Chamber News

Congressman Rick Boucher Holds Open Forum - Stuart

Ninth district Congressman Rick Boucher held an Open Forum for the general public on the morning July 16, 2010 in Downtown Stuart at the Star Theatre. He made a speech and gave opportunity for questions from the audience

Congressman Rick Boucher Holds Town Hall Meeting-Stuart- July 16, 2010 The press was there to interview him and take statements. They included, Richard Rogers, News Reporter from WHEO, 1270 AM, and Nancy Lindsey from The Enterprise of Stuart. This report was prepared by Tom Bishop, Executive Director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Boucher discussed many issues including: 1. High Speed DSL Services being expanded in Patrick County, at his urging of CenturyLink. Particular emphasis was given to work in the Woolwine (serving 300 homes) and Claudville areas. 2. His jobs program in "Showcasing Southwest Virginia", which included bringing the Results Call Center to Stuart, now providing over 300 jobs and becoming the largest private sector employer in Patrick County. 3. His work with Direct TV (TV Satellite Company) to bring Virtual Call Center jobs to Southwest Virginia. 137 jobs have been created and this could possibly go to 1000 jobs. These jobs allow employees to work from home using High Speed Internet services and save expenses for both employees and the company. Does not require the company building or purchasing facilities, and employees do not have to commute to work. He projects some of the people in Patrick County have benefited from this. 4. Spoke of his work in Claudville to make use of White Spaces on an experimental basis using former TV space.. It has been very successful. His hope is the FCC will expand use of White Spaces based on the Claudville experiment. 5. He spoke of the new Step, Inc. office in Stuart which helped to obtain financing for. This is a Community Action program with 22 different kinds of services helping people in the lower income category. Primary programs are Head Start and Meals on Wheels. 6. He spoke of the First Responder programs that have come to Ararat, Patrick Springs and the Patrick County Sheriff Department. 7. He told of the new Veteran’s Cemetery available to veterans and spouses in Dublin, VA. It is under construction now at a cost of $7.5 million on a 100 acre site. Applications for this cemetery are available now. He fielded questions concerning: 1. Cap and Trade Legislation - He explained why he supported this legislation. His big concern is the action by EPA under Bush and Obama administration to put stringent rules on coal fired power plants which would very negatively impact rates of electricity and jobs in the coal industry. 2. Health Care Legislation. - He explained why he voted against this because of the impact to Senior Citizens in the Ninth District. 3. Arizona Immigration legislation - He supports this action by Arizona Legislature. He does not support the Amnesty program for illegal aliens. 4. Blue Ridge Heritage - He shared the progress of this project intended to bring economic development to Floyd and Patrick County in the neighborhood of Rocky Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He obtained $1.2 million for a grant study which was concluded about 6 months ago. The intent is to get people off the Blue Ridge Parkway into the Floyd and Patrick Communities for such things as an old mill tour, wine tour, covered bridge tour or farm tour. 5. One constituent ask about help for Seniors who have experienced a reduction in CD interest rates from 5% down to 1%. He explained this as one of the symptoms of the economy we are in. It should get better as the economy improves. 6. His approach to creating new jobs is provide targeted tax credits for businesses and investment tax credits. He gave a Galax furniture operation owned by John Bassett who was able to computerize the factory, making it more efficient, which came about by tax credits. 7. He is determined to do something about the budget deficit using the “Brack Process�, where budget reductions are reviewed in mass and given an “Up� or “Down� vote by the entire Congress without debate. He sponsored a bill to do this. 8. He stated his support for the NRA and gun owners. 9. He does not support the “Slaughter Rule�, where something is “deemed� to have passed.