Month: September 2020

Let local firm compete for fiber

I have fiber-optic cable to my home. I get continual high-speed broadband service. And, I live in Louisa County.

I didn’t get this wonderful service from the Louisa County Board of Supervisors. I got it from iWiSP. They approached my property owners’ association with an offer to provide fiber to the home to all our members for $75 a month at a minimum of 30 megabits per second, with no limits, caps or hidden costs.

iWiSP came to us years ago and provided the only wireless internet service on the Louisa side of Lake Anna. Wireless was not without its difficulties (disruption from lightning strikes, storms, leaves on trees, heavy use, etc.) but it was way better than dial-up modems or hot spots (since it was way cheaper). For the past eight years the Louisa County Broadband Authority has been trying to move more citizens into the broadband age, but with limited success.

Now iWiSP is working to complete fiber to the home in our community. Again, we are the first to get this much higher level of service. Another nearby association may piggyback off our services with no reduction of service level for us after it is completely installed.

Will the county be able to convince the electric utilities to offer this service with just $15 million “reserved” for this effort? Rappahannock Electric Cooperative forecasts it would cost $500 million (or more) to provide this to their 12,000 customers. Earlier this summer I listened in on a call with the chief executive officer of REC, who said at that time they had reservations about providing this service except as a carrier along existing routes. Getting to the home was not viewed as part of their strategy, since existing wiring cannot be used and additional fiber-optic cables must be installed from the street to the home.

So, why not get local businesses more involved? Why limit the partnership to just the electric company and the county government? iWiSP operates around Lake Anna. Why not include them in the planning for fiber to the home? I’m loving my fiber-optic internet service. Why shouldn’t more of Louisa County have the same opportunity?

Larry Zemke Mineral

[CV]

All Children do not matter to Freitas

Nick Freitas has thrown his hat into the ring to challenge Congresswoman Spanberger. In his video he states: “My mom always said if somebody needs help, you have a personal responsibility to intervene”. But words are easy to say and harder to back up. Since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior I looked into his voting record to see what his priorities might be. Mr. Freitas was one of only two who voted against SB423 requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost of hearing aids for children. 91 other legislators voted in favor of the bipartisan bill. Trouble hearing can be detected at a young age and even babies can be fitted with behind-the-ear aids. Children with hearing loss may have trouble developing speech, social skills, and have trouble learning. Does Mr. Freitas not understand basic child development? There is a critical period, up to age 5 where a child can develop language and after that it becomes much more difficult. Did he consult with any pediatricians before he voted? How is denying children healthcare helpful? Mr. Freitas intervened, but not on behalf of the children in need of help.

In his video he further stated “My dad really instilled in me that you have an obligation to protect people who can’t protect themselves”. Mr. Freitas was the only one who voted against requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost of diagnosis and treatment of autism (HB 1503). 97 other legislators voted in favor of the bipartisan bill. The range and severity of symptoms of autism varies greatly and early expert evaluation is necessary. Difficulty with communication, social interactions, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and sensory issues are just some of the symptoms families manage. Does Mr. Freitas not understand that autism is a lifelong condition? Common sense tells us that addressing a problem early results in a better outcome and research proves this to be true. Mr. Freitas failed to protect people who can’t protect themselves.

So who is he intervening for? Who is he protecting? These votes suggest that he is protecting for profit health insurance companies. Does he oppose services for all children with disabilities or just these two? I have spent my entire career advocating for children with disabilities and it is rare to find a politician so extreme and heartless about denying services to children who need them. I am thankful that he was overwhelmingly outvoted both times by a bipartisan legislature. Mr. Freitas does not act in accordance with his words and cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of the people.

In contrast, the incumbent, Congresswoman Spanberger has voted as she said she would. She has voted to support the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid expansion, both of which we have here in Virginia. She cosponsored and passed legislation to lower the costs of prescription drugs. We need a representative who works to benefit people, not health insurance corporations who earned $913 Billion in profits in 2019. Vote for all children, vote for Spanberger.

Aleta Strickland
Licensed School Psychologist

[CV]

Nick Freitas Doesn’t Want Us to Have Broadband

If you had the chance to vote to increase access to high speed Internet (broadband service) in rural areas, right here in Louisa, would you vote yes or no? Nearly everyone I know would vote YES on such a measure. They would vote for it because broadband is so important for our jobs, education, entertainment, shopping and other everyday activities

Nick Freitas had that chance and he voted NO. He was one of only 6 members of the House of Delegates to vote against House Bill 831. He has voted against broadband numerous times. It’s been made clear by his actions; Delegate Nick Freitas doesn’t think it’s important for us to have broadband.

Abigail Spanberger, our US Congresswoman, listens to her constituents and has taken every step she can to get us reliable, high-speed internet. She helped introduce the Moving America Forward Act, which includes the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act. She has worked tirelessly to bring funding to ReConnect, the USDA program designed to bring the Internet we need to the rural counties she serves. She recently led a successful bipartisan effort to increase that funding by 78%. Abigail Spanberger very much wants us to have high speed Internet.

Spanberger’s opponent in her run for reelection this November is Nick Freitas, who currently represents the 30th district in the Virginia General Assembly. Freitas doesn’t want us to have broadband Internet. So, I don’t want him to have a position in Congress.

Sincerely

Jim Wolf
Louisa

[CV]Frietas Doesn’t Support Broadband

Business park plan is ‘sloppy and disingenuous’

I was unaware of the Aug. 17 presentation to the Louisa County Board of Supervisors by Timmons Group on the Shannon Hill Business Park study and was glad to read The Central Virginian’s report.

