Sighs and Wonders

(A fortnightly rant, FL-S style.) 

As we close out this exhausting year, this writer is left wondering…

Will the next Virginia General Assembly comport (itself) better than the last?

Will it send the dreaded Abuser Fees to the scrapheap of history?

Will the Stafford Board of Supervisors become a body of the people and not of the privileged few?

Will Wild Bill Howell, the self-annointed Sheriff of Nottingham, contaminate yet another fairly-administered election?

Will the Virginia blogosphere stop bloviating on the 2009 race for the Governor’s Mansion (and just press the current electeds on the issues we will face in 2008?)

Will Amy Winehouse live to see her next birthday?

In 2008, this writer asks:

Will the right honorable electeds of our General Assembly finally - and with some clarity and sincerity - deal with the Commonwealth’s transporation mess in a way that provides the appropriate level of funding needed to, not only repair and maintain the roads, bridges, rail systems, and such, but to build new?

Will they demonstrate leadership - across the Commonwealth and in the Fredericksburg Region - so that we finally begin reversing the collosal messes that are Route 3 in Spotsy, Route 1 from Garrisonville Road in Stafford to Cosner’s Corner in Massaponax, the Falmouth Light (day-or-night), etc., or will have from them another year of failed promises?

As much fun as this writer has had lampooning the President’s Yakadoos visit, the Decider’s sudden arrival and departure to our area made one thing crystal clear:

If a midday visit by the world’s most-powerful human could log-jam traffic the way it did, then: 

What would happen if:

• we suddenly or unexpectedly got clobbered by a major weather event, like a Noreaster bringing 2 feet of snow, or another Hurricane Isabel? 
• a truck in I-95 rush-hour traffic carrying Sulfuric Acid overturned and spilled onto the road bed?
• we suffered a catastrophic roadway or railway bridge collapse?

To the disliking of some of my progressive friends that have serious concerns about the ecology and sustainability of the Rappahannock Basin, this writer says we must too get serious about our transporation debacle by appropriately funding and quickly building new river crossing-points.

Whether we expand the existing I-95 bridge by four or more lanes, or build a new river crossing connecting Stafford and Spotsylvania, we must get creative, serious, and totally committed.

The collosal Kalahari Resort in Celebrate Virginia will be up-and-running before we know it.

If we don’t impress upon our GA electeds NOW that they must - once and for all - RAISE THE REVENUE NEEDED to fix the Commonwealth’s (and in particular, our region’s) transporation grid, then at best we will remain gridlocked, or at worse face both an economic and homeland security disaster.

Yes folks, we are facing a crisis the size of the munificent Speaker’s Ego, and therefore we must - again, we must - raise taxes to fund scores of needed-10-years-ago transportation improvements.

To Emperor Howell and his minions left in the House of Delegates, this writer says don’t try to delude the electorate with another cockamamie scheme - that claims not to raise taxes - like the Abuser Fees.

Sir, if you would put forth as much real effort on this crisis, as you have had done in attempting to overturn an honorable and rightfully-elected school board member, well, we might actually see some results.

Hubris, like a crack cocaine-addiction, is a tough thing to overcome.

So, what can we do now? 

Locally, we need a new voice to help us steer transporation improvement resources to the Fredericksburg area…and this writer has just the man for the job.

When current Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) member Cord Sterling stands down to take his seat on the Stafford Board of Supervisors, this writer urges Governor Kaine to appoint Carlos Del Toro to take his spot.

Throughout the campaign season just concluded, House of Delegates candidate Carlos Del Toro demonstrated true toughness and unquestioned leadership on the issue of transporation.

Along with CTB member Mary Lee Carter of Spotsylvania, Del Toro will work to assure that ours - the second-fastest growing region in the Commonwealth - gets the resources needed to start fixing our transporation mess.

So, Governor Kaine, if you are reading this, please make this appointment.

In 2008, if we don’t finally come up with a sound, sensible, enduring transportation plan, we go from being inconvenienced to being imperiled.  So, if this mess must be raised to the level of Homeland Security Crisis, then so be it.

- DS

To those that celebrate, we say Merry Christmas!

And to all, Fred2Blue wishes a safe, healthy, and Happy New Year!

Peace.