Billy Carter's old gas station: a national site?
Legislation calls for the National Park Service to take over the storied building, making it part of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. Some question such a use of taxpayer money.
In the age of the $787-billion stimulus package, it is, perhaps, a modest question:
Should the American taxpayer foot the bill to enshrine the gas station run by the late Billy Carter -- the beer-swilling, wisecracking, self-professed redneck brother of our 39th president?
Located in the middle of tiny Plains -- still the world's most famous peanut town some 28 years after the Carter presidency -- the station was transformed into a museum last year by a civic group that owns the property.
Most locals agree it has been rendered cleaner and more pleasant than it was under Billy's proprietorship, when it served as an improvised beer joint, gambling hall and grease-stained agora for homespun philosophizing.
Its claim to historical significance came during Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential run, when reporters mobbed Plains and transformed the station into a sort of unofficial headquarters.
It became the setting for story after story about Jimmy's little brother, Billy, his down-home manners and epigrammatic wit (e.g., "Beer is not a good cocktail-party drink -- especially in a home where you don't know where the bathroom is") and the candidate's rural roots.
In a reminiscence posted at the museum, Billy's family writes that both press and tourists back then "seemed to be amazed a place such as the Station actually existed outside bad, B-grade movies about Southern moonshine runners."
Last month, the House approved a measure that would incorporate the station into the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, a National Park Service operation that runs a number of Carter-related buildings in Plains. A similar bill is under consideration in the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The legislation calls for the park service to take over the gas station, plus an old farmhouse that Jimmy and wife Rosalynn lived in from 1956 to 1961. Both would be donated by the current owner, the Plains Better Hometown Program.
The park service would also take over a state-run welcome center on the edge of town that has been threatened with closure because of state budget problems.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost $17 million to upgrade and maintain the sites over the next five years.
That was enough to elicit an objection from Steve Ellis, vice president of the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Ellis said his concern has nothing to do with Billy Carter's place in history. It's a question of priorities, he said. The park service already faces a $9-billion maintenance backlog for the property it currently manages, according to the Congressional Research Service.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hometown-plains15-2009nov15,0,1214264.story
View attachment 309
:lmao:
The top concern for democrats, preserve a gas station that a drunk owned, that happened to be the brother of the worst president in history.
Legislation calls for the National Park Service to take over the storied building, making it part of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. Some question such a use of taxpayer money.
In the age of the $787-billion stimulus package, it is, perhaps, a modest question:
Should the American taxpayer foot the bill to enshrine the gas station run by the late Billy Carter -- the beer-swilling, wisecracking, self-professed redneck brother of our 39th president?
Located in the middle of tiny Plains -- still the world's most famous peanut town some 28 years after the Carter presidency -- the station was transformed into a museum last year by a civic group that owns the property.
Most locals agree it has been rendered cleaner and more pleasant than it was under Billy's proprietorship, when it served as an improvised beer joint, gambling hall and grease-stained agora for homespun philosophizing.
Its claim to historical significance came during Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential run, when reporters mobbed Plains and transformed the station into a sort of unofficial headquarters.
It became the setting for story after story about Jimmy's little brother, Billy, his down-home manners and epigrammatic wit (e.g., "Beer is not a good cocktail-party drink -- especially in a home where you don't know where the bathroom is") and the candidate's rural roots.
In a reminiscence posted at the museum, Billy's family writes that both press and tourists back then "seemed to be amazed a place such as the Station actually existed outside bad, B-grade movies about Southern moonshine runners."
Last month, the House approved a measure that would incorporate the station into the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, a National Park Service operation that runs a number of Carter-related buildings in Plains. A similar bill is under consideration in the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The legislation calls for the park service to take over the gas station, plus an old farmhouse that Jimmy and wife Rosalynn lived in from 1956 to 1961. Both would be donated by the current owner, the Plains Better Hometown Program.
The park service would also take over a state-run welcome center on the edge of town that has been threatened with closure because of state budget problems.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost $17 million to upgrade and maintain the sites over the next five years.
That was enough to elicit an objection from Steve Ellis, vice president of the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Ellis said his concern has nothing to do with Billy Carter's place in history. It's a question of priorities, he said. The park service already faces a $9-billion maintenance backlog for the property it currently manages, according to the Congressional Research Service.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hometown-plains15-2009nov15,0,1214264.story
View attachment 309
:lmao:
The top concern for democrats, preserve a gas station that a drunk owned, that happened to be the brother of the worst president in history.