Is That Bob Culver In The Front Row?

Dear Mr. Ron Alessi,

How come we've never seen you atend a City Council Meeting? How come we've never seen you attend a County Council Meeting?

Bob Culver is at every one of them. Are you afraid of Bob Culver? Did I mention the name Bob Culver?


Before you EVER run your mouth again about who serves this community, you better get off your old whoopie cushion and come sit at one of these meetings and come to learn what's really going on in this County and City. No one has ever attacked your wife or family Mr. Alessi, so cut the BS! You're a liar and you simply don't like being exposed with the truth.

Duvall goes to Towson and looks into your lawsuit. Hadley talks to MJ Caldwell himself and gets the inside scoop on his donation, (notice how I don't say donations) and I expose all the crap at the Salisbury Zoo and all of a sudden poor old Ron Alessi is being attacked? OK Mr. & Mrs. Public, when did you read ANY of this in the Daily Times? Case Closed!

The pictures never lie and once again, as always, you're NOT present!

Historic District Commission Is Sinking

Mike Dunn made it very clear during the Work Session yesterday that this group is barely floating.

Shanie Shields said, people just can't afford to do things the way this group wants them done. If a Nurse wants to buy one of these homes for a reasonable price, let's say $100,000.00 and she wants to fix it up, she can't afford to do everything the way this group wants them done. You want these kind of door knobs, these kind of fixtures, they just can't afford to buy one of these houses and fix it up and these are the most affordable homes in Town.

Mike Dunn then said, how many of these properties do you know of that have been able to receive grants? Randy Taylor didn't know of one. Debbie Campbell said she knew of about 5 people that were able to do so but the question was directed at this group and they were clueless.

Mike then stated that they were sinking fast, you're not sunk yet but if this group can't make this a positive experience and a good thing for the community they're going to shut down the project, (Historic Commission) and drop it all together.

The Mayor was like a little child, walking into the room passing out little notes to Randy and others and then walking out of the room. Randy was dressed in shorts like it was 100 degrees outside, while everyone else was in suits and showing their respect towards confronting the Council. Remarks were made about his attire but he simply didn't care. He had his little Thank You note from the Mayor and that's all that counted. He'll get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it, he's a FOB. I'm not knocking you Randy, I'd just never want to be you.

You Must Register Your Vacant Home After 180 Days

The City of Salisbury wants to charge a $25.00 registration fee for any home vacant after 180 days. They followed up by stating that Officer Gordy knows of an additional 100 homes in the N.E. portion of the City that are also vacant but not on record with the City.

I happen to know of quite a few homes in the N.W. portion of the City that are vacant as well and none of these figures include businesses that are vacant, hence the photos above. Who will voluntarily send the City a check for $25.00 once their property hits 180 days old without someone living in it? It seems to me that the City is doing everything they can to find ways to take back these properties without it costing them very much and auction them off to FOB's?

Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing, them taking back properties that should be torn down or rebuilt. I'm also not saying Investors shouldn't get a great deal to do so in neighborhoods that won't draw much in return financially. It is a big risk. However, I believe they need to be far more creative by having an entire package from beginning to end before they start doing so.

What I mean is, these should be "start up builders" and not developers. These should be minority builders and not bigger, more successful builders. Make this an honorable thing where there's a win, win for everyone involved. Let the little guy grow so there's more competition down the road and with that, prices will start to come down because there's more competition.

What about the Commercial side of things too? Why isn't the City going after all of these buildings as well? I read today in the Grapevine, are they going to charge the Old Mall this fee?
Why is the City pampering the Commercial Owners? Will the City be registering the vacant bathrooms outside the Salisbury Zoo near Ben's Red Swings?

Forgive me for bouncing around on this post so much but there's so many questions as to why all of a sudden this has come up and where they're truly going with this. I agree that something needs to be done but I also believe much more thought needs to go into it and a final plan needs to be reached before they simply start a program like this.

The White Lines Are The Camels. The Black Lines Are Their Shadows!

Socrates681 Speaks Out Against Ron Alessi

These comments and opinions are made with the assumption that the person named as "Ron" actually said the things in an interview with Bill Reddish. I really find it hard to believe that anyone running for public office would be stupid enough to say the un-American things attributed to "RON." It sounded like an Orwellian nightmare!
Prior to reading this, I had no opinion either way about the person named as “Ron.” I do now! I didn’t read his last name, but I assume he is running for some office. I don't know anything about him or his family, so I will make no negative remarks about their past. I will state that I would never vote for anyone who challenges the right of the public to communicate and judge candidates for public office. We, the people, can never afford to elect people who call free speech, which I believe the blogs are, a "cancer." Repression of free speech is the cancer! This is America, Ron!

