Raymond Proffitt Foundation
Pollution Update: 7 March 1997
Joe Turner, editor
Bud Shuster Rollercoaster: Part II
Part I of the "Bud Shuster Rollercoaster" gave an introduction to this boondoggle, concluding with the "B & L Holding Company," a mysterious landowner that purchased land along the ridge top alignment in the late 1980’s.
Nobody can find out who the board members are, and shareholder names are top secret, too! BERPA members have tried to find out who put up the money to buy over 1000 acres of ridge top property in 1988, just as highway plans were being drawn up. Who bought the land?
BERPA confronted State Senator J. Doyle Corman on this subject at a recent town meeting. Senator Corman is influential as Chair of the Transportation Committee. He is also on the Game Committee.
Corman has long been a "quiet advocate" of putting a new U.S. Route 220 on the Bald Eagle Ridge, instead of building a cheaper, safer, and less environmentally damaging road in the valley where the road already exists. Last year Corman and State Rep . Lynn Herman "invited" PA Game Commission Executive Director Don Madland and his staff out to an unpublicized meeting in a small roadhouse near Port Matilda, in the Bald Eagle Valley. The Game Commission has long opposed putting the monster highway on the ridge because it would cut straight through State Game Lands #278, ruining hunting and recreation on 749 acres and threatening large wetland systems with endangered plants. There are no State Game Lands in the Valley. At this meeting, Corman publicly warned the Game Commission that he is opposed to the much needed and very popular general hunting license increase—unless the Game Commission changed its opposition to the Ridge Top Rollercoaster. Isn’t it wonderful how state government works? Isn’t it great that expertise from the state resource agencies is recognized by the General Assembly?
Corman has been warned repeatedly by Penn State meteorologists that the 8-mile stretch of mountain highway will subject drivers to the most hazardous weather conditions in the state. Just yesterday, a ridge top section of US Route 22 was subjected to "whiteout" conditions, causing accidents. Not too many years ago, a multi car pileup at the same spot killed numerous drivers. PennDOT has been sued over this accident. Do you want your tax dollars defending PennDOT in court because motorists are killed on unsafe roads? You have that now, and more if the RIdge Top Rollercoaster is built.
Corman has been warned repeatedly by Penn State geoscience professors and the Game Commission’s hydrogeologist that the Ridge Top Rollercoaster will threaten the well fields for the municipal water supply for 700 people and three buildings including schools. You can also rule out any future water supplies. There are no threats to public water supplies from a valley route.
Now, why would Sen. Corman want to risk public safety, water supplies for his constituents, more stream impacts, more risks to irreplaceable spring seep wetlands, and 749 acres of public lands used for recreation and solitude? What could possibly be motivating Corman to push for an insane monster highway on an undisturbed mountain? Good questions.
Corman, whose family runs one of the largest real estate companies in the area, is usually quite composed at public forums. Yet Corman was noticeably defensive and flustered when Joe Humphreys, president of BERPA, began to question Corman at the public meeting. Humphreys asked whether Corman knew anything about this mysterious holding company controlling so much property in Corman’s district. As reported in the Centre Daily Times recent piece "Group Opposes Putting Route 220 on Mountain, " Humphreys was quoted as saying "Nobody knows who B&L is. There are people involved who are going to be making a hell of a lot of money. It doesn’t look good and certainly doesn’t smell good." Corman said he will try to find out who owns the company. No one held their breath after that promise.
Corman got back to BERPA, but told them nothing it already knew. He said that all the company’s transactions are handled by B&L’s lawyer, David Rost of Pittsburgh. BERPA told Corman that was yesterday’s news; they already knew all about that. BERPA is demanding Corman do whatever it takes to find out who the shareholders are. BERPA asked the PA Secretary of State for the list of names on B&L’s board and the shareholders, but had no luck. BERPA asked Corman to get the Attorney General to find out, and Corman said that the AG only takes on cases where illegality can be shown.
BERPA believes that Corman will provide the names only after PennDOT pays B&L in order to build the Ridge Top Rollercoaster. So those involved with the B&L land grab back in 1988, these same mysterious people will profit substantially by being able to name their price for all the rights to the minerals lying directly under the latest "Bud Shuster Highway" if State Senator J. Doyle Corman gets his way.
How do we know that Corman wants the Ridge Top Rollercoaster?" He said so. Corman said during a town meeting, that the Ridge Top Rollercoaster was a "done deal". The meeting was held 18 days prior to the closing of the comment period on the Final Environmental Impact Statement! What did he know that he wasn’t telling? Isn’t it nice when "public servants" like Sen. J. Doyle Corman tell constituents that their comments don’t matter; when mysterious holding companies that hold land that miraculously follows the Ridge Top Rollercoaster alignment appear to have more say than you or me. BERPA said if the public waits for Corman to come up with the names of those who own the "B&L Holding Company," who will get a tremendous windfall from the Ridge Top Rollercoaster (a subsidy from the Federal Treasury, really), would be like "waiting for OJ Simpson to find the real killer of Nicole and Ron."
<<<<END>>>>