Virginia Politics-Warner tosses us a bone

I watched the news eagerly last night awaiting the "big announcement" from Gov. Warner. HEH
Artisan Center 'for all of Southwest Virginia' reads the headlines.

• Gov. Mark Warner wants to get people off Interstate 81 and into the hills of Southwest Virginia to see and buy the region’s arts and crafts. That’s why on Thursday he awarded the town a $3.1 million grant to build the Southwest Virginia Artisan Center.

NOOOO!!! Not this same old crap. Rick Boucher should of came along too and announced that a call center will placed beside the new arts center. Geeesh... We in SWVA got tossed a bone. It will be a failure and most people know this. While they are building the arts center, people here in SWVA do not have drinking water. 2005 and still no running water. This tourism crap helps my area very little. 3.1 million to help people get water, or fix schools would be better. Heck, give us broadband! The surplus of our tax dollars hard at work.

• The Artisan Center would sit atop a hill that overlooks the interstate and the town, providing a scenic view of Whitetop Mountain in the distance.
  Inside, visitors could browse through crafts areas, retail stores and artists’ studios. The center also would have a cafeteria and a tourism center to provide an anticipated 200,000 annual visitors with information on local and regional attractions.
  The community college plans to donate the eight acres of land for the center. Construction could begin in the spring and be complete by 2007.

"The community college plans to donate the eight acres of land for the center." I dont like that either. Lets take another couple acres for a "Moonshine Museum." The grants did include a work-force training and marketing program for Smyth and Washington counties priced at $900,000 with the same amount matched by local funds.
As usual, we got tossed a bone, and we here in SWVA will bend over and take it........