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cachenut
Guest
Here is my reposne to a request from COVA and APVA for their members to contact the budget committee. It has come down to funding or not funding this bill and many more positions. If funded the positions will be filled with anti detecting archaeologists and our hobby will suffer. Please PLEASE email call or fax the budget committee members to reduce COVA funding. It will help.
I stressed the money issues in my response since this is what the budget committee deals with.
====================================
[email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected]
Dear Sir:
I wrote to ask you not to fund HB2078 or support budget amendments 396 and 397. They are expensive and unneeded. The efforts are misdirected and costly.
All the laws supporting HB2078 were struck from the bill because they were improper. Why then fund a position to accomplish the same improper tasks? It is wasteful. Based on the content of Bill 1500 the position of state archaeologist will have all of DHR reporting to this position. Why create another level of bureaucracy? It is waste full and expensive. This position was denied to COVA for the last ten years. Why fund a position that was rejected for ten years as wrong? It will be wasteful. Please spend the money instead on something helpful such as free clinics. People die every week in Virginia because they do not have access to proper medical care. Save a few lives and let DHR and COVA people work a little harder.
The amendments also establish one or more positions of easement coordinator. As I understand it this is a person whose job is to spend more money. This does not make sense if you practice fiscal responsibility. Other states and localities have done this and then dropped the programs as too expensive and wasteful. Why not just do it now and save the money? To be honest there are plenty of people who would sign the easements for nothing. Why spend the money since it will just become a bonus program for wealthy owners of historic homes? Or if the archaeologists get involved it will become a program to eliminate relic hunting by pursuing easements on private property. Please do not fund these positions so you can spend Virginia?s state money wisely. Much of this tax money was collected from people who can not even afford to buy a home in Virginia much less an historic one. How will this benefit them?
I also noted two positions for Information Technology specialists. Didn?t you just spend several hundred thousands of dollars building a software system for DHR? Why do they now need two information technology specialists to maintain or use the programs they built? Is there something wrong with these systems? Yes. Then why give the same people who messed up more money? Won?t they just mess up again? Yes. Archaeologists are not programmers. After 30 years in the computer field I assure you if you give funding to non computer people to build systems you WILL end up with systems that do not work well. Do you let your plumber work on your car? Of course not. Okay, lets have a contractor do it but they will report to DHR. I see, now the archaeologist is a project manager for software development. This should work well, not. As described in the COVA meeting minutes these positions are to do data entry and fix a poorly working software system.
It seems to be the goal of COVA and others to list the entire state in an index of protected sites. They do not need to control every piece of property in Virginia with artifacts. To accomplish the real goals of archaeology you only need to study a few representative sites. Why then so much emphasis on artifact looting and more staff and more computer systems and more laws? Because COVA and others want to control as many historic sites in Virginia as they can. Well, all of Virginia is historic.
Please set some limits on these people by reducing their funding for un-needed positions.
The greatest sin of our federal and state legislatures is all the money they spend that does not benefit the people the tax money was collected from.
Please do not fund waste!
Joe Wolfe
Winchester Virginia
==========================================
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New COVA and AVPA actions.
Posted By: Joe Wolfe
Date: Saturday, 19 February 2005, at 12:28 a.m.
Both senate and house have their own budget bills. Once they pass then a committee tries to reconcile the two and then they vote on the one budget. The governor also has changes that get put in at some point.
I've gotten no responses from representatives in 5 days now so either they are ignoring or deleting my messages. Or else just not responding.
Now is a good time to call your delegate and senator and try to talk to them or leave a messsage. Budget is the key issue.
This is what APVA and COVA are doing. Relic hunters should be against all of 396 and 397 where easements are used to restrict relic hunting. Call these reps below even if you are not in their district cause they are working for eveyone when they work on the budget. This is the budget committee. Do it or lose it.
from APVA ============================
If your Senator or Delegate is on the list of budget conferees below, it is extremely important that you contact them and ask them to support certain funding proposals for the Department of Historic Resources, Historic Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, and the preservation of state owned buildings.
PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE CONFEREE(S) UNLESS YOU LIVE IN THEIR DISTRICT(S).
If you need help identifying your legislator, Press ?Ctrl? and click on this link http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform .
Telephone calls or faxes should be made/sent to the conferees as soon as possible, as time is running out. Emails are not effective. When making contact, please state that you are a constituent.
For faxes, you can simply print your name and address on page two (2) of this alert and fax it to your legislator. FAXES ARE PREFERRED.
We apologize for the short notice, but the conferees have just been appointed and begun their deliberations.
