The Zoo Asks For Additional Funds They Already Raised

Tell me, what has the Salisbury Zoo done to deserve any more funds from the Public? It seems to me that taxes are on the rise and the Salisbury Zoo is nothing less than a burden on the community.

Granted, having a Zoo is a wonderful thing for "any" community but the "Pride of Salisbury" is now nothing more than a complete embarrassment any more.

Known for numerous dead animals, trash all over the river, illegal chemicals and raw sewage being dumped into the river, multiple lies to the public about their actual inventory going from their proud 500 animals all the way down to 115 animals left as well as multiple lies about animal deaths each month. The Zoo has become a final resting place for any animal entering its gates.

Even most recently there were two noticeable organizations that had eliminated themselves from the Christmas Day Parade and that was the Salisbury Police Department and the Salisbury Zoo. They don't give back and say thank you, unless there's money in it for them. Again, the Zoo is no longer the pride of the City and this was caused by its Director, Jim Rapp and Chairman/President of the Zoo Commission, Ron Alessi.

The Salisbury Zoo, (which was named one of the top 10 Zoo's in America back in the 70's) is now a disgrace under the current leadership which refuses to ask for an admission at the gates and demands to keep this a Free Zoo. This would be fine if they weren't looking for some $36,000,000.00 for a new Master Plan! This would be fine if taxes weren't about to skyrocket in the City next year!

It has been suggested by other Zoo Commission Members that they ask for a minimal charge at the gates and Alessi goes absolutely nuts whenever anyone even suggests it and immediately states, "Not while I'm alive!" How about $1.00 to enter if you live outside the City of Salisbury? This isn't asking for too much, is it?

Instead, ALL of you are subjected to misleading letters like the one above asking you for even more money for the Zoo for exhibits that have already been FULLY PAID FOR! They admit this right in their own letter. The Hazel Family donated some $250,000.00 to the Zoo for this exhibit but since Alessi is hot off the campaign trail and realizes that if you just ask people for money, some people will in fact do so from the kindness of their hearts.

Similar to the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans who didn't need a penny, instead they needed physical help, Rapp reached out to the local public and asked for donations they didn't even need! He then doubled it by taking money they had raised from a fund raiser and sent the funds in the name of the Zoo and not the people who donated the money. Nevertheless, the Audobon Zoo didn't need the funds and the Salisbury Zoo could have used these funds to build out a $2,000,000.00 building the AZA is demanding the Zoo build immediately.

I could go on and on about the wrongs within the management of the Salisbury Zoo. However, what's important here is the burden Ron Alessi and Jim Rapp are placing on the Citizens of Salisbury. 70% of the residential homes in the City of Salisbury are renters. This means they are depending on 30% of the people in Salisbury to carry this huge load. I say huge because once the Master Plan is built out, who's going to foot the bill to do the upkeep on the buildings? Who's going to come up with the additional income to pay for the full time Veterinarian the AZA is demanding the have on duty? Eho's going to pay for the additional Staff to care the the animals? Who's going to pay for the food to feed these animals? You know who that person will be, YOU!

I was at the Zoo Commission Meeting where I personally asked Ron Alessi just how much money of the Master Plan was going to come from the Citizens and he replied, "Not A Dime."

They claimed they were going to reach out for Corporate Funds and apply for Grants. They even suggested they might hire yet another grant writer, (something Carrie Sammis was hired to do and got a HUGE raise for doing so) so they could raise even more money. They even talked about hiring a fund raising company who would take 40% od the money raised for themselves, meaning they'd have to raise many more millions of dollars to pay that company off and then pay for the Master Plan Build Out.

My suggestion to all of you is, don't give the Salisbury Zoo a Penny! Let them do their jobs for once and raise the funds they need through outside sources. If they can do so on their own, well, Rapp will finally be doing something all Directors of Zoo's are hired to do, keep the Zoo free from taking money from taxpayers.

