Mollohan and Vandalia Team Up Again for Armory
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A real estate venture with high hopes of bringing a new W.Va. Army National Guard facility to Parkersburg has brought Democrat Rep. Alan Mollohan back together with a group he has funneled earmarks to for years.
For over a year officials with the City of Parkersburg and the Wood County Development Authority have been working with Mollohan to replace the current National Guard Armory, located in South Parkersburg, with a brand-new facility that can double as a civic center. The current armory is too small for the needs of the local National Guard.
To prepare and plan for a new facility, Mollohan included $2 million for the design of a new National Guard facility in his 2010 appropriations request. He had originally requested $39 million for a training facility and a field maintenance shop.
The location being considered for such a facility is Fort Boreman Hill. A former Civil War-era military installation, the hill is home to one of the county’s newest parks. Thanks to the completion of the Corridor D/U.S. Route 50 project, the area is considered one of the best areas in Wood County for economic development. In anticipation of a National Guard facility or other major project, the Wood County Development Authority voted several weeks ago purchase the land on Fort Boreman Hill for $4 million from the McDonough Corporation.
The State Journal recently reported on the project:
“This is a highly developable site with an interchange off of a four-lane highway that’s within walking distance to downtown Parkersburg,” said Keith Burdette, President of the Wood County Development Authority. “There are not many sites like that in West Virginia.”
He said the site ideally would become the home of a new Army National Guard armory/civic center facility, retail development and, possibly, a baseball stadium.
“It’s pretty early, but this is an opportunity to create a destination location in Parkersburg for entertainment and shopping,” he said.
Parkersburg Hopes to Develop Armory-Civic Center – State Journal – STATEJOURNAL.com
To prepare the property for future economic development, the Wood County Development Authority is partnering up with the Vandalia Heritage Foundation. Vandalia, the lead partner and project manager, has experience in planning, community and economic development, and strategic real estate services. Vandalia also has experience working with Rep. Mollohan; maybe too much experience.
Mollohan is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the last three years due to not reporting his income and the funneling of millions of dollars of earmarks to friends and associates. Between 1997 and 2006 $173 million went to five non-profit groups; one of those five groups was Vandalia. According to a report released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), 92 percent of Vandalia’s funding came from Mollohan earmarks, receiving $31.5 million between 1999 and 2006.
Vandalia is ran by Laura Kuhns, who serves as President and CEO for the non-profit group. She was a former staff member of Mollohan’s from 1986 to 1990. She married Donald Kuhn and the couple returned to West Virginia, where she eventually took a job with the West Virginia High Technology Consortium, one of the five groups receiving the bulk of Mollohan’s earmarks.
Both Laura and Donald took jobs with McCabe-Henley, a real estate company, in 1994. The company was formed by J. Rudy Henley and State Sen. Brooks F. McCabe Jr., D-Kanawha. Kuhns first got involved with Vandalia through her work with McCabe-Henley. She was invited on board Vandalia as Director in 2000. Kuhns also serves on the boards of the three other groups that Mollohan has largly supported through the earmark process: MountainMade, the Institute for Scientific Research, and the California-based National Housing Development Corporation.
Between 2006 and 2007 Laura and Donald Kuhn donated a combined $5,400 to Mollohan. The Kuhns and Mollohan families have jointly invested in properties on Bald Head Island, N.C. The properties had a total value in 2006 of $2 million.
Officials associated with the National Guard project also gave campaign donations to Mollohan. Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell gave $250 towards Mollohan’s 2008 re-election. Both Keith Burdette and Cam Huffman with the Wood County Development Authority donated a combined $2,500 to Mollohan between 2006 and 2008. Burdette and Huffman are also registered lobbyists with the West Virginia Ethics Commission.
Their company, the Burdette Group, represents the Conservation Officers Association of W.Va., Eli Lilly & Co., and Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The Wood County Development Authority is largely credited with keeping Blue Cross/Blue Shield from building their new headquarters to a different part of the state, but this was done with a $1.5 million economic-development package and real-estate package from the City of Parkersburg. As both a lobbyist for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and President of the Development Authority, Burdette benefited.
While a new National Guard facility would be a good thing for the Mid-Ohio Valley, Mollohan’s current legal troubles and his connections with Vandalia only hurt such an effort.
