By Staff
Mayors, execs share top issues
By TED STRONG
Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) was in Washington to meet with local leaders Friday.
Dole didn’t make any speeches or campaign locally, but instead limited herself to the closed-door meeting with the likes of Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Jeff Moss and National Spinning’s Jim Chesnutt.
The closed meeting allowed for an open, honest discussion, said Catherine Glover, the chamber’s executive director.
The more than hour-long meeting covered a number of local issues, including the U.S. Highway 17 corridor, Dole said after it ended.
She said she helped secure hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding for the project, which aims to streamline transit in the eastern part of the state from the Virginia border to South Carolina.
She said the state had once been renowned for its quality roads and bridges.
Washington Mayor Judy Meier Jennette said that she asked Dole to look into revamping Federal Emergency Management Agency rules governing certain lots in the city.
FEMA has designated the lots unbuildable so the city owns them and must maintain them. Jennette asked that Washington be allowed to sell the lots to owners of adjacent properties on the condition that they not be built upon.
Dole also reminded civic leaders that she pushed for a moratorium on Medicaid cuts supported by the Bush administration. She said that move saved Beaufort County Hospital $1.6 million each year.
Gas prices were another issue of interest, Dole said, and one that impacts local economies.
Dole proposes that any and all options for getting oil prices down be explored, she said.
Dole also pushed her roll in the tobacco-quota buyout.
Glover said the meeting was in line with the Chamber’s goal of helping local business issues find resolution.