Not satisfied that enough has been done to rein in Appalachian Power, Cana resident Donnette Leonard plans on getting answers from the Virginia House of Delegates.

Leonard said her frustration stems from the Feb. 16 session in which, after Delegate Ward Armstrong’s bill to return investor-owned electric utilities to previous regulations was put down in committee, Armstrong made a motion to dismiss the committee and bring the bill to the floor for discussion. That motion was defeated 74-25 with many of the “nay” votes coming from delegates in the APCo service area.

“To me, for lack of a better word, that’s insubordination,” Leonard said. “They’re not doing the job we sent them to do and I want answers. I want to know why.”

To that end, Leonard said she’s calling those delegates hoping to get answers, and she’s sending a letter to newspapers in APCo’s coverage area (Leonard’s letter appears as a guest editorial in this week’s Carroll News on page 4-A).

Leonard said in researching the information for her letter, she wanted to find out the poverty levels in each of the Southwest Virginia districts in which the delegate voted against dismissing the committee.

“The percentages blew me away,” she said. “Some of them were 23 percent in 2008, before the economy tanked, so you know they haven’t gotten any better.”

She said the decision to reject the motion to dismiss is not a partisan issue — she said it doesn’t matter if the delegates are Republicans or Democrats — or a district issue. She said it’s a statewide issue and one that affects citizens and by and large, she said she’s getting stonewalled on her calls.

“Each call is a little different,” Leonard said. “You may just talk to the receptionist or they may give you the legislative aide who gives you someone else. The aggravating part so far is I have had no luck in getting a simple answer. You get the excuse of ‘I can’t comment for Del. So and so for that.’ I remember when I first called Del. Armstrong’s office. His aide knew exactly where he stood. You didn’t get the runaround and you didn’t have a delegate who was afraid to give an opinion. I feel like I’m getting this now. Those folks don’t want to give an opinion.”

Leonard said she’s gotten plenty of opinions from citizens concerned on the issues, and she said if delegates are afraid to share their thoughts, she believes the people will make their feelings known during the next election cycle.

“When we had our Town Hall, I think we all knew folks were hurting. We know the economy we’re living in and we know how these electric bills are affecting our own households. But when you see what your neighbors are going through and you see the impact it’s having, it makes it so much more personal,” Leonard said. “Cana is a fairly close-knit little community, as a lot of communities throughout Southwest Virginia are. When you see your neighbors hurting and you’re not in a position to help them financially or any way like that, I think it pushes you to do what you can in any area you can. You want to keep it alive and you want to hold these delegates responsible. You want answers why the people who put you where you are, why they don’t seem to matter to you. I think it’s pretty standard. Politicians count on apathy setting back in come election time and folks aren’t going to pay attention to what’s happening now. I think this is one issue that hits close enough and hard enough that folks aren’t going to forget. They are going to remember who stood up for them and tried to fix things.”