The Salisbury WWTP Had ANOTHER Spill!

Barrie Tilghman has figured out the perfect way to resolve releasing critical information without having to actually be accountable.

Last night Public Works Director Jim Caldwell announced yet ANOTHER sewage spill at the Salisbury WWTP. This was done in the beginning of the meeting while Public Comment isn't allowed till the end of the meeting, hours later.

I want to explain something to ALL of you, including Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen. I am one of the very few people that know the WWTP like the back of my hand and I'd like to explain something to ALL of you.

Where they are doing this construction, IMO, it is impossible to them to have a spill of 4 minutes, 10 minutes or whatever bullsh!t they want to give you and it find its way all the way to the River. I'll repeat, it's impossible for that to happen.

So I'm telling you, there are pipes heading to that River in which when and if they have a spill, I'd say they know what's about to happen and they discharge overflow into those pipes and they knowingly leak into the River.

IMO, this is not accidental. The photo above shows you just how far away the main part of the Plant is from the River and a 4 minute spill isn't going to go there. It's time for some NEW accountability and get them to explain how this is so possible.

I'll add, along the way to the river the are old sludge pits along the way. ANY overflow should hit those pits before they hit the River and that too isn't happening. The photo just above is one of those abandoned pits that is between the actual Plant and the River. If they had a spill, one would believe that spill would make its way into one of these pits. As a matter of fact, if I worked for the MDE, I'd make damn sure that's where everything actually went so there was some real accountability towards just how large the spill actually was.

Let's see if this raises any attention from the MDE and IF they're willing to consider such a plan? It sure it's a lot better to have it where you could recycle it and not ever and up in the River again. Then again, this makes too much sense and probably cost next to nothing to actually make happen. Remember, this pit has nothing in it and is still there today. No additional land is necessary and again, this is where everything should head anyway, before getting to the River. What say you now Mayor I Have No Accountability Tilghman?

Park Should Be Voted Down

Tonight Wicomico citizens have an opportunity to stand up and let their elected officials know that purchasing land for another park on the west side of Wicomico County is yet one more example of throwing tax dollars down the drain. I realize that there are people who sincerely want a new park. If I actually thought that this was the aim I probably wouldn't oppose it. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that purchasing this land will accomplish anything more than lining the pockets of a few citizens while reducing the assessable tax base of this county.

Let's look at the facts. Wicomico County already owns a sizable tract of land on the west side of the Wicomico River (the Pirate's Wharf property) that was designated for a park. Nothing has been accomplished on building a park on that property to date. There are serious questions as to whether the taxpayers would be paying too much for the Crooked Oak Lane property currently under discussion. If the county goes through with the purchase, then the county's tax base will be reduced. If the property is actually worth over $2 million, then that should lower county revenues by $1 million - $2 million per year. It's my understanding that the property is not assessed at anything near the $2+ million that the county wants to pay. If not, why not?

To add insult to injury, the Daily Times describes the property as "another WinterPlace-like park for residents". Have any of you visited WinterPlace Park recently? County parks chief Gary Mackes can't seem to find the money in his budget to provide for upkeep of WinterPlace. Where do you think that he will find the funds to build and then maintain another park.

I've been told by county officials that WinterPlace is going to be fixed up. Fine. When Mackes has shown that he can take care of the properties already under his stewardship, then (and only then) should the County Council begin discussion of feeding Mr. Mackes' growing bureaucracy.

Wicomico County Councilman Joe Holloway is right. There have been serious questions raised about the objectivity of the appraisals on this property. There appears to be a strong case that the county wishes to purchase the land at an inflated price.

In addition, most of the people pushing for this purchase love to point out that this isn't costing the county taxpayer a nickel. According to these people, wasting state tax dollars is somehow OK. I disagree. We all ultimately pay the bill for such folly. Wicomico County is not in the "land banking" business. If they are going to acquire land for parks, then there should already be a plan in place develop and maintain that park. In a county with a revenue cap we can hardly afford to take property off of the tax rolls to lie fallow until the county government figures out how to fund the construction and maintenance of a new park.

In a county that has a reported road repair backlog of over $10 million, our elected officials need to figure out how to address pressing infrastructure needs before they begin banking land and talking about building parks that the county government clearly can't afford.

cross posted at Delmarva Dealings

Technorati Tags: Maryland, Wicomico, politics, Wicomico politics, fiscal policy, parks, Gary Mackes, Joe Holloway

The Paul Wilber Welfare Fund

Each year hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars go into the pocket of Salisbury City Attorney Paul Wilber. Last night, Mayor Barrie Tilghman's "council leadership" added tens of thousands to the budget for Mr. Wilber's pocket.

