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Saturday, January 05, 2008

It's About My Bad Knee.....


Dr. Bartkovitch, I know my timing isn't perfect but it's about that Handicap Sticker I need for my vehicle. That pesky Albero BLASTED me a week or so ago about me using an expired Handicap Sticker and ever since, no Doctor will give me one again on the sly. Can you help me, it's this knee right here, see? You're a Republican, right? I mean, we do stick together, right brother?

Delmar High School

Delmar News Go here to see photos of students.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

It is with great sadness to hear of the tragic loss of two Delmar students, Kyle Dixon and Dustin Bruch, and the injury of two others in a car accident Friday evening. Anyone who would like to be amongst friends is welcome to come to the school at 11:00 Saturday.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.

The Bill Ahtes Scam


This coming Monday, Bill Ahtes will present a package to the City Council in which he has used another gentleman who has been working for years on the "Children's Theater." For many years now, Carlos has be putting off shows locally and he has always sold out his 200 seat shows without any advertising.

He has worked out a deal for a 7.5 acre parcel of land on Rt. 13 and Foskey Lane in Delmar. His goal is to sell off 2 acres of the land to a franchise restaurant to help offset the cost of purchasing the land.

I put up a Post and a link the other day to his Website and it clearly shows an 800 seat Theater, not a 140 seat Theater. "You cannot put off a Broadway Show in the Old Firehouse." There simply won't be enough seats.

On the other side of the coin, why is Bill Ahtes asking Carlos to get involved in Salisbury? When I asked Carlos that question he said that he had clearly told Bill that he will not go into a partnership with anyone. This is a Children's Theater in which Carlos hired a company called Design Atlantic to put his package together. In order to achieve the proper Grants, you have to be in a small enough community and Salisbury doesn't fit the criteria. However, Delmar, MD. does.

I personally believe Bill is using Carlos to show there has been interest and the funny part is, Carlos has been completely successful ON HIS OWN! He does NOT need Bill Ahtes and it's sad to me to watch Bill use Carlos like he's about to do.

A Theater in the Old Station 16 is NOT big enough. There has also been talk about Bill needing to raise some $5,000,000.00 to complete a renovation of Station 16 and I've been told by professionals that it would actually cost less than $1,000,000.00 to do what Bill wants done. However, why do it there when they would out grow that location the very first day they swung the doors? Carlos if pulling off sold out 200 seat shows right now at the Chipman Center!

So Ladies & Gentlemen, it makes no sense what Bill Ahtes is attempting to do and I smell a serious rat. Someone wants a FREE building and even if they were to purchase the building for a low price, it's still a scam, IMO. This idea does NOT serve the public properly as they will only be able to seat 140 people or so. I can't believe they could hold that many and I'm also told the stage would only be 20 feet wide too.

So let's hope the City Council looks into this more seriously and I strongly encourage them to call me or contact Carlos and he can explain what he's doing right now, how many seats he sells without ANY advertising and what this Industry really needs. Bill Ahtes wants a building and that's all there is to it. Considering I have not done that much research and Bill has apparently hired people to consult him on what would and wouldn't work, this is flat out stupid.

This brings in NO tax revenue and doesn't help the City's debt one bit. Let's NOT forget Comegys wanted an appraisal on that Building before they did anything. Well, where is it?????

The Work Session starts at 4:30 PM on Monday. I strongly suggest as many of you as possible go there and see the package they're about to present.

Get To Know Your Local Republicans


Click on image to enlarge.

Congressional Candidate Andy Harris Is Guest Speaker At 14th Annual Brunch


Richard Colburn held a Fund Raiser this morning at the Ramada Inn in Downtown Salisbury where Senator Andy Harris was strongly endorsed by Lowell Stoltzfus and Richard Colburn.

I spoke personally with Sheriff Mike Lewis about Andy Harris and he said, "You know what Joe, I like this guy Andy Harris."

I did not see the Daily Times there and I didn't see fellow Blogger Michael Shwartz there either. More to come on this event........

More Info On Lisa Tate, New Zoo Director


Lisa Tate currently serves as Region 5 Director, USHGA Vice President, and Planning

Committee Chair. She was an active BOD participant from 1982 to 1992, chairing the Public

Relations Committee and serving on the Competition Committee and Membership and

Development Committee. Lisa has worked in the non profit sector for over 20 years and as

the Ethics Director of the Dobson Foundation for 9 years. She has assisted with strategic

planning for several non profit organizations including : Des Arab, International Human Rights

Action League, AZA Taxon Advisory Groups, Idaho Non Profit Development Center , Torture

Victims Interpretive Services, Glass Arts Society, Arabian Horse Trust, and the American

Ornithologists Union. She is a Nationally Certified Fund Raising Specialist and grant writer.

