Carpenter’s Tools - Brace yourself! . . . . .

By Pastor Wallace Phillips – November 22nd, 2007

Plan ahead. There are only a few weeks until Christmas. I’m not telling you to plan ahead and get all your shopping done. Plan ahead to not allow the busyness of the holiday season rob you of the real purpose of this awesome day that we celebrate. Cut back. Tell your family that you’re doing so. Face the holidays with a KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid!!! That’s what I was taught about preaching and public speaking. I suppose it will work with Christmas.

The simplicity of this holiday should be our goal. We should focus on the meaning of the Christ child --- “For He shall save His people from their sins.” How do you celebrate freedom from sin by putting yourself in the bondage of tremendous expectations on your time and your resources? Brace yourself for a holiday that is different from others that you have experienced. Enjoy the focus of gratitude and thanksgiving for all that He is to you and yours. Settle down, don’t overspend, do simple things, and say “no” when you need to. KISS!


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13 Bypass - Let The Battle Begin

by Cal Bryant - November 19th, 2007 - RoanokeChowan News-Herald

But there are several flaws in the bypass proposal. For starters it makes no sense to start and end a four-lane bypass at a two-lane road. Even if the projected four-laning of US 13 from Tarheel Barbecue in Gates County all the way to Windsor does become a reality years down the road, has anybody given any thought to the fact that all this progress “bypasses” Ahoskie, the retail giant of the Roanoke-Chowan area?

Cal is a friend, but on this he is dead wrong. The bypass does not automatically hurt business or hurt our area. It really depends on the intelligence with which the bypass is built. There are two ways to build it.

One is called an Expressway, which is really not "express" at all but simply a 4 lane divided road with traffic lights, driveways and rapidly growing congestion which quickly stagnates the new road after it is built. When expressway bypasses are built, all the town's businesses frequently feel they have to move to the new road. It causes a lot of building for no gain, just disruption. This is the old way of doing things and really does not connect us to the world as it should. Most of Cal's complaints are more relevant if that is how the bypass is built.

However if the bypass is built as a Freeway, with interchanges and off ramps (like the Interstate Highways), there is little impact on making existing businesses move from their current locations. There is less impact on the whole community. The off ramps allow traffic to easily exit the high speed freeway and get to the town's existing businesses as long as off ramps are intelligently located. At the same time Freeways keep truck traffic and through traffic that is not stopping . . . off our local streets. It is an illusion to think that making people drive through downtown Ahoskie, creeping along at 35MPH, gets us any significant business we would not keep if a Freeway was built. Look at the Hitching Post in Williamston. It is a half mile off the Freeway and yet has no problem drawing traffic. That is the same distance that Ahoskie downtown would be off the Freeway Bypass if an east route is selected. Freeways are much safer than expressways as well.

Rocky Mount and Williamston were opposed to making US 64 a Freeway, and far from harming them it ignited development. To act as if US 13 will not ultimately be a part of a new north-south freeway corridor continuing down US 17 is simply short sighted. That will allow us to easily get to cities and destinations far away, linking the Inner Banks together, as well as easily bringing others to us . The north-south corridor will happen if we don't kill it. The question is whether it is built near Ahoskie and Ahoskie grows or it is driven away and Ahoskie shrivels. How can a town that grew from railroads and then died when the railroads moved away not appreciate the failure to participate in the transportation network of the times?

Across America rural and small town areas that have fought freeways are shrinking and shriveling up. Towns which either welcomed freeways or had them forced upon them are growing dramatically. The only counties that are shrinking in North Carolina are the ones not served by a freeway. All other counties are growing. America is still growing every year and we must allow for growth here or there will be no jobs for our children or places for them to build homes. Freeways are a necessity for modern life.

The only chance we have for a decent future is if the bypass is built and built as a Freeway. Cal is right that we need to contact our representatives. Contact the members of the Hertford County Board of Commissioners; phone NCDOT (919-733-3141); call NC House Representative Annie Mobley (919-733-5780), State Senator Ed Jones (919-715-3032) and State Senator Marc Basnight (919-733-6854). Tell them we want a future for Ahoskie.

Tell them to build the bypass and build it as a Freeway.

Bypass Battle

by Cal Bryant - November 16th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

“They (DOT) call this progress, but uprooting families and forcing them to leave their land is not progress in my opinion,” Garry Terry, one of the “No Bypass” organizers, said. “People will be forced from their homes to build a road that is not needed in the first place.”

A road that is not needed? That is the attitude of opponents of the U.S. 13 bypass for Ahoskie. Absolutely nothing of the advantages of a bypass being part of a North-South freeway ever gets through to the opponents. No matter how often it is pointed out that the anti-growth attitude of many in this area really is indicative of an underlying hatred for our state and our nation and arguably for others in our community, the message does not get through. The future is going to happen and it will include growth. We have to prepare for it, not stop it.