Where does all that money go? The taxpayers will never know.

Why? It seems that every document that comes from Mr. Wilber's office is stamped "Privileged and Confidential". Whenever a member of the public wants to find out about one of Wilber's opinions they are denied. Whenever Coucilwomen Campbell or Cohen want to discuss it, they are denied.

At Monday's meeting Debbie Campbell made an excellent point that the public should know how their money is being spent. Now remember, we're not talking about items that are protected by the open meetings law. Taxpayers aren't allowed to find out how a large percentage of city legal expenditures are being spent.

Instead, Barrie Tilghman simply pays out a great deal of tax money into the "Paul Wilber Welfare Fund".

cross posted at Delmarva Dealings

Technorati Tags: Maryland, Salisbury, politics, Salisbury politics, fiscal policy, taxation, Barrie Tilghman, Debbie Campbell, Terry Cohen

It's Time To Bring Out Some Truth!

While information was coming in last week about a gentleman named Mathew Scott Lawson allegedly making terroristic threats to SU, it was a complete crock of sh!t and Wicomico County is actually in some pretty deep trouble about the incident.

Warden Devanin sent in a psychiatrist to evaluate an Lawson who allegedly stated he was delusional and paranoid. Lawson was sent over to the Dover Psychiatric Ward for several days and was found to be perfectly normal!

Mr. Lawson was placed on leave with pay but has yet to return to his position. There were NO WEAPONS found at his home and even while Lawson offered up his computer for them to review, NOTHING was found in it as well and they have yet to return his property.

What happened was, Lawson was chatting with a co-worker, Officer Kressin when they were talking about gun control. Lawson said the laws were all screwed up and they started talking about other Universities and the shootings that had happened there. Lawson then mentioned in light of everything that has happened elsewhere how easy it would probably be to do the same thing at SU.

It turns out Lawson and Kressin had been very close friends up until recently and they had a falling out but still worked together. Kressin was the Officer that allegedly wrote up a report on Lawson referencing this matter and the next thing everyone knew it was blown way out of proportion.

I'm told Antinelli will be representing Lawson in a suit against the County and you know what, I can't say as I blame him. Someone took a regular guy and turned him into a mad man in everyone else's minds and scared the living crap out of the SU Students.

Was Officer Kressin doing what was in the best interest of the Students? Time will tell and I'm sure a Judge will have his ears filled with all sorts of "others sides" to this story.

Who Do YOU Think Is Throwing Out Demands?

Last night, Gary Comegys was putting words into Debbie & Terry's mouths like there's no tomorrow. However, one that truly got my attention was the word DEMANDS. Gary kept claiming Debbie & Terry were demanding things last night and I couldn't help but think to myself, what an Idiot!

The reason there is a Council is so that NO ONE can DEMAND anything! I could see if it was one person verses the other. However, you cannot demand anything when you have 5 people making a final decision.

Nevertheless, look at the photo above and you tell me who was demanding whom? Gary went right back to the old Mike Dunn days waving his hands and trying to look like the alpha dog of the pack.

IMO, that meeting was a complete joke and I'll touch on that later. In the mean time, Comegys was not only out of line, Louise Smith failed to equally balance her Code of Conduct by allowing Gary to go on and on about Terry & Debbie, yet Terry & Debbie were shut down every time they tried to defend their positions.

Even as I write this I can't help but think of just how childish this is. I was thinking to myself earlier this morning, NOTHING has changed. It's all about control by the Mayor and I'd like ALL of you to think back for many years now, ever since this Mayor was elected.

When you go back to the Rachel Polk / Von Sigers days or even the Mike Dunn / Lynn Cathcarts days, there's still the fights. NOTHING has settled down. Why is this? Why can you go to Ocean City with a larger Council of 7 people and they carry themselves professionally and with respect. When you go to the County Council Meetings, again, it's very respectful and professional.

You put that woman Barrie Tilghman in the mix and look what the end results are. Oh, I know, it's all Debbie & Terry's fault! No Ladies & Gentlemen, get your heads out of your rear ends and recognize the problem is Barrie Tilghman and the fact that this Blog has opened every one's eyes to reality by exposing their crooked politics.

