To the Editor:

Beam me up Scotty if you have heard of any big oil or gas companies prowling the western part of North Carolina trying to get people signed up to allow drilling for oil or gas on their property. 

With all of the letters on the dangers of fracking you would think that the oil rigs had already been put down and were ready to start drilling. Notice, there is no shale rock in our area and there are no guys running around trying to entice people to allow drilling in the western part of our state. If there was oil in these hills the wells would have been here long ago. 

This year our teachers got raises and they will get more raises as the state’s economy improves and more people find jobs. The North Carolina economy is slowly recovering. Asheville has such low unemployment that the Feds are coming to Asheville to find out why things are so good. WCU will soon be getting an engineering college added to its Asheville campus. That is a gigantic addition to the college. You can thank Sen. Tom Apodoca. R-Hendersonville, and the local Republican elected officials as well as Gov. McCrory for that new addition. Gov. McCrory is spending a lot of time in Western N.C. helping out with a lot of things including fixing up Interstate mess on I-26 in Asheville. The Governor also spends time in Cullowhee at WCU trying to help out there at the colleges as well as Southwestern Community College.  

This election is about improving the economy in our state. Saving the Evergreen paper mill in Canton was a big deal for the 1,000-plus people who work there. We now have an abundant supply of cheap natural gas in the United States which can replace all of the old coal-fired furnaces in America like the ones at the Evergreen Plant. Converting the coal furnaces at the plant will employ a lot of people in the area and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent. You can thank Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and other Republicans for keeping this issue alive for the people in the Canton area who work at the plant. 

On Nov. 4 we must elect people who can focus on running a cost-efficient government and making sure the local and state government officials are doing their best to serve the people in North Carolina. Under Gov. McCrory the number of unemployed people in our state is down to about 300,000. In just two years the Republicans have made a lot of progress in restoring the economy in Western North Carolina. Welfare and food stamps must be replaced with good jobs for all of those willing to work. North Carolina can again become the number one state in the South.

Remember we must reelect our Republican officials in November if we want to keep North Carolina moving forward into 2015.

Jim Mueller

Glenville