We Are Pocahontas

My June 1 two-minute speech to the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council Funding Committee, regarding application 2003S-762a.

In their application and revised transfer agreement, Tom Michael chooses to refer to the Upper Greenbrier Public Service District using only a single word: "Pocahontas."

Much information has been provided to the PSD by geologists, conservationists, engineers, and citizens, each having no vested interest, all giving freely, every one seeking only the best solution possible. Yet the PSD you are considering funding has utilized none of it, and with your approval will build their $17 million plant, on and through hazardous terrain, invoking eminent domain.

Eight Rivers Safe Development, Elk Headwaters Watershed Association, Isaak Walton League of America, National Speleological Society, Sierra Club, Snowshoe Property Owners Council, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Trout Unlimited, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Outdoor Sportsmen Association, residents and property owners of the Snowshoe and Slatyfork areas.

Many have come together to insist that the PSD's plan not become the sad legacy of Pocahontas County, and we are engaging in a number of legal actions and protests to have this PSD removed from this project.

So save your money for now. The people of Pocahontas have made much progress, despite the refusal of the PSD and our county commission to assist. In due time, the Upper Greenbrier Public Service District will be returned to Durbin, our commission will be replenished with the want and the will to answer the call of their constituents, and we will work together to form a new and closer PSD that is capable of solving this problem in a profoundly more cost effective and environmentally sound fashion.

We are open for business, but we are not closed to a family whose roots run deep, we are not willing to see their dreams lost to eminent domain, and we are not going to allow this manner of mountaineer removal to continue. Because we are something this PSD is not. We are Pocahontas.