Virginia hopes to reopen rest stops

General: For several years VDOT has been seeking add’l funding from the G/A, only to be rebuffed. In 2007, gas prices sky-rocketed to almost $4/gallon, and then spiraled back down in the fall. One suggestion floated during the spiral, was raising the State gas tax, which was last done about 1986. That went nowhere.

At about the same time that gas prices bottomed out, the economic impacts on the State were just being predicted and Gov. Kaine ordered the cutting of $2.5 billion in the FY 2010 portion of the 6-year Capital Transportation Budget funding.

Probably since 2009 was an election year (meaning some, if not all officials would be replaced), top transportation officials apparently made a decision to try to force the issue, and included, among other actions, the closing of the Rest Areas (predicted savings $12 million). The Va Tourism Corp (VTC), who is responsible for operating the Welcome Centers, was part of the discussions. VTC agreed to the Rest Area closings and gave up only the one, small Welcome Center on I-66, providing the rest of the Welcome Centers would essentially be spared. The proposal discussions never included boots-on-the-ground members of the Hospitality and Travel industry on any level.

Most likely, the opening ‘shot across the bow’ was the temporary closing of Welcome Centers 2 days a week last fall. This would clearly be a cost saving measure, but the public’s response would also provide an indication of what to expect on the Rest Area action. The result was that most people took the closings in stride, probably because a) the Welcome Centers were still open on weekends, and b) would resume their schedules when economic conditions improved.

Unlike prior years, when funding was requested of the G/A at the beginning of the Legislative Session, Trans officials decided to present their Rest Area closing schedule ultimatum at the very last week of the G/A’s session. Comm Trans Board (CTB) meetings would be held across the State for several months before a Final Vote at the CTB’s June meeting. Their stated desire at that time, was for “solutions”, but in reality it was additional funding but on their terms.

During the meetings, several suggestions were provided both in written form and direct testimony. To date few if any have had the courtesy of an acknowledgement much less a response.

VDOT’s plans were always to place concrete barricades and chain link at entrances, and to gut the closing Rest Areas of all working equipment including such items as soap dispensers, toilet paper holders and the like.

Then all the closed buildings would demolished

June ’09 CTB Meeting: At the June meeting CTB member James Davis made a last ditch effort to keep the Rest Areas open. Advised by Sect’y Homer that if $9 million more could be found, the Rest Areas would stay open, he researched CTB Financial Reports and found $120 million in a budgeted paving funds line item that clearly would not be spent by 30 June. Davis proposed an amendment to the full Board that would transfer $9 million from that line item to the Rest Areas. The voting result was a tie. Homer then broke the tie by voting no, killing the measure. When queried, in light of his earlier position, Homer advised that he would only approve ‘new’ funds, in spite of the fact that Budget transfers occur throughout the year, thereby giving the lie to their stated positions of ‘seeking solutions’.

To Date: On the early morning of Monday 6 July signs went up on the Interstates announcing the pending closings. The response went viral before noon and has continued unabated. VDOT is being inundated with responses both from in-state and beyond.

By Tuesday 7 July, Orders had been changed. No longer were the closing buildings to be gutted. Now the Order was given to only ‘winterize’ the buildings and lock them down. No concrete barricades would be used, only temporary ones.

Looming like the iceberg that sank the Titanic, however, is the 800 pound gorilla in the whole setting, and that is truck traffic safety, which is apparently being deliberately ignored. The long distance trucking industry, whose haulers are already mandated by the Feds to take periodic rests (computerized GPS systems make monitoring and reporting much easier), will have few choices available to them. At that point, effective 21 July, the rest of the travelers could have to consider themselves ‘targets’.

Additionally, the word is out that in VDOT’s end-of-year financial analyses, well over a billion dollars in revenues, above projections, could be realized.

Summary So Far: Early on, lame duck transportation officials seemed bent on teaching members of the G/A a lesson for not raising the Gas Tax or adding other revenues to their budget. Presumably, the Rest Areas will be closed, almost certainly through the election, thus accomplishing that end.

For the Interstate travelers, truckers and users alike, however, they will only be left with prayer

Kaine’s “dog catcher” has let the cat out of the bag: “"Transportation is a self-funded agency,“ Hickey said. The governor “is not going to take money from public safety and education and social services and put it into transportation.“  Nevermind that it has been perfectly OK with Kaine, his predecessors, and the General Assembly to divert money intended for transportation to other purposes in previous years. Notice, too, Kaine’s “mouthpiece” very conveniently chose “public safety”, “education”, and “social services” - highly emotional, hot button issues all - as if they are the only areas from which money could possibly be diverted if Kaine were willing to be reasonable. Kaine and Hickey know full well that there are other areas in the state budget in which money has been allocated for far less crucial services that could be reallocated, but they persist in trying to convince the public that money could come only from those areas which they know will elicit the most visceral, emotionally-charged reactions.

Kaine and Hickey: apparently it has escaped your attention - deliberately - that the rest stops are a crucial component of public safety on the highways: a fact you conveniently choose to ignore. It would be entirely appropriate for a reasonable, caring administration to use public safety funds to continue vital public safety services. 
 
Chairman Kaine, in dire economic circumstances, will not even consider using money allocated for less crucial functions to continue the operation of rest stops crucial to motorist safety and comfort. This demonstrates, as I’ve suspected all along, that Kaine is so focused on his own selfish personal and partisan interests that he is obviously very willing to place motorist safety at risk hoping that inflicting inconvenience and danger on the public will cause Virginia votes to rise up “en masse” and demand the tax increases he so badly wants. He using the same “punish-the-citizen” tactics as his predecessor Mark Warner used in unwisely closing DMV facilities - and they should both be ashamed. 

The sooner this partisan hypocrite is out of Virginia, the better. And he should be strongly encouraged never to return - for any reason.   

The General Assembly - if it had any true leadership from any source - would be demanding to be reconvened to reallocate money from less crucial items to continue the operation of all the rest stops. Unfortunately, as both houses have demonstrated for the last several sessions, they lack both the leadership, courage, and moral compass to do what is in the best interest of the Commonwealth rather than attempting to ensure their respective re-elections “ad infinitum”.

I don’t know if you noticed or not, it will cost an estimated $570,000, just to shut them down!!

It seems that it’s costing almost as much to close down as it is to keep open!  “The state is going to mothball until at least 2011 the 18 rest areas and one welcome center slated for closure and eventual demolition because of budget cutbacks.“  If they are talking about demolishing them, then they will never reopen.  When or if they demolish it, it will cost 4 times as much to rebuild—stupid thinking.

“It’s a long shot, but Virginia officials are hoping that they will be able to find a way to reopen 19 closed rest stops on the state’s interstate highways in a couple of years.“  Who are they kidding? Don’t bet on it.  They will NEVER reopen these rest stops once they are closed.  If they do, it will cost twice as much to reopen, then they will say it’s too expensive to reopen. 

That is why I feel closing these stops is so dumb.  Good bye to your Va. tourism dollars.  “Virginia is NOT for lovers anymore.“