Lisa currently serves as North American Population Management Plan Manager for the Black

Crowned Crane and is an elected member to the Andean Condor Species Survival Plan

Steering Committee. Lisa is an advanced rated pilot and has been flying hang gliders since

the late 1970’s. She has been the organizer and meet director of the King Mountain Hang

Gliding Championships for the last 10 years.

http://ozreport.com/docs/USHGASTRATEGICPLAN10.10.pdf (pg 8.)

The City's Press Release said she was currently working at Zoo Boise, NOT true.

Never Argue With A Woman

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says,

"Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?"

"Reading a book," she replies, (thinking, "Isn't that obvious?")

"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.

I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment.. For all I know you could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day ma'am," and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think .

New Years Resolution


So, how many of you actually said they'd do something as a resolution for New Years?

I personally think it's a crock but many people are so weak, they have to use a special date to get started. That's cool. Now, how many of you told your children, you're going to quit smoking on that day and then you failed your children? You know, the people that look up to you and you set examples for them to follow the rest of their life.

I'm going to lose weight. OK, did you throw out all those munchies in the cabinets or are you telling everyone, as soon as we get rid of this stuff I'll get started?

How many of you are still so stupid you're paying as much as $7.00 for a pack of cigarettes, yet you could even drive over the Delaware line without having to pay the same taxes?

I have one friend that I know of who quit smoking over New Years and I'm quite proud of her. I'm not exactly sure she quit on New Years Eve but I believe it had more to do with the price per pack than anything else and that SHOULD motivate people.

Now if only the stupid smokers would smoke twice as much, the state of Maryland would be out of debt in no time at all! Do any of you know just what will happen when they do get caught up? Does our Government give out reports showing if Cigarette Companies are up or down in their volume of sales? Especially per state! I want to know, did the increase work and how soon will they be able to reduce the price back down once they've reached their goal? I mean, the debt shouldn't last forever, right?

So let's see how many people are willing to admit they have already failed at their New Years Resolution. My guess is that this Post will get very few comments of such.

Happy New Year!

LOL

It's Only Tax Money


Next week will be exciting for the Tilghman administration. While the taxpayers of Salisbury still have no final accounting of how the Tilghman Crew of Barrie, John, Lore, Pam and Paul (as well as their council allies Louise, Gary and Shanie) have wasted the taxpayers' hard earned dollars the council crew is all set to flush some more money down the drain.

On Monday we will all be treated with a "presentation" of how much money will (possibly) come into the city if Barrie's sycophants on the city council will only give away Fire Station 16 to an arts group backed by Barrie's friend Bill Ahtes. The (lack of) detail provided in the council's briefing book provides evidence that the assumptions and figures are suspect at best. Mayor Tilghman and her cohorts wouldn't want anyone to ask any intelligent questions. Would they? It was little things like intelligent questions by council members Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen which forced the administration and her council crew to back off from a 10% water and sewer increase last year.

The city has already cooked the books on the new fire station, spent money without authorization and now they want to give away a valuable piece of city owned real estate. Not only do they wish to give it away, they want to give it away to the same group of people (although using a different organizational front) that accepted the old Boulevard Theater on Main Street and then sold the property for condos. Of course it's irrelevant that their are parties who have already expressed an interest in paying hard cash for Station 16 and will then create jobs and tax revenue.

On Tuesday the council will again meet to discuss the CIP (capital improvement plan). While I haven't finished going through the entire proposal, I am already shocked at some of items that the Mayor has chosen to waste tax dollars on:

A study for the proposed Barrie Parsons Tilghman City Hall. The city finally paid off the GOB, but since Wicomico County Executive Rick Pollitt hasn't agreed to name the building after Barrie, she wants the taxpayers of Salisbury to build her one that is.

$300,000 for a skate park? Bitchin' dude!

$228,000 for a bike trail along the Northeast Collector Road. I happen to support biking and hiking trails. I just question why Barrie wants to add even more subsidy to the Aydelotte Farms development. If the city can't afford basic services like police and fire, why this project now? Gary Comegys argument that people are going to travel to Salisbury to ride their bikes is ridiculous. The Seagull Century is an event, bike trails aren't. Of course I like his argument that Louise Smith's neighbors in Canal Woods are going to ride their bikes all the up to the north end of town to do their shopping. If Gov. O'Malley is willing to waste $225,000 of taxpayer funds for almost half the project Barrie and Gary should call up Al Gore to fund the balance.

$600,000 for the Downtown Plaza. In all fairness, I support the rejuvenation of downtown. Unfortunately their is no comprehensive plan. Instead Barrie just likes to throw some tax money every few years so that she can get support for re-election.

$1.75 million for South Division Street. And how much tax money is being brought in by the development Barrie and crew pushed through along S. Division?

$252,000 for another pedestrian bridge over the East Branch of the Wicomico River? Gee, there's so much foot traffic along that area now.

And that's just a partial list folks. But hey, it's only tax money.


Crossposted on Delmarva Dealings

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