House Conferees:
Vince Callahan - Fairfax
804.698.1034
Fax: 804.786.6310
Lacey Putney - Bedford
804.698.1019
Fax: 804.786.6310
Phil Hamilton ? Newport News
804.698.1093
Fax: 804.643.2201
Kirk Cox - Chesterfield
804.698.1066
Fax: 804.786.6310
Leo Wardrup ? Virginia Beach
804.698.1083
Fax: 804.786.6310
Johnny Joannou - Portsmouth
804.698.1079
Fax: 804.698.7651
Senate Conferees:
John Chichester ? Northern Neck
804.698.7528
Fax: 804.698.7651
Charles Colgan ? Prince William
804.698.7529
Fax: 804.698.7651
William Wampler - Bristol
804.698.7540
Fax: 804.698.7651
Walter Stosch - Henrico
804.698.7512
Fax: 804.527.7740
Edd Houck - Fredericksburg
804.698.7517
Fax: 804.698.7651
APVA Preservation Virginia urges your SUPPORT of the following budget items:
Item 396 #1h ? Dept. of Historic Resources - State Archaeologist Position This position is vital to promote and protect Virginia?s archaeological resources. Restoring this position has been the primary objective of the
archaeological community for the past decade.
Item 397 #3s ? Dept. of Historic Resources - Easement Program Coordinator DHR?s Easement Program permanently protects privately owned landmarks. Unless this proposal is funded, DHR will be unable to accept new easements or manage responsibly its current easement inventory.
Item 397 #4s ? Dept. of Historic Resources - Information Technology Employees
The Senate budget amendment creates two additional information technology
positions within DHR. Without sufficient full time staff at DHR, the system
will not be able to keep up with the needs of DHR or the agencies it serves.
Item 530.10 #1s ? Grant for Historic Jamestowne?
The Senate budget amendment grants $400,000 for continuing work on Historic
Jamestowne. These funds are needed to help prepare Historic Jamestowne for the
2007 celebrations.
Item 383 #8s ? Virginia Land Conservation Foundation
The Senate budget amendment provides a one-time appropriation of $20 million for
land conservation efforts. Under the statutory formula governing the Virginia
Land Conservation Foundation, some $3.75 million (of the $20M total) would be
available for preservation of historic areas.
Item C-3.10 #1s, C-3.15 #1h ? Development of State-Owned Property Historic preservation advocates, the Department of Historic Resources, and the Department of General Services have developed compromise budget language calling for a full assessment of the historical value of the 8th and 9th Street Office Buildings and their rehabilitation potential prior to further development of their location. Due to the significance and beauty of these buildings, the compromise budget language is an urgent priority.
===========================================
If you live in these districts call to express your view and to say no to 396 and parts of 397. I suggest you let them know even if you do not live in their districts. They represent all virginians not just their district in this.
Post Response | Return to Index | Read Prev Msg
NVRHA RELIC HUNTING FORUM is maintained by NVRHA with WebBBS 4.02.
I stressed the money issues in my response since this is what the budget committee deals with.
====================================
[email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected]
Dear Sir:
I wrote to ask you not to fund HB2078 or support budget amendments 396 and 397. They are expensive and unneeded. The efforts are misdirected and costly.
All the laws supporting HB2078 were struck from the bill because they were improper. Why then fund a position to accomplish the same improper tasks? It is wasteful. Based on the content of Bill 1500 the position of state archaeologist will have all of DHR reporting to this position. Why create another level of bureaucracy? It is waste full and expensive. This position was denied to COVA for the last ten years. Why fund a position that was rejected for ten years as wrong? It will be wasteful. Please spend the money instead on something helpful such as free clinics. People die every week in Virginia because they do not have access to proper medical care. Save a few lives and let DHR and COVA people work a little harder.
The amendments also establish one or more positions of easement coordinator. As I understand it this is a person whose job is to spend more money. This does not make sense if you practice fiscal responsibility. Other states and localities have done this and then dropped the programs as too expensive and wasteful. Why not just do it now and save the money? To be honest there are plenty of people who would sign the easements for nothing. Why spend the money since it will just become a bonus program for wealthy owners of historic homes? Or if the archaeologists get involved it will become a program to eliminate relic hunting by pursuing easements on private property. Please do not fund these positions so you can spend Virginia?s state money wisely. Much of this tax money was collected from people who can not even afford to buy a home in Virginia much less an historic one. How will this benefit them?
I also noted two positions for Information Technology specialists. Didn?t you just spend several hundred thousands of dollars building a software system for DHR? Why do they now need two information technology specialists to maintain or use the programs they built? Is there something wrong with these systems? Yes. Then why give the same people who messed up more money? Won?t they just mess up again? Yes. Archaeologists are not programmers. After 30 years in the computer field I assure you if you give funding to non computer people to build systems you WILL end up with systems that do not work well. Do you let your plumber work on your car? Of course not. Okay, lets have a contractor do it but they will report to DHR. I see, now the archaeologist is a project manager for software development. This should work well, not. As described in the COVA meeting minutes these positions are to do data entry and fix a poorly working software system.
It seems to be the goal of COVA and others to list the entire state in an index of protected sites. They do not need to control every piece of property in Virginia with artifacts. To accomplish the real goals of archaeology you only need to study a few representative sites. Why then so much emphasis on artifact looting and more staff and more computer systems and more laws? Because COVA and others want to control as many historic sites in Virginia as they can. Well, all of Virginia is historic.