This is why Barrie Tilghman is suing me. Same goes with the Chief of Police. When Rachel Polk challenged the Chief, he sued her too. There's no code of ethics in Salisbury. These are two jackass bullies who must control everyone or shut you down, period.

All that being said, the next time there's an election, I'm telling you, you must vote this woman out of Office, IF she's stupid enough to ever attempt to run again. I personally believe that she/they now realize just how powerful this Blog has become and her chances of getting any real votes are so far fetched it isn't funny.

There were NO demands put forth by Debbie or Terry last night and IMO they tried arranging everything humanly possible to separate each item to vote on them independently and no one would budge on it. I also believe the Mayor purposely put the Pond issue on this part of the agenda because she wanted it to fail. The City doesn't want to pony up the money for this and she knew it was going to fail. She's no dummy, I'll give her that.

Which Photo Do You Believe Barrie Would Use

Above are two photographs of Barrie Tilghman. One looks like it came out of a College Yearbook and the other is reality.

Barrie used the first photo for the LGIT site. Could you imagine if she were single and trying out for on line dating, the surprise one might get when they came to town and saw the real thing? Sheeeeeeeit!

That's false advertisement! It's certainly NOT Legit!

The Daily Times Plays Hide & Go Seek

While Greg Latshaw was in fact at last nights Council Meeting, I saw nothing in today's paper about the meeting referencing the budget amendment?

This brings up a certain problem. The Daily Times has a new deadline in which they cannot reach in a heated Council Meeting/Debate. Greg stayed as late as he could last night but missed 100% of the actual fireworks because of the deadline.

The question is, did the Council put it on the agenda as the last item because they knew they'd get shot down and it wouldn't be decided until after the deadline to go to the press? What I find most curious is, there was other information from that meeting, yet they printed nothing in the actual print version of the paper.

So here's what "I" see as an upcoming problem. Will the Council attempt to move the meeting up to 5:00, instead of the normal 6:00 PM? I guess we're going to see just how powerful the Daily Times is in this community because they're now fighting other battles demanding they get information a day ahead of time so they can compete with 47 & 16 News.

All in all there should have been something in today's paper about the earlier portion of last nights meeting and there wasn't. There's always tomorrow. ROTFLMAO!

The photo above clearly shows Greg Latshaw sitting there when Paul Wilber got up in front of the Council for the beefiest part of the entire meeting. He got up and walked out, without listening to any of the controversial debate on the budget amendment. So why didn't the rest of the meeting go to press?

Is there Crooked Oak wool being pulled over the eyes of the people?

You Decide!


A few days ago I spoke with both Rick Pollitt and John Cannon on the phone and asked several questions about the Crooked Oak deal. The three main questions I had were:

1) When Can I see the appraisals?

2) What did the property appraise for?

3) Why are we seeking more real estate at taxpayers expense when taxes are so high and the economy is so poor.

John Cannon, for whom I voted, told me I'd have to speak to Rick in order to get an answer to #1.
He stated that the property appraised for around $18,000 per acre. He stated that one of the "comps" used by one of the appraisers was a GOLF COURSE in Delaware! What? Yep. He also stated that Bill McCain advised that this was an acceptable comp because certain "adjustments" are made to make it a more accurate comp.

I spoke to Rick, for whom I voted, who stated that I could see the appraisals as soon as the County made a preliminary offer to the land owners and they accepted it. He stated that such an offer was not binding on the County but was binding on the owners. I asked Rick if this would be completed in time for me to receive a copy of the appraisals so that I could review them prior to the meeting on 3/25 so that the PEOPLE could make educated comments. Rick told me that he didn't see why not and that he would have someone call me as soon as they were available for review. Today, 3/24, I received a call from Jim Fineran who advised that the preliminary offer had not been signed by the involved parties, therefore the appraisals would not be available for review.

No worries y'all....I'm fairly resourceful. I've spoken to MY appraiser and I got some figures. The appraiser of whom I speak is quite familiar with the property in question. I've used this firm extensively and trust their accuracy without question. BUT, as Ron Reagan said "trust, but verify". I also contacted a real estate agent who was kind enough to complete a market analysis and, just as I suspected, both came up with figures that were similar - and WELL below the asking price per acre. I'll be providing these figures tomorrow at the meeting. Civic Center - 7:00 p.m.

I am troubled that the appraisals which were paid for with OUR money wouldn't be made available for us to see BEFORE a meeting held for public comment.

