NORTHWEST ALABAMIAN
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Copyright © 2007 Mid-South Newspapers, Inc. • P.O. Box 430 • Haleyville, Alabama 35565  All rights reserved.
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The Northwest Alabamian is a member of the Alabama Press Association.
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The Northwest Alabamian gladly accepts letters to the editor on issues of pertinent interest to our readers. This is your open forum to express your opinions, but we do have a few guidelines we ask you to follow:
1. All letters must be signed with an address. Names will be printed with the letter in the NWA. No letters will be printed without a name.
2. We reserve the right to edit letters without changing the tone of message. Corrections in grammar, spelling and proper English usage will be made if we deem them necessary.
3. Please keep letters as brief as possible. (Example: two typed pages, double-spaced,
or three handwritten pages).
4. No letter containing slanderous or libelous material will be published.
5. The NWA editorial page is for opinions and comments. Editorials, articles, cartoons, or letters are the opinions of the writers whose names are included, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the newspaper and its employees.
6. The NWA tries to report news fairly and accurately. If we fall short of that objective, we welcome complaints from our readers.
7.We do not knowingly make misstatements of fact. If we find we have, we will gladly make a correction in the next issue.
The Northwest Alabamian is published semi-weekly, except weekly Christmas and New Year’s when only the Wednesday edition is published at 1506 21st Street, Highway 195 East, P.O. Box 430, Haleyville, AL, 35565. Phone 205-486-9461. Entered as periodicals at the Post Office at Haleyville, AL 35565. Annual subscription rate is $33.05 for one year or $24 for six months for Winston County; $37.50 per year or $26 per six months for adjoining counties. Subscriptions for senior citizens (Winston Co. only) are $29 for one year or $20 for six months. All others are $49.50 per year or $30 for six months. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGE TO P. O. BOX 430, HALEYVILLE, AL 35565
The opinions of editorial columnists or opinions reflected in Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the official editorial opinion of this newspaper.
Northwest Alabamian
Letters to the Editor Policy
Horace Moore
Publisher
Phillip Brooks
Production Manager
Mike Moore
General Manager
Melica Allen
Managing Editor
Roger Carden
Advertising Director
If you have a
Letter to the Editor,
please send it to:
NWA
P.O. Box 430
Haleyville, AL  35565
Make sure the letter has the
handwritten signature of its author.
Opinions
Do you have an opinion about something in your community? Write us and share with everyone!
)
Columnist Steve Flowers’ recent hyperbole regarding the Alabama Supreme Court column cannot go unremarked. He said folks couldn’t get a remedy there if a doctor wrongly cut off an arm or leg. It’s flatly untrue.
 Knowledgeable folks know the court is conservative/moderate. If it were a steak, it’d be medium well.
 Trial lawyers and other wild-eyed liberals can complain about the ExxonMobil decision until doomsday, but it was correct. They’re using that decision (with which every major newspaper agreed) to try to elect a liberal pawn.
Trial lawyers vowed after the Year 2000 judicial elections to regain the Supreme Court and return it to those thrilling days of yesteryear when they rode the court like a horse and milked it like a cow. They promulgated a 10-year plan to regain the court, and sadly it is working.
There’s a remedy for an unjust decision by the State Supreme Court. Any case can be appealed. The charge by Flowers is about as true as a trial lawyer’s moral compass. He stepped way over the line.
Wild accusations like this must be answered and the record set straight. Conscientious newspapers provide a right to reply.
AVALA would like demonstrable proof of any such heinous decision the court has made, and we’d back away. But we keep a close watch.
AVALA believes in the jury system and that anyone harmed through no fault of his/her own should be reasonably compensated, including fair punitive damages. We don’t lobby the legislature or donate to candidates.
Skip Tucker
Director
Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse 
P.O. Box 2847
Montgomery, AL 36102-2487
334/263-0052
The NWA editorial page is for opinions and
comments. Editorials, articles, cartoons, or letters are the opinions of the writers whose names are included, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the newspaper and its employees.
Smelling the Flowers
)
Recent reports by the Federal Highway Administration indicate that 12 percent of our nation’s bridges are so blatantly deteriorated that they must be rigorously inspected and quickly repaired.
While this statistic is certainly alarming, it pales when compared to the deterioration of Alabama’s own aging infrastructure.
According to the Reason Foundation, our state currently ranks 29th in terms of road conditions and cost effectiveness, 39th in rural interstate conditions and urban interstate conditions, 40th in road fatality rates, and 28th in bridge deficiencies, for a ranking of 43rd overall.