This may teach Rapp and Alessi that if you raise $30,000.00 at a Halloween event, they may not be so quick to send $15,000.00 of it to a third world country and actually keep it here in their own Zoo!

I am all for a wonderful Zoo in Salisbury. However, it's time they start acting responsible and carry their own weight. You may not like what I'm saying here, you may not even agree with what I'm saying. However, a small admission would create quite a bit of relief and that relief is on you the taxpayers. If they have 350,000 people coming through the doors each year and they only asked for $1.00, that's an additional $350,000.00 towards salaries and or feeding all the animals for an entire year.

Sending out mailers asking for funds for an exhibit they already raised all the funds for is simply over the top though. Instead, send a care package to our Troops who are actually making a difference for ALL of us this year.

Red Net Alert!!!!!

The Salisbury Waste Water Treatment Plant, (WWTP) has been fined $10,000.00 by the MDE for violations within the Sludge Pit #2.

The original fines were set at $25,000.00 but after an appeal by the City they have agreed to lower them down to $10,000.00 . NOW, that being said, this is WONDERFUL for the taxpayers. However, there's a catch!

The MDE knows the City was refusing to cooperate so they have set some VERY serious guidelines to the entire deal! They have till July, 2007 to remove 100% of the Sludge from Pit #2! IF they do NOT remove it by July the fine instantly goes to $50,000.00!

To TOP that, the MDE is refusing the allow the City to put this sludge through their own system, which is what the Mayor and Jacobs were shooting for! They must remove it all or they will be slammed with the $50,000.00 "administrative penalty" fine!

There's no screwing with this consent order Folks, it's final! Here's what I'd like everyone to think about. The Mayor and John Jacobs wanted to hire Wilber and another Firm out of Virginia to handle this appeal. Everyone knows it cost more than $15,000.00 in legal fees to try to get something reduced, and for what? Between the legal fees and the $10,000.00 fine, they're at an easy $25,000.00 anyway.

Then on top of that they had hoped they could process this Sludge through their own Plant and they completely failed. So at Taxpayers expense, they not only BROKE THE LAW, they tried fighting the MDE and IMO they lost their rear ends because now they/YOU will have to front at least $200,000.00 to $1,000,000.00 to remove the Sludge!

CHECK MATE BARRIE TILGHMAN!

By the way, Barrie is probably reading this here first as the MDE made sure I was the very first to receive the news!

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST!

Salisbury Kennel Club OR Cat Fight?

Last night I was subjected to sitting in a room of people, (mainly women) eating fantastic food and jibber jabber, jibber jabber.

As my wife took ill, she could not attend this meeting but she wanted me to go because she was going to receive a very special award, (similar to many others there in attendance) for our Nemo winning his Championship.

So like a good Hubby I was a good sport and I headed out for the Night Of My Life, NOT! ;-) Seriously though, this is an incredible group of people doing something very special for the Salisbury Community.

Granted, (IMO) you get a group of women together in volumes like this group is, I just don't know how they keep it all together? They seem to recognize just how special and important this outlet is to so many loving and caring pet owners, they work together like a fine tuned clock.

Ladies, thank you for making me feel comfortable last night. To the woman pulling the tickets and making me sit there till the very end to get my gift, we're gonna talk!

On that note, they had some kind of gift giving thingamabopper where you go up, pick out a gift and then open it. That gift can be stolen by someone else three times. On the third time it becomes yours. Gimme a break! The photos above show these women fighting (not really) over gifts the other one didn't want to lose. This made the gift giving take forever and for a man, THAT SUCKED!

I will say however, I ended up with a third steal gift and the Yorkies just love it. Does that sound Gay, or what?

COMING LATER TODAY, Another Huge Zoo Scam/Scandal

Stay Tuned Folks!

Saint, Hero Or Just All Aound Great Man?