Where are the children of our local citizens going to work? "Not here" is the answer because growth here is not allowed. Therefore the children have to leave the area to find jobs and places to live.

The bigotry comes when the children come back to visit and the same opponents of growth talk wistfully of how they "wish there was a job for you around here so you could be close". They don't mean it. There are no jobs and homes for our children because the majority of the area stopped most growth in past years. And many still want to continue this same attitude in the future. Demanding that we "keep things the way they are" is simply a way of saying, "get my children out of here so I can live like I want without caring about what happens to them. Let someone else worry about their future. I don't."

Don't we at least have some obligation to build roads that make it easy to visit in the future? How about jobs in the future? How about places for new homes for our children's future?

Because that is what this "Bypass Battle" is about. The future. Not just the future for Ahoskie. The future for Eastern North Carolina. There are a great number of people who hate slowing down to a 35 MPH crawl through Ahoskie when they are passing by going South. Do they ever matter to local people who oppose the bypass? The NO 13 BYPASS people claim they are all going to Greenville. Not true. The explosive growth in our area is Washington and New Bern and the water areas of the Inner Banks. That is the future we need to prepare for. Greenville as a destination is all about the desires of local people, not the majority of the people who use US 13 or will use it in the future.

Another quote from this article is by Powellsville farmer Kent Williams whose farm is just below the temporary termination point of the proposed bypass. "The bypass will destroy my way of life as well as other farmers" Williams said. "And for what? A road that isn’t needed."

Destroy a way of life? All over America there are millions of farms right next to freeways and they do not "destroy a way of life". Such an exaggeration concerns me. The future is coming. The only question is whether we will be prepared for it or not? Kent complains about the amount of traffic on the road in front of his farm but is opposed to the only thing that will ever move that traffic somewhere else to a road that is better and safer for the people driving on it. Long term it will also make his road quieter and safer.

Do people in the anti-growth groups acknowledge any responsibility to society for preparing for the future? Anti-growth people have not stopped having babies. They just don't care about the future they are creating for their babies. Doesn't that mean the message they are really giving their children (and the rest of us) is "Screw you"?

Rural America is going to be the focus of growth for the next 20 years. A recent article here talks about the reasons onshoring is replacing offshoring and what that will do for America. The only question is whether anti-growth people in rural communities will ever allow the growth or continue to drive it offshore. How many more jobs do they want to send to Bangalore?

Make U.S. 13 Bypass A Freeway - Not An Expressway

Yesterday from 4 to 7 PM at the Jernigan Building on the Roanoke Chowan Community College campus, the NC DOT held a meeting to solicit public opinion about the alternatives for the U.S. 13 Bypass of Ahoskie.



There was a good turnout for the event


This is a road project paid for with federal money that will benefit the entire Inner Banks region as a part of a planned North South high speed corridor from Virginia to South Carolina using U.S. 13 and U.S. 17. It will be a major economic boon for Ahoskie, Windsor, Williamston, Washington, Jacksonville and Wilmington, much as I95 has helped the region just to our west.



Two of the really helpful DOT executives present were Win Bridgers, Division Engineer and Barry Hobbs, Division Project Manager


There are two controversies going on with regard to this proposal. One has to do with which road the money is spent on. The other has to do with the type of road to be built.

Let's deal with the type of road first. You can read an article that explains the difference between Expressway and Freeway by clicking here.

A quick explanation of the type of roads is that an Expressway is a local divided highway with driveways, intersections, traffic lights and left turns. A Freeway is what they build when they build an Interstate, with bridges, no intersections, off ramps to slow down and allows sustained high speed travel safely. Freeways are up to 17 times safer than Expressways. Our region needs access to high speed freeways to allow us to get to far away points faster and safer, as well as to allow others to come here faster and safer. A freeway is cheaper than an expressway which widens existing roads and a freeway has significantly less impact on the local community.




Bob Spivey, Mayor of Windsor, Wallace Perry, Bertie County Commissioner and Zee Lamb, Bertie County Manger, discuss the information provided


The second controversy has to do with the plan Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners support on behalf of some of their population which is opposed to the overall plan for the region.

Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners have decided that rather than having a North South high speed corridor for the entire region, they want to make it easy for local Ahoskie people to drive to Greenville instead. A local group No on U.S. 13 Bypass has been formed to support the commissioners. They propose that the federal money for the U.S. 13 bypass be given up in hopes that they can persuade the State of North Carolina to give Ahoskie money to widen NC 11 all the way to Bethel as an Expressway. Forget the fact that an Expressway is vastly more lethal than a freeway and that the project to widen NC is vastly more expensive that the Ahoskie Bypass since it is more than twice as many miles. Those issues are important but ignored by Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners. In addition it is ignored that giving up this money probably ends for 2 or 3 generations ever getting a high speed North South corridor completed for Eastern North Carolina.

