Open letter to John Raese

John Raese owns Greer Industries, a major industry in Morgantown. His companies also own the Dominion-Post, the only daily newspaper in town, and most of the local radio stations. He wrote a full-page letter in the newspaper to E. Gordon Gee, the president of West Virginia University, decrying the Morgantown City Council's failed attempt to block big trucks (typically working with Greer's gravel mining operations) from the city's streets. He also blames the council for banning (or trying to ban) fracking in the city limits. Apparently a WVU law professor helped with the lawsuits.

Here's my response to John Raese:

Dear Mr. Raese:

I read your letter in The Dominion-Post July 19. You raise some interesting points about Morgantown's City Council, the use of WVU employees as outside counsel, and the nature of freedom, capitalism and liberty.

No one is denying the contribution of your companies and your family to the economy and life of this city. Where I differ with you is the idea that capitalism is the only thing that matters, and that corporations have a final say in how things go.

People want their city to be clean and healthful. Yes, the truck ban was heavy-handed, and the courts ruled it illegal. Still, pollution levels from diesel trucks are too high along Beechurst Avenue and in the center city. The noise along Brockway Avenue from trucks makes it difficult to live there. Driving out Earl Core Rd. is harrowing in a car on a narrow road with giant trucks coming at you or behind you.

This is not the Morgantown of fifty years ago, or even ten years ago. We are now a bustling small metropolis, and people want to live in a clean and safe environment in their city. No one is attacking your liberty or the capitalist system. We, because I include myself, want to live in a more people-friendly environment. Perhaps we could come to a compromise. Trucks could be retrofitted to produce less toxic fumes. There are proposals to upgrade Greenbag Road as a bypass around the center city for trucks. I know weight limits are an issue, especially when carrying stone, but perhaps smaller trucks or less loaded trucks could be used that would be acceptable on the Interstates. Maybe new U.S. routes 19, 119 and State Road 7 routes could be built around the city, and the local streets could revert to the City of Morgantown.

As to fracking, in the Dominion-Post  on the same day your full-page letter appeared, there was an article on the front page from the Associated Press about a study in JAMA Internal Medicine, showing that people living near fracking sites were four times as likely as those living farther away to have asthma. Noise and light pollution are a problem with fracking sites, and water wells are at risk. Acceptable ways to dispose of waste from fracking are not in place. We in Morgantown have a right to worry about pollution and our health and that of our children. Our liberty and our freedom are at stake.

My point is that capitalism in our society does not have the final say. Of course it is important, the basis of our economy, but people everywhere generally, including in Morgantown, have a right to regulate capitalism, to make sure our physical environment and quality of life are not sacrificed so some can make money.

Barry Wendell
1319 Heritage Pl.
Morgantown, WV 26505-2426