Ladies & Gentlemen,

The following story comes from our friend Buryvoter. His Son just successfully went through his 4th open heart surgery and is actually headed to Baltimore again today to have yet another proceedure. His Son is fine and healing well but this story is one everyone should read.

One of the Classiest acts Ive seen in a long long long time. Brian Roberts, 2nd baseman, and one of the best players for the Baltimore Orioles visited my son (and the entire pediatric unit) at the University of Maryland Medical Center after open heart surgery recently. No press following snapping pics for press releases or self promotion, just visits, free gifts, and lifting spirits... which worked greatly.

Seems Brian had open heart surgery when he was 5 and received a visit from a well known baseball player which lifted his spirits and made quite an impact on him... That player was B.J. Surhoff! (Also an Oriole for may years)

Thanks to Brian for remaining grounded and thinking of the kids. Word from the nurses and doctors is that he does this VERY often.

Ron Alessi Was Right About One Thing.......

Students have an easy way to forward their income directly to their families in other Countries through business just like this. They are a Western Union facility and if you've never experienced sending money through Western Union, it's a HUGE rip off!

We hear the complaints about so many low paying jobs in the area, seems to me these people find ways to live together with multiple people in small quarters, save their money and send it back home.

Like I said, it's only a matter of time before neighborhoods fall apart even worse then they are now. Crime will increase like there's no tomorrow and no one will be a property owner. Let's not forget that your property value will decrease as Insurance Companies won't want to write policies and or they'll be through the roof, cost wise.

Like I said, we're going to be the next Little Atlantic City, you'll see.

How Does Ocean City Keep Up With Fire Rescue While Growing So Fast?

With all the massive construction going on in Ocean City, no one forgot about Emergency Services. As the Fire Departments get eaten up by massive buildings such as above, sprinkler systems are mandatory, unlike Salisbury.

IMO, each and every residential home and commercial building should follow in the same footsteps as the Ocean City area and be forced to install sprinkler systems.

So why doesn't Salisbury consider such a proposal? Actually, it has been brought forward to the City Council but it was shot down and again IMO it's because State Regulators would look into the available water supply in Salisbury and say, we're taking over! They would quickly realize the City of Salisbury has nowhere near enough water capacity to provide the water and pressure to put out a serious fire.

If this were considered more seriously, HUGE Fire Stations would become a thing of the past. Fires would be put out without the emergency vehicles being dispatched, similar to the 7 alarm fire in Delmar recently. Granted, that old building could have never been sprinklered but if we start now, the future will be secure when it comes to fighting fires safely.

I can see Kate all over this Post! Go get em Girl!

Today's Wildlife Photo

Will Salisbury Be Next?

Ocean City has attracted so many foreign workers they're even posting signs in Russian for everyone to read?

With the Mexican population skyrocketing in Salisbury, I'm sure we'll be seeing signs in Spanish in no time. Hey, maybe that's what I should do with 300 W. Main Street, open up an International Internet Cafe, Party Time Liquor Store and Spray Paint Can racks and offer a multitude of colors. I'll make a fortune!

If you have to name a store OC Party Market, I'm sure it's attracting those people in their 30's & 40's, right????? Yeah, this is a Family Resort.

Welcome To Ocean City, We're A Family Resort

As soon as you get even close to Ocean City, the Family B.S. goes right out the door. In 5 years Ocean City is going to be what we call, "Little Atlantic City." You'll have a really nice Boardwalk but go two or three blocks in from that Boardwalk and there'll be drug addicts, slums and crime everywhere.

I know we all want to savor the images of the past of Ocean City but sadly to say, they're gone. Crime gets covered up worse than Salisbury in the newspapers and the Mayor has absolutely NO POWERS, unlike Salisbury where they have given all the powers to the Mayor, Idiots!

So take a picture, it will last longer. Ocean City is on its way to being a top drug and crime arena and there's not much anyone can do about it. The Chief of Police there likes to play with the Chief of Police here.