Dear Editor:

The July 15 PSD meeting was a sham designed to ensure that the Thrasher sewage treatment plan is sent to the DEP despite its higher cost, inherent risks and the fact that a better, cheaper, safer plan is available.  Thrasher was asked to analyze the Rigby plan by board members Amon Tracey and Mark Smith, even though Tracey said that he did not expect an impartial evaluation.  To no one’s surprise, the Thrasher engineer determined that, despite being submitted at a cost many millions less than the Thrasher plan, the Rigby plan magically ended up being about a million dollars more than Thrasher’s—just enough to support a claim that their plan was cheaper. 

Tracey, who is not the PSD Chairman, conducted the meeting much like earlier meetings when Scott Millican ran the show. No one was allowed to ask questions or respond to anything Smith and Tracey said.  Each person commenting was timed (while Tracey paid attention only to the clock), and then summarily dismissed.

Despite the reasonable protestations and requests for discussion by Shipley—the only board member who seems to care about the ratepayers—this obviously staged meeting was quickly brought to a close by Tracey. He  rudely and perhaps illegally interrupted Shipley in mid-sentence, and called for a vote.

Tracey recommended that the incomplete, inaccurate draft of Thrasher’s report on Rigby’s plan be sent to the DEP for action.  No one but the board was allowed to read it; Rigby was not given a chance to refute it—as he well could have done. Tracey and Smith, who looked embarrassed by the proceedings, voted as they had no doubt been coached to do and rushed out without any further regard for the ratepayers in attendance. Thus they avoided the many legitimate questions left unanswered.

The only people present who were not outraged, who apparently knew beforehand what was coming, then congregated on the porch, probably to congratulate themselves on having stuck it to the ratepayers. If these people get their way, the ratepayers, of course, will have to foot the bill for the developers in the valley and pay for Snowshoe’s expansion plans.

Thrasher engineer Dayton Carpenter, PSD lawyer Tom Michael, Tracey, Smith, a few developers like Russell Holt, and Snowshoe General Manager Bill Rock apparently orchestrated this meeting that showed total disregard for what is fair, reasonable and right. Snowshoe dumped a flawed plant on the former inept, gullible PSD. Two members of the current board have now compounded the fiasco through their actions.

While we all knew where the others stood from the beginning, Tracey, in particular, violated his sworn oath to represent the people in his voting.  He was told directly by the county commissioners who appointed him that in this matter his duty was to the ratepayers.  He spoke grandly in several meetings of how he cares what we think and what is right. He doesn’t. In the end he gave in to pressure and became just another sad puppet of the special interest groups.  His behavior and voting (and Smith’s) was shameful, dishonest and cowardly -- and a total betrayal of the ratepayers, who will pay for the consequences.  Ask the people from the valley who were there for the first time--not to mention the current ratepayers--what a disgrace their behavior was.

It is a sad day when the people of the county are represented by these men who lack the courage or desire to do the right thing. They surely dishonored themselves and the people they swore to represent.

Donnelle Oxley
Snowshoe Ratepayer



Dear Editor:

From my frame of reference, Durbin Days 2010 was very successful. Director Donald Peck, his Committee, and workers are to be congratulated for their efforts in making it so.

The Saturday Old Time Music Jam was its most successful to date. During the event, I was reminded of the verse in “Keep On The Sunny Side” that went: “the storm and its fury broke today.”

As I looked over the group, lightening flashed, the wind blew and the rain fell in torrents. The musicians kept playing, the singers didn’t miss a note and for the most part the audience stayed in place. At one point I thought we were going to lose the pavilion as it was both lifted from its supports, and when the wind shifted, almost blew over.

At this point I recalled the Post Office Motto of “neither rain, nor storm, nor dark of night shall stay the currier from his appointed rounds.” In our case, the Old Time Music Jam. However, as in the old song, “the storm and clouds passed away and the sun again shined bright and clear.”

Ben Poscover
Towson, Maryland