I have been hearing a lot lately of a proposed park on which the County Council intends to vote soon. I've read about it in the Daily Times and heard some about it on local TV news. Can anyone in the know tell us some FACTS so that we can be better informed? I have a few questions.
1) How many appraisals did the county receive?
2) What were the results of tose appraisals?
3) Is it true that McCain Appraisals was one of the companies used?
4) What is the actual price our council is prepared to pay for this land?
5) I know that a portion of the money used to purchase this land will come from the State and belongs to the taxpayers. Is any potion of this money coming directly from "County Taxes"?
Based on what I've heard, I personally can't support this purchase at a time when money is so tight - BUT ....the voice of one person who has unanswered questions is fairly insignificant.
I'm asking that people who read this blog and have specific facts relating to this subject provide other readers with this information so that they may attend the upcoming meeting and voice an educated opinion. Once we can have this discussion and the facts are put out for the people to absorb, I will ask Joe to post a survey (is that still possible?). We can compare the results of any survey to the votes of the individual Council members to helps us see how well they are plugged in to the voters they represent. This is OUR money and OUR county. WE are the ones who should be making the decisions through elected officials who represent us. We owe it to ourselves and our kids to become educated on the issues.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
23 comments:
Sir:
This scam is as bad (but not any worse) than the scam being pulled for the old headquarter fire station in downtown Salisbury -- please keep on top of each of these rip-off's that make the landfill situation pale by comparison.
Why do we need another park?
This is crazy.Maybe we just need
to spend the money.Somebody is getting rich if this goes through.
Mr.Davis bought the property in Dec.2006 for around 1.6 million. He was hoping to put 40 plus homes on this property, but it would only perk for 11 homes. He realized he had a bad investment. Now he wants to stick the taxpayers with property in a down market and still make nearly 400,000.That works out to over 18,000.00 an acre for farm land!
Sounds a little like the Park
in Nanticoke.A few lawyers
purchased it to build and found out they could only put a few homes
on it.They sold it for well over a million.
It's not crooked oak, it's CROOKED PARK.
Like Debbie Campbell once said, "It's like buying a Porche just because it has a $5000 rebate." Something to that affect.
Just because the state wants to give us a little money, doesn't mean we need to purchase something we don't need.
ANON 8:20AM ASK MR. MACKES HOW HE IS BAILING OUT THE FRIEND OF HIS THAT OWNS THE LAND.GONNA BUILD DELEVELOPMENT AND IT DIDNT PERK.BOUGHT IT FOR 1 MILLION #/-.SELLING IT TO THE COUNTY 2 MILLION PLUS.PROFIT OF OVER A MILLION OF TAXPAYERS MONEY. COUNCIL MCCLAIN FIRM APPRAISE THIS TOO.
HOW ABOUT THE NAMES, PLEASE:
"Sounds a little like the Park
in Nanticoke.A few lawyers
purchased it to build and found out they could only put a few homes
on it.They sold it for well over a million."
8:34 AM
There is no infrastructure in place to support this park. It will be twenty years before the roads leading to this land can be upgraded to safely handle the traffic. It is a scam to bail out a developer. Crooked Oak Road leads to crooked land deal. It smells real bad to me. Just one more waste of our tax dollars.
P.S. This IS A DONE DEAL in spite of what Pollitt told us at the last meeting.
farm boy
McCain's office did not do the appraisal
If you look at the tax records, Mr. Davis, thru an LLC, purchased the property on Dec 22 2006 for $900k. Can any appraiser keep a straight face and say its now worth $2.34 mil? Please. There will be a public hearing at the March 25? Council meeting to discuss. The Council has to decide whether to exercise its option. Bill McCain would have a conflict of interest in appraising this property and would not due so. With property prices declining, and being outside the metro core, this property shouldn't be priced anywhere near $18k per acre.
This has to be one of the worst deals our county has tried to put on the tax payers shoulders. No matter that they have state money for this project, since that STATE MONEY is tax dollars we all contribute too. Lets make some sense out of such deals and stop this waist of resourses!
A. Goetz
Anybody have a list of our{city & co.} council persons phone numbers? Could someone post it? I think we should be ringing them n lett'em know what we expect and want done!
Well folks, lets look at this dirty deal. Let the Developer give the land to the County as open space, and dedicate it as open space. I dissagree that we do not need "another park" The more preservation of "open space" there is, the better for future generations. I agree would should not pay a premimum for "friends" land. But I do beliee we should preserve the land. So, let the builders donate it. Works for everyone.
Please take into consideration that the developer bought approx. 130 acres for that amount and is only selling the county approx 110 acres. That changes the math.
Just because the state is willing to donate Open Space funds doesn't mean we should purchase this land. Someone has already pointed out the condition of the roads leading to this area. Who pays to change the roads? Who pays to maintain a park (grass cutting mulching and other landscaping...garbage removal, etc?) Is the county budget in such great shape that we can afford to tack on these costs for a park this size?
Cars routinely drive through the four way stop at Crooked Oak Lane and Rockawalkin Rd. The speed limit on Rockawalkin is 40 mph, but if you're driving at 40 mph, you are GUARANTEED to have someone riding your a** the whole way down while they try to pass you.
What's next...a stop light smack dab in the middle of this rural area? Give me a break.
the open space funds can go the OTHER park development. you know, the one the county already owns.., a short distance away.
And the county won't be done once they purchase this property. They will have to expand the road and build the park. Double the $2.0 mil price tag on this baby before you are done. Mr. Mackes is building his kingdom at the expense of taxpayers. The Council needs to walk away now and let Mr. Davis develop his property as he wishes.
As a real estate professional and a taxpayer in this county, I'm highly offended and, frankly, PO'd that the elected officials are even considering such a poor investment, regardless of what they intend to use it for. This is a time when we should not be doing anything except what is necessary, and another "Park Wannabe" area is UNNESSARY. By the way, there are NO properties in Wicomico county which have increased in value since December 2006. Not one.
I'm really sick to death of the white collar crooks, their worse than the ones pillaging the neighborhoods under darkness.....you know what to expect from them! Watch and see which ones of the council crooks votes for it, you'll have your crook, you know damn well theres something in it for them. The greed over takes them and no ones going to punish them....there needs to be special punishments for elected crooks!
If Rick Pollitt approves this park after I heard his double talk about the liquor stores I am going to have a different opinion of the man, plain and simple. I'll not smear him or bad mouth him, just won't have much respect for him.
It wasn't long ago Rick stated that government shouldn't be in competition with public business, which is it? Well, anything is better than Alessi I guess.
I'll never understand goverment. The state is broke yet they don't cut back on grants for feel good projects. When you don't have the money you need to cut projects or grants that don't have to be done. There is so much waste in our goverment's budgets.
Yes sure looks like taxpayers will have to suffer cuts in services while we bail out yet another developer
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