It takes more than promises

To the editor,
“Read My Lips”…Commitments That Can’t Be Fulfilled
“I/WE will not raise your taxes/fees”
This sounds good! It is what we want to hear. We want to believe it but unfortunately people who make these kinds of “commitments” cannot really keep them.
There are many factors that contribute to this situation, not the least of which are the rising costs of fuel, food, supplies, construction materials, and running governmental entities, like the towns and the county.
Ignorance and misinformation of federal, state, county, and town laws/ordinances are other reasons people cannot deliver on such global statements.
However, there have been and are people in office who rather than making unfulfillable promises have delivered needed help to this community.
I cite several state and federal representatives for our area that were not just glib talkers, but real doers.
Going back several years, we were blessed to have people like Butch Davies, Emily Couric, George Broman, Ed Scott, Edd Houck, Eric Cantor, George Allen, Senator Warner and Mark Warner as doers for Orange.
Most recently, Ed Scott and Edd Houck were intimately involved with the Town of Orange’s quest to deal with DEQ in obtaining funding for the new sewerage plant. They pled our case to DEQ, in particular, David Paylor and George Gillus. As you know, they helped the town receive $8.2 million in outright grant money and $16.1 million at 0.5 percent interest for the project. This negotiation with DEQ took over three years with the town manager and his staff doing yeomen work, supplying info to DEQ and persevering.
Previous to that Couric, Broman, Houck, Scott, Allen, and Cantor were involved in helping the town gets hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the Raw Water Storage Basin.
By the way, Eric Cantor is running for re-election in November; he deserves our votes.
The town has debt that must be paid. But what town/city/county doesn’t? Orange has had to raise water and sewer rates and it will happen again. But what town/city/county doesn’t raise rates?
Every city/town/authority/county in Virginia is under a mandate to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. All have similar problems—aging water and sewer pipes, sewer plants that don’t meet the ever-changing regulations on nutrient removal, namely nitrogen, phosphorus, and copper.
On television today, Staunton is raising its rates 30 percent now…to upgrade their plant.
I started out saying I heard comments that I would like to hear and believe. The reality is, however, we need a combination of things to happen to retire the debt. Increased fees, hook-up fees for new residences and businesses, outside aid, etc. They are all part of the equation.
We all want good water to flow from our faucets and sewerage that won’t hurt the environment, to go away safely when we flush. It has to be paid for; we have to pay, we use it.
Nothing is free.
Let’s understand that our elected officials can only do so much. We have to help. In addition to paying our share, we need to conserve, reuse, and recycle. These are our towns, our county. We need to pull together to get the job done.
You may or may not like who gets elected in any election, be it national or local, but it is what we get when we vote or not. We have to influence them to do the right thing.
Sweet Living—Steady Progress
Ray Lonick
Orange