Why? (Morgantown, Fairmont, Clarksburg: big home, employment, construction)

[nwkinexile]

my question is to those who live in the North Central part of the state...Traveling through places like Morgantown,Fairmont and Clarksburg i cant help but see the enormous potential of the area...so my question is why doesnt the state put in the time and money to develop the areas in between these 3 towns? Being that they are so close together i can easily see how the area could be transformed into a very beautiful metro area...I see Morgantown and Clarksburg doing alot of developing but in Fairmont all I seen was a road project...Is it that Fairmont is holding up the progress?

[David Kennedy]

Basically the answer to your question is this.

Accessibility..

Our politicians do not own much of the land between these towns.

When I-79 was built most of the interstate path was owned by two individuals, a judge and a congressman.
Hence the road is a nightmare of danger and death from Goshen Road to the Fairmont exits...

Hop-scotched from one's land parcel to another, when the highway could have been designed with a safer, straighter path.

Nothing much is done in Wv unless someone, somewhere is paid for it.

Fairmont is to be the the regional center for welfare recieptiencts...(to center the welfare/drug problems in one area and contain it.)
Development will border on lower culture vendors..like gambling.

As the social problems come with these avenues to take money from the public mass, they will not be as prevalent problems in the Monongalia and (better) Harrison County areas.

Contemporary Government is stationed to take money...
Police stings take the DUI money from the out of state construction workers and anybody who spends an hour in a bar watching a football game.

Red and Yellow Casinos dot the landscape and take the money from the retired...
How many thousands of them do we have in Wv? Who owns them? Ha ha ha...

And while all the money is taken for govenment, our schools slide into oblivion...
At one time an education was the ticket to prosperity...

What happened to that 'old school of thought?

A man summed it up the other day at Say-Boys resturaunt....
"It's not 'Old School anymore," he said...It's "No School, I think the country is finished!'

[pknopp]

David may be a little gloomier than I would but the basis of his arguement is correct. Look at the thread about Manchin. All the money is going into an "off ramp" as opposed to helping the area.

Why? Self explainatory.

[CTMountaineer]

The original poster was absolutely correct about the huge potential for the area. Not only is it close to major metro areas, it is also home to great educational/research institutions, has basically a stable employment situation with good paying jobs, and is very accessable to great outdoor venues. Kennedy might have stretched the political corruption a bit, but not by much. The main thing inhibiting the region's incredible potential is the State's political structure and corrupt of special interest group serving politicians, and the inability of the average citizen to recognize that they are being taken for a ride.

Unfortunately, the electorate buys the garbage fed them by the labor unions and energy magnates, and the politicians they buy. The ordinary person gets the shaft in the process. So do the State's areas with the greatest potential as pork money goes to preen politicos' egos rather than where there is demonstrated demand. If North Central were located in PA or MD it would be miles ahead of the current situation. There is promise for the future, however, since population growth is gradually resulting in demographic shifts that the politicians won't be able to ignore much longer, especially since the most corrupt areas of the state are either losing population or stagnant. NCWV is destined to succeed in spite of them. The obvious potential will win out in the long run.

[nwkinexile]

Ah...thank you for the insight people. Just recently had a conversation with an elderly couple and somewhere along the lines this topic came up. The analysis they gave me made a whole lot of sense. Basically, they were saying that alot of the areas between these 3 towns are and will remain to be unincorporated because the people who live there refuse to be corporated. They used Whitehall as an example and said that the city of Fairmont continually attempts to get Whitehall to annex and they are continuously denied. Now i'm not sure why they wouldnt want to do that but it just seemed to make a whole lot of sense to me as they were explaining it to me.

[David Kennedy]

Incorporation is a weak argument. With that comes prohibitive taxation...3% of the Gross of any project.
That simple Tax has stifiled all but government building in the Friendly City.

Taylor County is where the big homes are being built...small fees and hook-up costs and the county is reeling with the overburden excess of Property Tax money...they don't really know where to spend the money.

If a roll back in taxation was done in Marion, Mon and Harrison counties more developement would happen there.

It's a cost thing...if I'm building a home for a customer and will cost him $400,000, why would I want to have him spend $12,000 for a Permit and B&0 Tax and then have all of my subs pay the same amount to work on my project...$24,000 will do the garage or a nice concrete drive way..

Lets get real...and the money to these incorporated areas...it only funds the pensions and benefit packages...not much goes toward road improvements because almost all of the road paving is tied to the state coffers...