Investigate Bloom for
collusion with Longview
In a letter to the editor that I wrote late last year (DP-Nov. 28), I asserted that Jeff Keffer, CEO of Longview Power, “will attack grassroots citizen groups that disagree with his carbon corporate model.” I was right, but I did not expect that Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom would aid and abet Keffer by threatening the Sierra Club.
The Dominion Post just reported (Thursday) the Sierra Club complained that negotiations on a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) between the County Commission and Longview were being held in private. Let’s be clear, the PILOT is a tax subsidy for Longview, costing the county taxpayers millions in potential revenue. Some call this corporate welfare.
Bloom’s response? A threat to forward an unsubstantiated allegation that the Sierra Club mishandled money to the prosecuting attorney’s office.
Where did Bloom get the “information”? None other than CEO Jeff Keffer of Longview, the very company whose proposed tax breaks the Sierra Club’s efforts challenge.
Wow! Bloom, who will vote on giving a tax break to Longview, is colluding with Longview’s CEO to silence criticism.
The prosecuting attorney should actually investigate Bloom and his collusion with Longview’s Keffer. Sounds like Mafia on the Mon.
John P. Lambertson
Morgantown
Effort to get all hands
on deck is necessary
I believe The Dominion Post’s criticism over the Monongalia County Commission hiring Joe Statler as an advocate for our county is counter-productive.
What the newspaper failed to note was how valuable a veteran advocate would be to our county. An experienced lobbyist to work alongside legislators helping move bills through the legislative process may mean the difference between success and failure.
Bills to improve our roads such as the one vetoed last year by our governor that charges the Division of Highways to create a formula to allocate money for road improvements. Such a bill could help make sure counties with growing populations and high traffic densities such as ours gets the funding we need.
Perhaps legislation to speed the hiring process for DOH employees that was vetoed by the governor before him. Yes, the time frame to hire employees still takes forever and our county struggles to get enough workers to complete its projects.
As a former delegate, I understand how easy it is to get distracted with the multitude of bills you must read, constituent concerns you must address, etc. Having a skilled advocate (unpaid at that) would help our delegates and senators stay focused on issues like these and not to mention sharing the time-consuming burden of educating the other members of the Legislature on their importance.
The severity of the roads problems alone calls for all hands to be on deck to try to get action on them. Thank you to our County Commission for recognizing this.
Brian Kurcaba
Morgantown
Thanks to all for help
with pet food drive
The Monongalia County Humane Society would like to thank everyone who contributed to our Holiday Needy Pet Food Drive. The pet food is distributed at the local Armory when the Christmas toys and food are given out.
We want to thank the stores who allowed us to put out our pet food barrels: Kroger in Sabraton, Suncrest Towne Centre and on Patteson Drive; as well as Giant Eagle on Green Bag Road and University Town Centre. We greatly appreciate their help with our holiday collection.
In addition to the above thank you’s, we want to thank Air Service of West Virginia for transporting our food and to the University High students who helped load and unload the food. University High students are Chase Edwards, Zeke Bailey and Jacob Stevens. Thank you boys. You were a great help.
The men at Air Service and the University High students helped us move 10,000 pounds of cat and dog food. Since so much food was collected, we were able to give out twice as much food as our previous years.
Thank you to everyone who supported our efforts for the holiday season.
Ruth Ann Shinn
Monongalia County
Humane Society
Morgantown
