Open Letter to Senator Robert C. Byrd

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="04b085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Historic Sharp Farm's Preservation Blog</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Historic Sharp Farms Preservation Bl"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42_m.html" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Open Letter to Senator Robert C. 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Byrd</I></div> <bR> <div> Dear Senator Byrd, </div> <bR> <div> We need your help. Please find it in your heart to help the vast majority of Pocahontas County residents who want to move the proposed sewer treatment plant for Snowshoe off the historic Sharp farm away from Scenic Highway 55/219 and onto karst-free state owned land offered by Governor Manchin for the grand total of $1.00. </div> <bR> <div> This sewer project is NOT a 'local issue'. It encompasses all basic rights of the citizens. We depend on our government to protect us. ACTION from some government body or one of our representatives is needed NOW. </div> <bR> <div> Although the project is ostensibly for the 'region' it adds a mere 67 new sewer customers for $17 million dollars of WV money via the SRF and IJDC loan programs. As a young man you may have met my great grandfather, LD Sharp who started the Sharp's Country Store at the age of 12 in 1884 along the Marlinton/Huttonsville turnpike, a dirt road, in Slatyfork. When the state abandoned the old road to pave the Seneca Indian Trail (route 219) he moved his entire operation; store, home and family in 1926. The state offered him compensation for the taking of land needed for the new road and he refused to accept it. The railroad came through and took more land and not a peep from him. Our family cemetery (just above the soon to be open vats of millions of gallons of raw sewage) was open to any family in need of a place to rest for their loved ones. Our family guaranteed a life long place to live for several retired farmhands and spouses...one who lives still on our property at 93. (she will be forced to move.....just 40 feet too far from the legal 300 foot 'buffer zone') From LD, on, my family has sacrificed much in our effort to contribute to others and to society. It seems no good deeds go unpunished. Now a commissioner, granddaughter of deceased grandparents resting in our cemetery, votes to take our land. Our county is owned, 60%, by the federal and state government. No public lands were considered because the officials did not want to be encumbered with more stringent regulations and permits involved. In a rural community with thousands of available acres, they are taking the heart of our farm, next to our 121-year continuously running country store and bed and breakfast farmhouse, in the name of progress and development via EMINENT DOMAIN. Progress and development can still occur if they place the plant on public land, we are not trying to stop anyone or anything. Major opposition to the placement of this plant has been realized by the year-round population (thousands signed petitions to move the plant) and even the out-of-state vacation home property owners at Snowshoe (hundreds signed special petitions and sent letters). The Sierra Club, Highlands Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, Mid-Atlantic Fly-Fishermen Association, West Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen Association, Upper Elk Headwaters Watershed Association, Friends of Elk, Isaak Walton League and many others have expressed concern about the situation of the plant on our farm. The county commission remains unaffected. </div> <bR> <div> A careful look at the project budget reveals many unnecessary and questionable payments. The claim by the Pocahontas County Commission is they do not want to burden the rate payers with added monthly fees associated with the cost to move the plant onto safer nearby land. They already burden the ratepayers with $1.2 million in payments to Snowshoe, $431,000.00 of which will be used to reclaim an aeration pond of Snowshoe Sewer and Water, INC, that will not even be a part of this new project! The state land offered by the governor is a mere 1/2-mile away and at the bottom of the drainage basin. It is part of a future phase anyway and would eliminate the need to pump sewage uphill to the Sharp farm at a later date. The commission is hiding behind a false economy. They claim our farm is the most cost-effective site. Translation means; the cheapest. But it is not even that. Designers and officials are still investigating, adding and changing the plant to what will soon look like a factory in the midst of an historic district, as the West Virginia Department of Culture and History proposes to make it. Because our field (9 acres) is more than half part of the 100-year flood plain and almost completely surrounded by a bend in the Big Spring Fork River, making it susceptible to flooding from 3 sides (the fourth side is flooded by the Middle Mountain Stream which created our field from eons of flooding events leaving alluvial deposits) there is little room for the sewer plant. They are forced to use only 3 acres and the new modifications made months after officials voting on the 'best site' will costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more. So even though our farm has never been a 'cost-effective' site (effective means usable for the purpose it was created) it is now most likely not even the cheapest choice. But, too late, the vote has already been cast....even though the project is still being engineered! </div> <bR> <div> The commission uses the excuse that they cannot borrow any more money that needs to be paid back as it will increase the monthly rate. They say grant money is not available because the county income is too high. The director of the IJDC has invited them to reapply for additional funds (to be paid back over 30 years with no interests) as they have done in the past, with an application explaining the reason for more funds needed for the change of scope of the project. Mr. Jeff Brady says, if received, his agency would consider, again, adding more funds. The commission refuses to apply. </div> <bR> <div> Are there not federal grant monies available that are not tied to the median income of a population? A bridge and a road are needed to the new site offered by the governor. These are the major cost factors, the rest being pipe that needs to be installed anyway in the future. Does the Department of Transportation have any programs to aid communities for access to an important facility? Our community should not have to bear the burden and suffer ruination because a $1.66 billion foreign corporation (which, by the way is campaigning to take our farm via eminent domain) refuses to live up to its responsibility of property processing its waste up on Cheat Mountain. After all, this is the reason used for creating this 'regional project'. Officials say Snowshoe just can't keep up with their responsibility to take care of their NPDES discharge obligations. Snowshoe saw an opportunity to alleviate the need to pay for their own treatment plant, operations and maintenance costs, and their liability burden if more spills and violations occur as they have done so for the 10 years of Intawest's ownership. This is all being done for 67 new customers. It is NOT for the ‘others’, development or progress as millions of dollars of pipes will pass by miles of developments along 219 with no requirement to hook on....being more than 300 feet from the pipe. This is a plant for Snowshoe and nothing but! And our farm is a convenient (yet costly) dumping point. The attorney for the county has even gone so far as to call this little village, which is God’s gift to the world with natural wonders abundant, an “industrial wasteland”. </div> <bR> <div> Vernon, New Jersey has an Intrawest resort, Mountain Creek, on the top of their mountain. A similar problem existed with uncontrolled building from the resort. Their solution was simple. They created a regional sewer project and asked Intrawest to contribute 63% of the cost based on the allocation they would be taking from their citizens. Not so in West Virginia. Here, we pay THEM and destroy a heritage 8 generations strong in Pocahontas County! </div> <bR> <div> Senator Byrd, please help us! </div> <bR> <div> Thank you, </div> <bR> <div> Tom Shipley </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>