There is at least a secondary question of whether this NC 11 plan does not harm the business community of Ahoskie and Hertford County, even if this complex money swap giving up certain federal money for a hoped for state subsidy had any political chance of success. Doesn't this encourage people to take their money and spend it in Greenville instead of spending it in Ahoskie? Doesn't it mean that the chance to draw more businesses like Walmart to Ahoskie is damaged? Do the local Commissioners grasp that? Does the local business community understand that the NC 11 proposal may hurt them badly?




Map showing various optional paths to bypass Ahoskie


However even though Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners support this plan, why would anyone think that the rest of Eastern North Carolina would not resent their sabotaging the North South Corridor plan that benefits all? Can you give me any reason anyone else should back efforts to support the proposal to swap federal money for state money when it kills the high speed corridor that all have been waiting for? How does it benefit anyone but Hertford County?

Two high speed road projects will benefit huge parts of our region well beyond the immediate area of Hertford County. These two projects are; making U.S. 13 a freeway from Virginia down to Windsor and making U.S. 158 a freeway from I95 to Winton. The continued widening of U.S. 17 as a freeway will support the North South high speed corridor and benefit eco-tourism and historical tourism for all Eastern North Carolina. Ahoskie and Hertford County Commissioners should support the long term plan to build these high speed connections for the region.



A great number of the people present were, like these citizens, concerned about whether the roads would impact their personal property


The proposal to build a highway that benefits nothing but local shoppers who want to leave the area to shop just doesn't make sense . . . regionally or locally. Build a freeway bypass around Ahoskie.

Carpenter’s Tools - Be reminded! . . . .

By Pastor Wallace Phillips – November 11th, 2007

A lady approached me in the post office of our town this past week. With a smile on her face, she said, “Thank you….thank you so much!” Her smile continued and I wondered what this dear lady was thankful for. I could not recall doing a good deed, stopping to assist her, or anything that involved her. She continued, “I just want to thank you.” She explained her gratitude of riding in to Ahoskie every day and being reminded by our billboards that “nothing is too hard for God”.

Where are you? Are you in a place that seems impossible? Wondering how you got where you are? Has the doctor said, “I’m sorry, but it’s cancer?” Are you facing the financial pressure of the end of another year with it’s holiday expectations? Are you alone? Just where are you today; in this season of your life? Let me remind you that there is nothing that is too hard for Him. Scripture reminds us that “with men some things are impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Faith is the key that unlocks the doors that are closed in our lives so many times. And the doors don’t always swing open. Sometimes we have to wait. Be reminded that nothing that you are facing or will ever face is too difficult for God. Visit our website at www.nothingstoohardforGod.org. You will find amazing stories of lives that have been miraculously touched by His power.

Thanks for reading and have a faith-filled day.

Please visit us on the web at http://www.cscministries.com/ or http://www.wallacephillips.org/

Inner Banks Laughter - Political Humor

Democrats Demand Respect

FTE Formula Fails To Add-up To $700,000 Deficit

by Cal Bryant - October 31, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

The figures do not add up.

At the Aug. 28 meeting of the Roanoke-Chowan Community College (RCCC) Board of Trustees, college president Dr. Ralph Soney broke the news of a $700,000 deficit in the school’s 2007-08 budget.

Dr. Soney explained that the majority of the deficit was tied to the loss of FTE (Full Time Equivalent) money RCCC receives annually from the state community college system for each student who is taking 16 hours of class instruction per semester for two semesters.

According to Dr. Soney, 22 FTE’s were lost in the area of Curriculum and three in Literacy (Basic Skills). He said drastic measures were necessary to balance the budget.

Cal then goes on to show that the loss was, " . . . a net FTE deficit of $87,106.16. That figure is a far cry from the $700,000 deficit Dr. Soney first reported in August."

What goes on here? Is there something going on that means some educators can't do simple math? Or is the RCCC President simply manipulating public opinion to fire some people he wants to fire?

Something just doesn't smell right in this situation. Someone needs to provide some credible information about loss of revenue or admit that RCCC is deceiving the public.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention Cal.

Inner Banks Laughter - Political Humor

If you want to read Maureen Dowd making a parody of her own triteness, or Stephen Colbert making a parody of his own superficiality, you have to read this column. Dowd asked Colbert to write her column . . . and then let him actually do it.

After each made fun of the other for symptoms of alcoholism, they did their usual schtick. It is actually funny. Click on the title above or here to enjoy it all.


by Maureen Dowd - November 2nd, 2007 - The New York Times

He [Stephen Colbert] was sneering that Times columns make good “kindling.” He was ranting that after you throw away the paper, “it takes over a hundred years for the lies to biodegrade.”

by Stephen Colbert - November 2nd, 2007 - The New York Times

Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

So why I am writing Miss Dowd’s column today? Simple. Because I believe the 2008 election, unlike all previous elections, is important.

The liberal who mocks being a liberal . . . .
The liberal who mocks being a conservative . . . .
These two now mock themselves. It has to be worth a laugh.