Timmons expressed great confidence that the kinds of buildings they propose for the property will be in high demand in an era of increased e-commerce. Are they not aware that abandoned malls and other failed commercial sites, already complete with infrastructure and utilities, are practically begging Amazon and others to repurpose their locations for their fulfillment and data centers?

And what about costs for us to provide the same?  Along with Andy Wade, Louisa County’s economic development director, what Timmons was selling on Aug. 17 is more of the same fantasy they have sold to our county through this whole expensive fiasco.

To start, if you place the building layout published in the CV from that meeting next to a topographic map of the property, it will reveal a good bit of fantasy. The single largest building, labeled Logistics and Distribution, located far from the park entrance, is directly on top of the steepest slopes of the property, with elevation changes of at least 25 feet throughout. What will it cost to get that site flat enough for a million-square-foot building plus parking on narrow ridge terrain? The rest is not better. You wonder about the costs of working through the state Department of Environmental Quality for the dozens of large culverts and maybe a bridge or two needed to span the 25-foot-deep creek bottoms for tractor trailers.

Timmons says Louisa needs to spend $18 million to bring water from Ferncliff to a new “elevated” water tower. Water to be supplied by a source with as yet no location, no budget and no permit. The design cost for the water tower is more than a third of the total cost of Timmons’ current contract. It is nearly three times the total amount budgeted for “master planning.”

To my knowledge there has been zero outreach to the public in the development of these plans. The original contract called for two “stakeholders’ meetings.” The first included only one Louisa County person. A second was set well before the COVID-19 crisis but was canceled without notice or explanation. In the contract, Timmons was to “share results of preliminary master planning” and begin the preliminary engineering report which would be the guide for at least three alternative master plans.

Timmons has proposed only one “final master plan” as outlined on Aug. 17. No preliminary engineering report or any other report has been published, much less reviewed, by the public.

Is this because what Timmons persuaded the county to buy will be enormously expensive to develop? Under the contract, Timmons must provide “likely” professional “cost considerations” to build any project they design. The huge extent of those likely costs would have been evident to anyone who has seen the property. The contract says that the County, not Timmons, was responsible for convening and running the scheduled stakeholder meetings. They bailed.

This is not responsible leadership. It is not careful stewardship of our money, resources and credit. No one, certainly not Timmons, should be paid for work this sloppy and disingenuous.

Surely, we can do better.

William Hale

Louisa

[CV] Hale Business Park Letter

Our Nation Needs a Leader to ‘turn on the lights’

”We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt

In the darkest days of the Great Depression, after the stock market crashed, half the banks had failed and 15 million people were out of work as the economy bottomed out, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt acted boldly to address the uncertainties and fear that gripped people. He united Americans.

Today, we are struggling with a situation similar to, but in some ways worse than, what was faced by FDR. Thanks to the worldwide pandemic and the administration’s response, not only are more than 30 million people out of work, but more than 180,000 are dead. Instances of police brutality have sparked nationwide protests.

Instead of promoting unity, however, President Donald Trump on Fox News’ Laura Ingraham show recently talked of people in the “dark shadows” who are “controlling” presidential candidate Joe Biden and “thugs” in dark clothing flying into Washington, D.C., to stage violence. On the same show he claimed, falsely, that Portland, Oregon, had been burning for years.

Asserting that America has descended into chaos and its cities are burning, Trump wants us to forget that if this is true, it is happening on his watch.

To anyone old enough to remember the 1967 Detroit riots, the unrest that followed the 1968 murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or the 1992 police beating of Rodney King, today’s Portland and Kenosha events barely register on the chaos scale.

Trump’s insertion of multi-agency federal troops and mercenaries inflamed these situations, not only in Portland but also right across from the White House at St. John’s Church near Lafayette Square. None of his actions have contributed to public safety.

And what are we to make of Trump, or Culpeper’s Jon Russell, implying that Black Lives Matter marches cause suburban women and children to quake in fear? This is an old dog whistle, which was employed by racist real-estate agents and bankers in the 1950s and ‘60s to keep minorities out of white neighborhoods.

Most of Culpeper’s neighborhoods are a rich combination of races, creeds, ages and political viewpoints. Today’s “suburbanites” are nothing like those of 70 years ago.

This summer’s Black Lives March in Culpeper and hundreds more in cities and towns all across American were nonviolent examples of our right to peaceably assemble, guaranteed by our Constitution.

Some who may have been fearful appeared to be the St. Louis couple who brandished firearms at peaceful marchers as they passed their door, and the 17-year-old in Kenosha who killed two protesters and wounded a third, in cold blood. The St. Louis couple was made heroes at the Republican National Convention. And Trump has defended, rather than condemned, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.

Many parents have had to deal with their children’s fears of “monsters under the bed.” The patient parent turned on the lights to show that there was nothing there.

Now, America needs a responsible adult in the Oval Office who will “turn on the lights” and express empathy, inspire hope and faith in the future, and marshal the nation’s considerable resources to defeat the pandemic, attack racial and economic inequities, and restore America’s place in the world.

In contrast to Republican assertions, Joe Biden has responded to these crises as a unifier who understands the need to govern for the common good. He recently remarked, “I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops.”

Biden promotes law and order. He clearly stated, “Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. It is lawlessness plain and simple, and those who do it should be prosecuted.”

Vote like your lives depend upon it, because they do.

 

David Reuther

[Reuther] Turn On the Lights