Letter: Commercializing Rest Areas Is Bad State Policy   Dear Editor, Rockbridge Weekly: In his May column (in another publication), Roy Fauber supports shifting food and fuel sales away from Virginia businesses to government-owned rest areas. In these economic times, I find it hard to believe that anyone would seriously propose that a state balance its budget on the back of local communities. Yet, that is exactly what this rest area "commercialization" aims to do. Virginia businesses that serve highway travelers employ over 63,000 people. As the owner of one such business - the 50 year-old Lee-Hi Travel Plaza - I know that these employers will have a hard time meeting payroll if the government sets up shop on the Interstate and starts siphoning off customers who would have otherwise spent time and money in Virginia's towns. In fact, many of those employers could disappear altogether. A University of Maryland study shows that counties with commercialized rest areas have only half as many interstate-based businesses as counties without them. That's because these rest areas are on the shoulder of teh road, making it impossible for businesses like mine to compete. Local tax revenue will also start drying up under Mr. Fauber's plan. Virginia's 2,300 highway businesses are a key source of taxes that help fund community services. Lee-Hi alone pays over $200,000 a year in local taxes and fees. If the state sets up competitive on the right-of-way, the local tax base will shrink as property values decline, or as businesses close their doors. Mr. Fauber acknowledges commercialization will hurt businesses like mine, but dismisses this concern based on an incorrect notion that we all are owned by big chains. My business, which I run as an independent, single unit operator, has been here for 50 years. Profits are either invested in my business or spent righ here in Virginia. In contrast, nearly 100 percent of the commercialized rest areas in other states are operated by one big multinational corporation. After the state is paid a percentage of the profits, the multinational corporation takes the rest. The proposal is also a threat to safe parking for truck drivers. Across the country, states with commercialized rest area highways have far fewer parking spaces for trucks than those without commercialized facilities. Rest areas cannot fill the parking gap created when fewer businesses operate at Interstate exits. Lee-Hi, for example, provides 500 parking spaces along I-81 and I-64. In contrast, all of Virginia's I-81 rest areas combined provide only 220 parking spaces for truckers. Mr. Fauer criticizes NATSO, an association of travel plazas including Lee-Hi, for opposing rest area commercialization, saying that the group is "small," and "not big financial contributors, but even so they're holding sway on this issue with our elected officials." Doesn't this suggest that elected officials have been persuaded not by money, but by good public policy? Isn't this how we want our government to make decisions? Commercializing rest areas will not fix Virginia's budget. Allowing the Commonwealth to sell food or fuel at Virginia's rest areas wwould do nothing more than weaken Virginia businesses, divert local taxes into state coffers and threaten much-needed jobs. Thank you for the opportunity to respond. Sincerely, Bobby Berkstresser Owner, Lee-Hi Travel Plaza, Lexington.

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