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March 2 meeting with Fibrowatt and The Page County Supervisors

March 4th, 2010

Fibrowatt had made their presentation to the BoS in their March 2nd work session. The Public was on hand in full force to either agree, disagree or just to hear what Fibrowatt has to offer. Since it was a work session, the crowd was not allowed to ask any questions. The public was however allowed to submit questions the week before to the BoS so they could ask Fibrowatt. On paper, when first looked at, Fibrowatt seems to be a pretty good fit, for any county. New way to make energy that does not exhaust natural resources, places where storing poultry litter is a problem will be solved and of course, job creations. I was for one was at first thought that this plant would be a good fit……

Then like other people, I searched the internet and what appeared so wonderful on top, started to look abnormal underneath as the layers were stipped down. The first thing noticed was that where ever Fibrowatt wanted to take a seat, they were meat with fierce oppostition in which they eventually overcame in some places. The toxins produce from burning poultry litter and other “burnables” during the downtime they are unable to get the require amuont of litter. Since the technique is so new in the States, the EPA has slacked off a bit for the permits. But the Fibrowatt in Mn has been fined recently for exceding the relaxed parameters and they clain to have fixed that problem at this time.

Say the toxin production is not an issue. What would be the next issue would be the truck traffic, and it would be alot. For Rural roads in Page County, they can barely handle the bus, farm tractors, people getting home from work traffic as it is now, let alone 70 to 100 18 wheelers a day passing through. The roads would have to be widened. You widen the roads to handle the traffic, you will also put alot of people out of homes. To widen the roads that would take atleast 5 years.

Okay, now you have roads built, the toxins are no longer an issue because Fibrowatt has had 5 years to perfect the litter burning process, now, where do you run the high tension power lines? Where Fibrowatt wants to build, thy are mostly surrounded by homes. And people living in areas of high tension power lines suffer because of the very high EMF (electro magnetic field) displaced by the power lines. Then of course there is the water and sewar utilites demand that the plant requires to run.

Now to add the salt to injury. The plant will have to bring in outside employment to run the plant, unless, they were smart and hired locals to train them, which is highley unlikely becuase of the education requirements needed to run such a plant.

At the meeting, after listening to what the Fibrowatt officials had to say, three of the six board members did not vote in favor. It is not an official vote. Is that a victory? To an extent, yes. What it means, in my opinion is that the BoS IS willing to listen to the public on how they feel. This should have been done in the past but is was hard for the public to know anyting until it was too late. Below s a video of the BoS imputing their thoughts.

Fibrowatt in Page County….. 5 years later

February 27th, 2010

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Almost visible from any part of the county, there is a smoke stack with white smoke fumming out of the top. Steam. It is just steam what the plant officials said 5 years ago when making their presentation to the county. “We will help this county with their job problem” on Fibrowatt official had said. The poultry farmers are estactic because in the back of their minds, the will be able to make money off their litter. They no longer will have to cleanout the poultry houses themselves. Fibrowatt said they will take care of that. Fibrowatt is Page County’s answer to bringing in jobs to Page County the EDA claimed. Bringing in jobs is what it had done…..

The drive from Luray to Stanley now takes about 45 minutes on 340 because of the trucks coming and going out of the Fibrowatt site. Thats on a good day. About twice a month there is an accident involving a litter truck and a car, where the litter truck has to swing wide to get out onto 340. There has only been 2 fatalities in 5 years. The back roads aren’t as fast either because they have truck traffic as well. Dr. Dale reports another case of a Dioxin Cancer, 5th one this year, 3rd one from the technical center, and its only May.The 20 people who had been diagnosed with this cancer in the past 3 years live in a 5 mile radius of the plant. Fibrowatt still maintains it has nothing to do with it and the EPA says they are borderline with the permit.