Repairing these deficient and aging structures has become an immense and overwhelming task for state and local transportation departments to handle.
Soaring construction costs, revenue shortages, and diminished budgets only serve to make the problems worse.
Congestion on our roadways has risen by more than 40 percent in the last 15 years, while our capacity to meet these needs has grown by a mere two percent.
National estimates indicate that Alabama is home to nearly 1,700 bridges classified as structurally obsolete or structurally deficient. In some cases, weight limitations imposed on aging bridges requires emergency and commercial vehicles to alter their routes entirely.
These lengthy alternative routes directly impact and further burden Alabama families, who are already strained by soaring gas prices and a struggling economy.
It is painfully apparent that the time has come for our state to consider innovative solutions and alternative measures to maximize our transportation infrastructure. Our road system is well beyond the point of cosmetic repairs and routine maintenance.
The Department of Transportation is doing an amazing job  with the limited resources at their disposal. But, we need a comprehensive approach to solving these issues. Far too long has it been acceptable to neglect vital road projects.
Without an effective solution to firmly address the insufficiencies in our transportation infrastructure, Alabama is in severe jeopardy of losing out on future economic development opportunities while failing to properly serve the businesses that are already here.
We can no longer remain in a state of complacency regarding the needs of our transportation infrastructure. It is time to embrace alternative funding methods like public-private partnerships as effective solutions for dealing with our infrastructure needs.
Public-private partnerships can revitalize our ability to address the needs of our citizens and restore functionality to our existing infrastructure, while also channeling coordinated resources into new and innovative projects.
Public-private partnerships stand as a true testament to American ingenuity. Public-private partnerships refer to business ventures between public agencies and private sector companies that allow for increased private sector participation. These innovative partnerships emerged from the encouragement of private investment in infrastructure by the government.
Under the terms of a public-private-partnership, private sector companies take on greater dynamics in the financing, design, and construction of infrastructure projects. Increased involvement by the private sector gives public agencies the essential and financial capital necessary to pursue more diverse and expansive objectives.
Public-private partnerships are essential to restoring innovation and affordability to our state transportation system. Across the nation, city, county, and state governments are utilizing innovative and proven financing methods, through a combination of financial resources, to provide the much needed revenue to restore functionality and safety to roads, bridges, and waterways.
Public-private partnerships yield highly expedited completion times, improved quality and sustainment, and maximized cost savings on all transportation projects. It is vital to the preservation and vitality of our state’s economic prosperity that our state puts itself in a position to reap the abounding benefits of public-private partnerships.
Recently, my office has made significant strides towards positioning our state to take full advantage of the positive benefits that emerge from public-private partnerships.
In May, I called for the creation of the Lieutenant Governor’s Commission on Public Private Partnership Projects. This coordinated effort will consist of five appointments each for the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house and will be chaired by state senator Roger Bedford.
This commission is responsible for exploring innovative methods of financing state infrastructure projects such as the North-South Highway and will strive to identify additional areas of improvement for future economic development in our state.
The commission held its first meeting on Aug. 19, and will report its findings and recommendations to the Alabama Legislature at the start of the 2009 regular session.
History has shown us that transportation infrastructure is a critical component to expanding economic development. The quality of life and economic competitiveness of our state sits squarely on the shoulders of our transportation infrastructure. Though building and maintaining roads and bridges is an expensive business venture, it is a necessary one.
I think it is a priority that we establish a major North-South thoroughfare in the western part of our state. Our East-West corridors along I-59/20, I-10 and US 72 have contributed greatly to significant and unprecedented residential and commercial growth in our state.
However, without a substantial investment in a  North-South highway project, the western part of our state will remain detached from development, heavily agricultural, and locked in a devastating state of poverty. We are in dire need of a major North South Highway to maximize the economic development opportunities allowed by the development of the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway.
In the face of great adversity, we have a prime opportunity and an obligation to the people of Alabama to be innovative in our approach to finding solutions to these growing problems. As we move forward in implementing effective and innovative strategies to meet new and emerging challenges, we remain steadfast in our efforts to affect progressive and lasting change for the state of Alabama.
Lieutenant Governor
Jim Folsom Jr.
Montgomery
334-242-7900
Transportation at a Crossroads
All Letters to the Editor pertaining to the city election will not be published.  You may purchase an advertisement about your candidate.  
We have set this policy due to the short time frame between qualifying and the election date.  We feel we would not have time to publish all of them and be fair in who would get the last shot.  We thought it would be best not to publish any on the Editorial page.
Horace Moore
Publisher
All Letters to Editor pertaining to local elections must be paid advertising
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