible for keeping our roads open. The snow removal here for residential areas is absolutely unacceptable!
What are the VDOT people doing? There shouldn't be any snow or ice on our streets four days after a snowstorm!
What are these so-called ``chemicals'' they say they are putting on the roads? I am no expert, but applying salt and continuously plowing seems to be the most effective way to remove snow. I haven't seen any salt or much plowing. All they do is sprinkle a little sand on the roads. What good is sand on layers of packed down snow and ice?
I grew up in Pennsylvania, lived in New Jersey, Illinois and Newfoundland and have traveled through all of New England in the winter time, when they were up to their eyeballs in snow. Yet, the schools remained opened except for maybe the first day after the storm.
I pay taxes for my child to get a decent education, and he isn't because somebody isn't doing a good enough job removing snow so the buses can take the children to school!
Now there are four school days to be made up on top of the two previous ones from the Blizzard of '96. If the streets were cleared properly there would be no school days to make up.
Parents have had the expense of finding day care for their children while they are not in school or have to take off from work to stay with them while the schools are closed. Senior citizens are forced to stay inside because their streets are not cleared of ice and snow.
Citizens deserve to have their streets cleared properly at whatever the cost!
L. Hill
Bluebonnet Street Keep jobs at home
Recently, one of your readers expressed concern over the proliferation of products that are no longer made in America. He pointed out that everything he picked up nowadays seems to be made in China, Taiwan or some other foreign country. I share his concern.
Isn't it ironic that many American firms are moving their factories overseas to benefit from lower wages, while Americans are being laid off in increasing numbers, and the welfare rolls continue to grow? Wouldn't it make more sense for American firms who are contemplating a move overseas to first check their local unemployment office for people who are willing to work for the minimum wages they plan to offer to a foreign worker?
American corporations continue to ``downsize'' as they seek to streamline their operations for global competition. This downsizing is leaving more and more Americans without jobs. This coupled with the move of many manufacturing jobs overseas is a problem of monumental proportions.
The leaders of our country, as well as corporate heads, need to remember what made our country great. We have always had a strong production and manufacturing base, comprised of good, loyal workers who were proud of the contribution they were making to attain ``the American Way of Life.'' We are on the brink of losing this way of life if our jobs continue to go overseas.
Corporate America should begin now to reverse this anti-American trend and keep American workers on the job.
David R. Burgoyne
Old Oaks Circle by CNB