by Linda Burchette, Assistant Editor
The Jefferson Post
Photo by Linda Burchette
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, from left, meets with Heritage Development Tourism Officer Helen Ruth Almond, West Jefferson Mayor Dale Baldwin and Lansing Mayor Jason Ring during a visit to Ashe County on Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx heard of both exciting and troubling things happening in Ashe County on the first stop of her first “listening tour” of 2006 when she visited Jefferson Landing Tuesday. She chose Ashe as her first stop, she said, because she knew she would be in “friendly territory.”
Friendly was the atmosphere as Foxx was praised by town and county officials for her attention to the county and its needs. The only complaints she heard involved a struggle in West Jefferson for quality and fairness in cable television service, the need for federal funding to expand the county airport, and help in cutting the county’s increasing payout for Medicaid services.
West Jefferson Town Manager Ken McFadyen told Foxx of the town’s more than year-long effort to negotiate a franchise renewal with Mediacom. The cable TV company had agreed during negotiations to provide a government channel, keep the local customer service office open and improve customer service standards. But even before the negotiated franchise agreement was completed by the town, the company was refusing to sign on with those requirements included.
McFadyen has said to the town’s board of aldermen that Mediacom did not want to undertake the cost of installing the type of lines and equipment required for a government channel, and did not want to commit to keeping the local office open. Mediacom representative Maggie Blythe has also said in the past that clarity of channels depends a great deal on the quality of equipment belonging to channel providers, and the company does the best it can with the access it has.
McFadyen said he understands that Congress is considering changes in the Cable Act to open up markets and competition, and he hopes Congress, and Rep. Foxx, will remember West Jefferson’s needs as these changes are implemented.
Foxx said she has a big interest in cable television franchising, that the nation is getting more and more of its news from television, so it is important to provide what people need and want, especially about government. She has a real concern, she said, about choices and competition, and would talk more to McFadyen about his concerns and relate them to the chairman of the FCC as cable television legislation is discussed.
Lines are blending, said Foxx, in companies providing communication services from cable to phone to Internet, so Congress needs to look at that and people need to express their opinions to their representatives on how to deal with changes.
Lansing Mayor Jason Ring said he appreciates what Foxx has helped accomplish for the town in getting a bridge replaced by NCDOT and a grant coming to help replace paving to prevent flooding.
Ring also told Foxx of the new community group, GLAD, which is working to promote the community. GLAD has applied for membership in the NC Small Towns Economic Prosperity (STEP) Demonstration Program. According to the NC Rural Center’s web site, 20 economically distressed small towns will be selected to participate in the three-year program, which will offer education and training scholarships for local leaders; one-on-one assistance from community development specialists; grants to help plan and implement development projects; workshops around topics ranging from brownfield development and historic preservation to financial and infrastructure issues; and networking with other rural leaders at the state and global levels. GLAD is also planning a new festival for the community.
“What we have is an opportunity, I’ve been told,” said Ring. “We’ve never had such interest in the town and people attending the town board meetings. I want to thank Mrs. Foxx for getting things started.”
Foxx thanked Ring for his remarks, and said she is also working to help communities like Lansing find financial assistance in dealing with water and sewer problems. This is a huge problem all over the U.S., Foxx said, in locating funds to help people wanting to put together a good system. Lansing is under a moratorium on new business and growth because of a lack of water. And the town’s sewer system is located in a floodplain.
Dr. Pat Mitchell, serving as acting county manager as Dan McMillan recovers from heart surgery, noted the exciting events of 2005 in Ashe with expansion of the arts district, continued growth of Jefferson Station, progress on the 1904 Courthouse and farm museums, plans for a new jail and law enforcement center, the planned construction of the Kitchen Cabinet project at Family Central, expansion of the county farmer’s market, and the opening of Smiths Aerospace in the former Oldham building.
The county will be bidding the jail project in the next several months and hopes to begin construction in June, Mitchell said.
What the county would like assistance with, said Mitchell is:
1. Expansion of the airport: the county has been told that federal funds are not available and need to be earmarked for specific projects. Foxx said she hopes to bring a fellow congressional member dealing with transportation issues to the county and especially the airport this summer.
2. Medicaid - the county is paying over $2 million in costs and North Carolina is the only state in the U.S. still requiring counties to shoulder the burden of Medicaid costs. There has been a 78 percent increase in costs since 2000, and the state and county need help. Foxx said she is very troubled by what is happening with Medicaid, that predictions are that 70 percent of the federal budget by 2010 or 2015 will be spent on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, leaving little for such major needs as defense and education. She said money is wasted in bureaucracy and federal government needs to pull back from dealing with so many things and concentrate on defense.
3. Advanced Materials training center - AdvantageWest has submitted a grant to the Department of Labor for over $5 million to develop an Advanced Materials training center with partnership through Wilkes Community College and Appalachian State University.
AdvantageWest President Dale Carroll said Thursday that the Advanced Materials training center is part of a multi-faceted application that also includes entrepreneurship support, technical certification helping workers prepare for the workforce, and a telecom broadband high speed Internet service. He thanks Congressional members Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry of Hickory and Charles Taylor of Asheville for their letters of recommendation to the Department of Labor supporting this grant application. The application also received support from Gov. Mike Easley, whose signature was a prerequisite of the grant application, and NC Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry. Only 10 applications are expected to be approved nationwide, so this is a competitive process, said Carroll. A decision is expected in February.
Foxx also heard from Commissioner Gerald Price who noted the fear and confusion felt by local senior citizens regarding the Medicare Part D drug prescription drug discount program.
Foxx said she knows the plan is very complicated and people are having trouble with it. The idea was great, she said, and then the bureaucrats got involved and others, and muddied the water.
Partnership for Children Executive Director Carol Coulter asked Foxx for help in the county’s dilemma on child care subsidies, noting that there are many children on the waiting list and the subsidy is expected to be drastically cut this summer, which could lead to termination of services.
Foxx said she is not familiar with this issue as Coulter is the first to bring it up to her, and she will look into it.
Foxx was praised by Jefferson Post Publisher Cabot Hamilton, also president of the Ashe County Chamber of Commerce which sponsored her visit, for her help in encouraging the NCDOT to move ahead on installing a traffic light at a busy intersection in West Jefferson.
Foxx said Congress is being criticized for members seeking money from the Highway Trust Fund for their constituencies, but people don’t understand how this works and she will continue to try and get money for this area whenever possible. It’s not a bad system, she said, just that the word “earmark” has become like a bad word.
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