routers/westvirginia "A bizarre operation": Why West Virginia stuck $22,600 routers

[remixedcat]

Here's a little tidbit from the state I live in.... explains a lot...

West Virginia's Charleston Gazette has been hopping mad this week as one of its reporters learned that the state has been sticking 1,064 high-end $22,600 routers into ?little public institutions as small as rural libraries with just one computer terminal.? When reporter Eric Eyre actually called up Cisco posing as a customer, he was told by a rep that the company's 3945 series routers were "our router solution for campus and large enterprises, so this is overkill for your network." Instead, the rep recommended a far cheaper commercial grade router for $500.

And while the 3945 series routers might be massively overkill for many of the locations to which they have been deployed, 366 of them aren't even being used. Instead, they're sitting in a warehouse.

Please read more here!

Please read the follow-up here

and I live in this state and I can see that they could have put a lot more to fixing the roads or actually using that to get faster speed internet to all of us there instead of this mess.... This state is so unbalanced.

[rfirth]

Why buy one when you can have two for twice the cost?

[srbeen]

You can buy better, but you can't pay more.

[(Spork)]

LOL i have in laws that are down in WV ... most of them can't turn a pc on let alone check out a book

thats total over kill i understand wanting to bring the web to everyone but DAMN think of the wallet

[remixedcat]

Thye live in a busted up trailer with wal-mart bags duct taped to replace broken winderz in thier trailer home and holes in the celing and 1/4th of the floors missin.....

but yee haw we got there 22,000 dollar router and a 10,000 dollar tv!

[NoLiMiT06]

I have some family from West Virginia and we drive up 77 almost once a year to visit family in Ohio and the roads suck in that state, I agree they should have put that money towards repairing the roads and it's bad enough there are tolls all the way until you get just north of Charleston :p

[(Spork)]

im in ohio and yes the roads suck .... they blame the weather .... bull**** lol

[jwjw1]

I have relatives in Kenova plus I spent some time with the 2/19 SFG(A) in Kenova after leaving Bragg...I found that part of the country kinda scenic....BUT I do know there are some very dark places in WVA :laugh:

[NoLiMiT06]

im in ohio and yes the roads suck .... they blame the weather .... bull**** lol

Well in their defense salt does kill the roads but it's a hell of a lot cheaper to just pave the roads with thicker asphalt like Germany and most of the road problems would be gone but they just waste money on patches that last until the first rain then the holes are back and usually bigger. :p

[PGHammer]

I have some family from West Virginia and we drive up 77 almost once a year to visit family in Ohio and the roads suck in that state, I agree they should have put that money towards repairing the roads and it's bad enough there are tolls all the way until you get just north of Charleston :p

The reason is called *lack of population density*.

WV isn't the only state with that issue - look at the "intermountain" Western states (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, etc.) - they have the same problem. (In fact, the same is true of most of Nevada and the desert states of the Southwestern US.)

Parts of the highway system in Ohio (and even Indiana) are rather poor - the best roads are the toll roads precisely BECAUSE they are toll roads - compare the WV Turnpike with I-70 in West Virginia, or even the free vs. toll portions of I-77 in the same state (I-77 is not tolled north of Charleston).

One thing about toll roads - the tolls collected are used where the toll is collected - it's NOT used to pay for non-toll highways (it's why when PennDOT had the horrible funding crunch during the 1970s the PTC kept right on keeping on).

The problem with tax revenues (and the highway trust funds - both nationally and in the several states) is that they get *commingled* - often deliberately - to pay for non-transportation-related projects - how many Secretaries of Transportation - both Democratic and GOP-appointed - have complained about exactly that? (The Inter-County Connector in my home state is a toll road *because* the Maryland Transportation Authority - which manages the state's tolled transportation facilities - can largely operate without micromanagement by the General Assembly - which is far from true of the State Highway Administration.)

It's not the fault of the President, the governors, or even the Secretaries of Transportation (on either the national or state levels); the problem is with the state legislatures, Congress - and us as voters.

[remixedcat]

Thing is senators and such from other states are irate about this becuase FEDERAL funds were used for this...

The money for the routers came from federal stimulus funds designed to boost broadband access by better equipping public facilities like schools and libraries, especially in more rural areas. West Virginia officials decided not to vary the size of the routers they purchased based on the needs of the target facility. "A student in a school of 200 students should have the same opportunity as a student in a school with 2,000 students," one official told the paper.

[remixedcat]

I77 from exit 176 down to around Ripley,WV is hellacious.... it tears up cars like mad. yet they are busy being wrapped up in doing the area around exit 179 to exit 1 in marietta,oh and working on it when it's nowhere near as bad as exit 176 and south!

Now US50 and the stretch from Ellenboro to Clarksburg is way better then I77 is in WV! and I79 isn't as bad either.

[NoLiMiT06]

I77 from exit 176 down to around Ripley,WV is hellacious.... it tears up cars like mad. yet they are busy being wrapped up in doing the area around exit 179 to exit 1 in marietta,oh and working on it when it's nowhere near as bad as exit 176 and south!

Now US50 and the stretch from Ellenboro to Clarksburg is way better then I77 is in WV! and I79 isn't as bad either.

I agree with that statement ^

They have been working on the same patch of road from Canton to Akron, Ohio since I was a little kid... I don't think they will ever get that road finished :D

[remixedcat]

(akron/canton stretch) OMG It's still under construction! I lived there from june 07 to april 08!!!!! it was baaaadd!

[NoLiMiT06]

(akron/canton stretch) OMG It's still under construction! I lived there from june 07 to april 08!!!!! it was baaaadd!

Hell I remember back in the mid to late 90s they were working on it LMAO.

[remixedcat]

wow. pathetic...

[(Spork)]

Well in their defense salt does kill the roads but it's a hell of a lot cheaper to just pave the roads with thicker asphalt like Germany and most of the road problems would be gone but they just waste money on patches that last until the first rain then the holes are back and usually bigger. :p

this is true but we had maybe MAYBE and inch of snow last winter ( no salt was needed or dropped ) according to the city .. and the roads are worse now than before O.o