There are still many questions that need to be answered but I doubt we'll get them tomorrow. Based on what happens at the meeting, I will write an additional post which will ask these questions and perhaps get the answers we deserve. Remember this folks. This is OUR money being spent. Nuff said for now. Everyone should try to be present.

*CAMPBELL, COHEN TO HOLD 2^ND OPEN GOVT. PUBLIC INPUT MEETING*

At the request of participants in their first public input meeting on
increasing transparency in Salisbury City Council, council members
Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen will hold their second public input
meeting Tuesday, March 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Meeting Room 1 (basement) of the Wicomico County Free Library.

This second forum will be mostly workgroup-style to enable participants
to have a more focused experience in developing their particular areas
of interest. The first meeting, held in February at Las Palmas
Restaurant, provided a long list of citizens’ questions and ideas about
public accessibility to records and information, opportunities for
communication by the city with its constituents, and disclosure of who
is doing business with the city, to name a few topics.

Light refreshments will be served. The meeting is free and open to the
public. For more information, contact either Councilwoman Debbie
Campbell at 410-860-0893 and debbiescampbell@comcast.net
; or Councilwoman Terry Cohen at
410-845-0296 and Terry@TerryCohen.com .

Councilwoman Tery Cohen On Bill Reddish This Morning

Terry Cohen will be on the Bill Reddish Show at 7:40 AM this morning. That's WICO, 1320 AM.

Comegys, Smith and Tilghman Want to Deny Taxpayers Information

Think back to the beginning of February. The Salisbury city audit had just come out. The audit communication read like a financial horror story. Over $10 million was misplaced.

If you listened to Salisbury Council members Louise Smith and Gary Comegys then, they were the friends of the taxpayers. They were going to make sure that the city's Department of Internal Services (DIS) was going to start doing their jobs properly. Accounts would be reconciled on time.

What has really happened?

By their own admission, the only accounts that have been reconciled since the beginning of the fiscal year have been the cash and investment accounts. Those have only been reconciled through December. By their own admission, the city can't balance its own checkbook. But according to Comegys, this doesn't matter. According to Comegys the taxpayers of Salisbury should look forward and not back.

Why? If citizens actually were made aware of how the Tilghman administration (with their knowing accomplices Smith, Comegys and Shanie Shields) was managing the city's finances their would be an uproar. That's why Comegys wants people to ignorantly trust him and his cohorts and just move forward. Looking back to the facts is simply too scary a proposition.

Monday night we witnessed a full blown brawl where Comegys, Smith and Mayor Barrie Tilghman tag teamed Councilwomen Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen to draw attention from the fact that the city can't balance its own checkbook nor is Tilghman willing to follow simple laws that state that money must be appropriated before she can spend it.

True to form, Smith spent the evening interrupting Campbell and Cohen at every turn. Comegys attacked Campbell and Cohen, but with no interruption from Smith. Tilghman boo-hooed that her staff was being attacked. All as subterfuge to keep the taxpayers from getting access to how much money the city is spending.

It is unfortunate, but the taxpayers of Salisbury are getting what they deserve. When their taxes are raised again, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

cross posted on Delmarva Dealings

Technorati Tags: Maryland, Salisbury, politics, Salisbury politics, fiscal policy, taxation, Barrie Tilghman, Louise Smith, Gary Comegys, Shanie Shields, Debbie Campbell, Terry Cohen

Happy Maryland Day!

Believe it or not,today is actually an obscure holiday,"Maryland Day",which commemorates the founding of Maryland by colonists on this date in 1634,sent here by Lord Baltimore himself.

But what exactly do we have to celebrate?In case you haven't noticed,living in the "Free State" is starting to cost too much.Our state sales tax recently increased by 1%,a foolhardy move considering our proximity to tax-free Delaware.The price of a pack of smokes in Maryland have skyrocketed,but we also are close to Virginia,where cigarettes are considerably cheaper.Alcohol is just as lethal as tobacco,but alcohol taxes have not been increased in our state in over a decade,excluding the sales tax increase.Don't even get me started on the smoking ban issue.

At the same time that we are paying higher service fees at the MVA,they are making it easy for illegal immigrants to get drivers licenses.While I get a decent Federal Tax Refund,I almost always end up owing Maryland money.Property taxes are being inflated in some counties to the point that they are driving out jobs and residents.We blame watermen and farmers for polluting the bay but allow unchecked development to swallow up rural areas .Do I need to go on?

All of our elected officials need to take this day to think about what direction Maryland is headed in and decide what to do next.If things keep going the way they are,they may have to think up a new state nickname.