Letters to the editor – Thursday (8-7-08)

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Bridge, not airport, should be priority
Did I miss something? Commissioners and other local officials are celebrating Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s confirmation of a $2 million federal grant for the Rowan County Airport.
Why is an airport, which most Rowan countians will never use, getting a $2 million transportation grant from the federal government, when we are being told that there is no money for the crucial I-85 Yadkin River bridge replacement project?
While we are thanking Senator Dole for her efforts on our behalf, let us remind her that the federal government’s failure to fund North Carolina’s most basic interstate highway needs is about to cause many of us to have to pay a daily toll just to get to our jobs every day.
ó Bill Bucher
Salisbury
Our taxes at work
On Monday (July 28), a DOT employee was marking the edges of Fisher Road in Rockwell. When asked what he has doing, he stated that Fisher was scheduled to be widened by four feet in several weeks.
“Great,” I said.
Well, on Friday (Aug. 1), lo and behold, a line-painting crew was painting the center yellow lines and the white shoulder lines. This road will be destroyed in several weeks. Is there any logic to this? I know Fisher Road is not that long, but could this money be spent on something that would last more than a month?
ó Ron Baker
Rockwell
Honoring Skip
I would like to suggest that the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association enshrine Skip Caray into its Hall of Fame in 2009. It would be a fitting tribute to a man who passed the toughest test for an announcer ó during the Braves’ lean years of the ’70s and ’80s, he made listening to and watching a bad team interesting.
ó Randy Alley
Salisbury