RON: “We have a cancer in our community and it is the blogs. All responsible news organizations, like this radio station,answer to someone. The bloggers answer to no one. The bloggers think they are important and that they are a creditable news source. They are not news, they are garbage.”

REPLY: Communication between citizens, what can be more American than that? What can be more un-American than a public official calling them a cancer and not important? Anyone who says that either doesn’t understand or respect what America is supposed to be!
Bloggers shouldn’t have to answer to anyone. Correspondence and exchange of ideas among the public should never be censored in a free society. (Of course there should be redress for libel and slander).

RON: “It is no wonder that there is reluctance for qualified individuals to get involved in our community for fear that they will come under attack by these demented individuals. These bloggers serve no purpose but to destroy organizations, individuals and their families”

REPLY: Anyone running for any public office should be held to higher standards than a private citizen. The public is entitled to, and indeed remiss, if they do not thoroughly investigate every candidate and choose the best. Again, libel and slander is not acceptable, but questioning everything in a candidates background should be done by the public.


RON: “They cower behind their computers and spew out venomous lies that discourage and demoralize individuals and organizations that give freely of their time, talent and treasure to improve the quality of life in our community. How come we do not see these individuals donating their time and their dollars to make our community better? I do not see any of their names listed in any of the many community organizations. I don't see them running for any office.”

REPLY: How does Ron know what bloggers contribute? Has he already been playing “Big Brother,” spying on private citizens? God help us!

It is NOT a public duty to run for office. It is a public duty to investigate ALL candidates for public office. The elected official is the representative of the private citizen, not their King, master or censor!

RON: “Who gave them the right to judge others? What is their background? Maybe we need to check them out and see how moral and upstanding they are.”

REPLY: This is a Joke, isn’t it? Well, I believe the constitution gives the public the right to judge those who would represent them! So, Ron, your problem isn't with us bloggers; it's with the Constitution of The United States. Of course the public has the right and obligation to judge candidates for public office. The threat to “check out” the electorate for doing their American duty is reminiscent of the late senator, Joe McCarthy!!!!!!! Heaven forbid we ever again elect someone with that mindset!


RON: “ There is no room in our community for rude and disrespectful individuals.”

REPLY: It is not a crime to be rude and disrespectful. No one likes rude or disrespectful people. We don't have to elect them to public office, and we don’t have to associate with them. But to say there “is no room for them in our community” sounds way to totalitarian for any official in any free country, especially America! What should we do, execute rude, disrespectful people? Why stop there? Do we have room in our community for those without higher education? for minorities? How about the handicapped? How about people like me who are old, fat and ugly, can we live in your community? No thanks, I don't want to!

RON: “Let me end by making this promise to the bloggers. You keep up the harassment of me and my family and you are asking for a fight. I am normally a mild mannered person and I like to resolve issues gentlemanly and peacefully. Up until this point I have ignored you, but if you continue to harass me or my family, when I get done with you an apology won't be adequate - I'll get in your wallet!”

REPLY: Again, harassment should not be tolerated, but to threaten those who investigate and communicate thoughts with others about candidates for PUBLIC office smacks of McCarthyism. There is NO place for that in public office!!!!! Just what we need, another public official who wants to be "in our wallet."

Lowe's Breaks The Law

Jack Lennox recently picked up on a huge red flag when it came to Lowe's.

They were looking to extent the front of the store with a new addition and came to P&Z to file for permits.

When Jack started looking into the parking spaces at that location to make sure they did in fact have the proper amount of spaces he realized they were short and something was seriously wrong.

Turns out, Lowe's added a Garden Center and even roofed in a portion of this area without going to P&Z for permits to do so. Because a good portion of this was under roof, it took away from the parking spaces allocated for the proper zoning code and Jack picked up on it.

The questions I have are, how did Lowe's get away with building such a structure right on Rt. 13 and get away without having to file permits? Secondly, now that the City is aware they broke the law, HOW BIG IS THE FINE LOWE'S WILL RECEIVE?

You see Folks, we'd be fined for pulling such a thing and I'd demand Lowe's is treated far more severely than any one of us as they absolutely know better. Let's see what happens with this matter down the road. I want to see the fines.