The data center that PTS built finally has said they want to move because their employees cannot stand the smell of the plant and the paint on their cars are peeling, even on the David Tong’s 2015 Shelby Mustang. After the Fibrowatt plant was built, any businesses that wanted to settle at Project Clover changed their mind after visiting the site. Cardman says he is still under non-discloser of those companies, but the NVDailey online edition had already printed their names. The home owners are still fighting the tax increase on their homes because the property values have dropped and the county increased the taxes to cover the offset. Taxes per year is approaching 1/4 of the home value.

Cattle production for beef has declined 2% in the past 2 years because of some type of contamination. The farmers are asking the county to cap Fibrowatt sale on the ash and the poultry farmers are petitioning Fibrowatt to pay more for the litter. The Inland Gaming and Fisheries has refused to restock our streams for fishing because the last time they did, all but a few had died. They said Page County needs to clean up their streams.The town of Stanley has just finished the upgrades to their sewar system, so Fibrowatt excess waste will not flood the field and streams anymore.

The jobless rate had dropped to 7%. Not because of Fibrowatt, because a group of citizens had gathered and started to undermine the EDA and went to all kinds of businesses and asked them to settle here. The attraction was Walmart. Now 211 is starting to look like the intersection at 522 and I66 in front Royal. Tourism suprisingly dropped only 1% over the past 4 years. Because from the Drive, at Stoneyman Overlook, the Valley floor looks like Los Angeles. The EDA for some reason is still crying we need broadband while the homes in Jewel Hollow are enjoying their 60/mbps download speed from the Verizon 6g network.

Homes for Foreclosure on the Rise…what to do next…..

February 24th, 2010

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I live in a small community. Well actually, a rural community. The community itself thrives on tourism to survive. For those of us that want to live here, if you do not iwn a store you have to look for work out of the county, even if you own your own business. The main paper here is a once a week deal. Pretty much everyone knows what is going on before the news hits the stands once a week. Occasionally there is a good story or two that gets printed. What is really bothersome is each week, there is almost a whole page listing homes for forclosure. Homes that would have not been going up for forclosure if the economy had not tanked and these folks were left without work, or have work, but not able to make the mortgage. There was a jdge in the past year that denied a forecloser to a bank because the bank had previously took some bailout money and failed to ealize that when closing out on other homes. Now, homes are being foreclosed upon because the buyers who have less than perfect credit score, have low income are being enticed into homeloans with a next to nothing down payment, low interest and at closing, are hit with the reality and made to believe that they cannot back out of a deal and will lose the down payment if they tried.

The County at the moment is trying feverishly to bring jobs into the county. People living here with no jobs means the county is losing money also. Bringing jobs here is not the answer. Finding jobs is the answer. But where does on look? If you read the news via the internet, the big cities are the same way.

How did all this come about? One could start pointing fingers, but to tell you the truth, it is our own fault. We allowed greed to take over our society. It was all about making the buck and how to make more. It was about if it took 6 people to accomplish a goal, lets see how 4 does and cut their pay if they do not double that goal. It is about the ones that sits in leather seats that cost about an average workers yearly salary. It is about those that recognize someones bankroll and adjust their costs accordingly. It is about those that realized how they could move the profit margin, but forget how much room they really have. Its about not seeing what ripples are created when changes are made. It is about the man on top saying he will work a year without pay but his bonuses are 4 times that and he does not share that with the ones that done the real work.

What can be done about it? Nothing really. Just ride it out. Hopefully, if you owe money to someone, they will be understanding about the situation. We may have to rethink our lifestyle. Live without something that we think we may not need. This may cause a few businesses to lose some money, but it help you out in the long run. What you can do is take advantage of the “time off” and take advantage of some financial assistance and use that to learn a new skill. Research a field that will see job growth. The biggest one will be the medical field, but in irony, they only take so many a year for classs. If you go into the computer field, get a job specific degree. You do not want to get a degree in webdesign to find out that you needed computer science. Due to increase in online transactions, retailers will have a decrease in hiring sales associates.

I watched a show the other night and there was a guy from Kosetstan. He said he came here to live the American Dream. He came to this country with only $50 in his pocket and now he owns his own home and has a car and a job he loves. Are we too blind to see the same thing?