Please set some limits on these people by reducing their funding for un-needed positions.
The greatest sin of our federal and state legislatures is all the money they spend that does not benefit the people the tax money was collected from.
Please do not fund waste!
Joe Wolfe
Winchester Virginia
==========================================
Post Response | Return to Index | Read Prev Msg
New COVA and AVPA actions.
Posted By: Joe Wolfe
Date: Saturday, 19 February 2005, at 12:28 a.m.
Both senate and house have their own budget bills. Once they pass then a committee tries to reconcile the two and then they vote on the one budget. The governor also has changes that get put in at some point.
I've gotten no responses from representatives in 5 days now so either they are ignoring or deleting my messages. Or else just not responding.
Now is a good time to call your delegate and senator and try to talk to them or leave a messsage. Budget is the key issue.
This is what APVA and COVA are doing. Relic hunters should be against all of 396 and 397 where easements are used to restrict relic hunting. Call these reps below even if you are not in their district cause they are working for eveyone when they work on the budget. This is the budget committee. Do it or lose it.
from APVA ============================
If your Senator or Delegate is on the list of budget conferees below, it is extremely important that you contact them and ask them to support certain funding proposals for the Department of Historic Resources, Historic Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, and the preservation of state owned buildings.
PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE CONFEREE(S) UNLESS YOU LIVE IN THEIR DISTRICT(S).
If you need help identifying your legislator, Press ?Ctrl? and click on this link http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform .
Telephone calls or faxes should be made/sent to the conferees as soon as possible, as time is running out. Emails are not effective. When making contact, please state that you are a constituent.
For faxes, you can simply print your name and address on page two (2) of this alert and fax it to your legislator. FAXES ARE PREFERRED.
We apologize for the short notice, but the conferees have just been appointed and begun their deliberations.
House Conferees:
Vince Callahan - Fairfax
804.698.1034
Fax: 804.786.6310
Lacey Putney - Bedford
804.698.1019
Fax: 804.786.6310
Phil Hamilton ? Newport News
804.698.1093
Fax: 804.643.2201
Kirk Cox - Chesterfield
804.698.1066
Fax: 804.786.6310
Leo Wardrup ? Virginia Beach
804.698.1083
Fax: 804.786.6310
Johnny Joannou - Portsmouth
804.698.1079
Fax: 804.698.7651
Senate Conferees:
John Chichester ? Northern Neck
804.698.7528
Fax: 804.698.7651
Charles Colgan ? Prince William
804.698.7529
Fax: 804.698.7651
William Wampler - Bristol
804.698.7540
Fax: 804.698.7651
Walter Stosch - Henrico
804.698.7512
Fax: 804.527.7740
Edd Houck - Fredericksburg
804.698.7517
Fax: 804.698.7651
APVA Preservation Virginia urges your SUPPORT of the following budget items:
Item 396 #1h ? Dept. of Historic Resources - State Archaeologist Position This position is vital to promote and protect Virginia?s archaeological resources. Restoring this position has been the primary objective of the
archaeological community for the past decade.
Item 397 #3s ? Dept. of Historic Resources - Easement Program Coordinator DHR?s Easement Program permanently protects privately owned landmarks. Unless this proposal is funded, DHR will be unable to accept new easements or manage responsibly its current easement inventory.
Item 397 #4s ? Dept. of Historic Resources - Information Technology Employees
The Senate budget amendment creates two additional information technology
positions within DHR. Without sufficient full time staff at DHR, the system
will not be able to keep up with the needs of DHR or the agencies it serves.
Item 530.10 #1s ? Grant for Historic Jamestowne?
The Senate budget amendment grants $400,000 for continuing work on Historic
Jamestowne. These funds are needed to help prepare Historic Jamestowne for the
2007 celebrations.
Item 383 #8s ? Virginia Land Conservation Foundation
The Senate budget amendment provides a one-time appropriation of $20 million for
land conservation efforts. Under the statutory formula governing the Virginia
Land Conservation Foundation, some $3.75 million (of the $20M total) would be
available for preservation of historic areas.
Item C-3.10 #1s, C-3.15 #1h ? Development of State-Owned Property Historic preservation advocates, the Department of Historic Resources, and the Department of General Services have developed compromise budget language calling for a full assessment of the historical value of the 8th and 9th Street Office Buildings and their rehabilitation potential prior to further development of their location. Due to the significance and beauty of these buildings, the compromise budget language is an urgent priority.
===========================================
If you live in these districts call to express your view and to say no to 396 and parts of 397. I suggest you let them know even if you do not live in their districts. They represent all virginians not just their district in this.
Post Response | Return to Index | Read Prev Msg
NVRHA RELIC HUNTING FORUM is maintained by NVRHA with WebBBS 4.02.
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