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Posted under Campaign Finance, Elections, Featured, Fraud, News, Politics, Transparency, U.S. House of Representatives.
Tags: Alan Mollohan, Army National Guard, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Keith Burdette, Laura Kuhn, United States Department of Justice, Vandalia Heritage Foundation
12 Comments For This Post So Far
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Despite Ethics Investigation, Mollohan Continues to Enrich Friends - BrianFaughnan’s blog - RedState
[...] More information at West Virginia watchdog. [...]
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Wednesday Edition - The Grumpy Republican
[...] Still haven’t realized that your Doctor is another Gordon ‘Greed is Good’ Gekko yet? Take a look at THIS article then look at THIS Video and THIS Video. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, it’s in your Doctor’s best financial interest to keep you sick and coming back for more expensive tests and drugs that aren’t really helping you. Your Doctor’s bottom line comes before your bottom! Just think when your Doctor gives you terminal cancer from too much radiation from unneccessary CT scans and X rays then Doctors really cash in on your dying from cancer. It’s perfect business plan for your Doctor if you think about it actually. Consider, your Doctor orders too many or unneccessary CT scans and or X rays while the ionizing radiation from these scans causes you cancer then your Doctor strikes the financial Jackpot again by poisoning you with MORE radiation and Chemo therapy to ‘treat’ the cancer the Doctors’s caused in the first place! It’s a perfect racket and because most people are sheep when it comes to their medical care its only going to get worse. I suspect I have more of a risk of cancer from all the X rays and CT scans because of all the Cardiologists I have had to use over the years then from the 3 decades of smoking. At this point I refuse any more ‘nuclear’ testing because I have real and very valid concerns about the amount of Radiation I have been exposed to over the last few years from CT Scans and X Rays by the various Cardiologists I’ve had to deal with over the years. Mollohan is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the last three years… [...]
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Wednesday Edition - Grumpy Republican Blog-Backup site
[...] Still haven’t realized that your Doctor is another Gordon ‘Greed is Good’ Gekko yet? Take a look at THIS article then look at THIS Video and THIS Video. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, it’s in your Doctor’s best financial interest to keep you sick and coming back for more expensive tests and drugs that aren’t really helping you. Your Doctor’s bottom line comes before your bottom! Just think when your Doctor gives you terminal cancer from too much radiation from unneccessary CT scans and X rays then Doctors really cash in on your dying from cancer. It’s perfect business plan for your Doctor if you think about it actually. Consider, your Doctor orders too many or unneccessary CT scans and or X rays while the ionizing radiation from these scans causes you cancer then your Doctor strikes the financial Jackpot again by poisoning you with MORE radiation and Chemo therapy to ‘treat’ the cancer the Doctors’s caused in the first place! It’s a perfect racket and because most people are sheep when it comes to their medical care its only going to get worse. I suspect I have more of a risk of cancer from all the X rays and CT scans because of all the Cardiologists I have had to use over the years then from the 3 decades of smoking. At this point I refuse any more ‘nuclear’ testing because I have real and very valid concerns about the amount of Radiation I have been exposed to over the last few years from CT Scans and X Rays by the various Cardiologists I’ve had to deal with over the years. Mollohan is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the last three years… [...]
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8:13 pm on October 12th, 2009
Good Lord Steve – “Mollohan is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the last three years due to not reporting his income and the funneling of millions of dollars of earmarks to friends and associates”? A partisan, right wing group that dumped this “complaint” against Mollohan on the Bush DOJ years ago on the eve of his contested reelection effort in 2006. It promptly sank into oblivion, so overwrought and groundless that even the notoriously politicized DOJ refused to take it seriously. And “Mollohan’s current legal troubles and his connections with Vandalia only hurt such an effort”? – who else would produce the bucks to get this project going. Please.
10:04 pm on October 12th, 2009
Good Lord Walt,
You should have attended our meeting at the Parkersburg Tea Party. We are a non-partisan organization. We have several members who are Democrats. You could have brought this up. I also wish Congressman Mollohan had attended. Then he could explain to us why he is funding the DOJ, who is investigating him.
I call this a conflict of interest. Why was he put back on this board? Why does it take so long to clear his name if he is innocent? I have lots of questions.
Don’t be a stranger! You are welcome to attend any of our meetings.