The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-02-11
Still In The Dark

Much has been said about the weather,
for weather is something we have with us
always Some stages of it we like better
than others, but regardless of the kind OF
weather, there is little we can do about 1t.
Rains, SHOWS and sleets will come and
often times cause damage. Ashe and Allie
ghanv counties experienced heavy sleet
recently. And as to be expected this caused
considerable damage, particularly to TIM
Der, fruit trees, light and telephone lines.
Most people realized the seriousness OF
weather conditions and of course were
neither surprised nor impatient about linn
tied service. But when the lack of cleo
tricity continued for seven and eight days
in some sections several people reported
to this office that they were "still in the
dark about why it took such long time
to get their lines back into service. And
who would not be? Some people in these
sections had electrically controlled fur
naces and no other means of heating their
homes and MANY of them had little or no
means of furnishing light. They reported
their kerosene was out and so were their
stamps, and many of them were at the
end of their patience. Who would not have
been? We imagine that even Mr.. Messlck
would have had something to say had he
been in their position.
We believe the linesmen worked as
hard as humanity possible to restore service
as quickly as possible. But we believe, too
that we had too few linesmen on the job
And since the lines were thrown so badly
out of commission we are wondering again
if some of the fault did not lie with the
construction and not with the weather. We
realize of course, that the recent sleet
caused some damage to the best of lines
But if the lines in Ashe and Allegheny had
been properly erected we believe the dam
age would have been much less and service
could have been restored much earlier. In
fact we were told this on good authority
by parties associated with the cooperative
Since that is the case, why doesn't the
management of the cooperative have the
system checked over and all possible cor
rections made in order that the members
may have the service for which they are
paying?
We are still in the dark too about the
financial standing of the cooperative. We
still hope that it is getting along fine, but
we still know nothing about it. Inspite of
Superintendent Messick's statement in his
recent bulletin that he would furnish us
with financial statement for publication,
we have not received it. We have also re-
quested it from President Sullivan, but
neither has he complied with our request.
We believe in rural identification, but
we believe also that sound management is
not only important but necessary for the
success of REA. We are slightly in the
dark about dinner given by the REA CO.
operatives of N. c. for the members of the
legislature last week. We are told that
this dinner was paid for by the coopera-
tives An enjoyable occasion it was, am
sure, for the several hundred who attend
ed, but isn't that form of lobbying? Is
this wise way to spend the money of the
members of the cooperatives? Or have
some of the cooperatives found it wise to
seek special favor of our legislators for
some proposed special legislation? We re-
peat, we are in the dark about this matter.
We do believe, however, that most of the