Local Weirdness

I don't know why, but these two stories from today's paper just struck me as weird.

First, they've renamed - or, rather, renumbered - one of the main drags in my neck of the woods. It's one of those situations where the original road, US Route 35, was a winding two-lane road that runs from here into Ohio. It really needs to be a 4-lane, so they're in the process of building a new Route 35 to handle the excess traffic. Of course, they can't have two Route 35s, but why rename the old one (State Route 817, if you're keeping score at home) and give the old name to the new road? Why note give the new road a new name? Regardless, at least we're not saddled with "alternate" or "scenic" Route 35 now.

Second, a local priest, who apparently really goes for the whole vow of poverty thing, is suing the state of West Virginia for paying too much for public projects:

All projects funded with public dollars in West Virginia pay the prevailing wage, which is set on a county-by-county basis. It's determined by surveys and inquiries conducted by the Division of Labor.

Acker contends the surveys rely heavily on unionized labor, setting an artificially high wage.

Come again? Isn't the main job of the union to get better wages for its members? How is that a bad thing, on balance? It's hardly "artificial," either, except from a hard-core libertarian perspective.

Like I said, just weird all around.