Hello Joe,
I would like to congratulate council members Joe Hollaway, Stevie Prettyman, Gail Bartkovich and Bob Culver for their hard decision on the Bennett Middle School issue. As I have said at a recent county council meeting, the make up of this County Council is unique and not an accident.
A conservative council was voted in by the taxpayers to lead this county through some very tough economic times.
Though I might not agree with all the decisions they have made they were right on with this one.
This issue from the very beginning was put forward with smoke screens (14 million dollars suddenly coming out of nowhere), intentionally misleading information (the State will pay for 96% of this project), trying to make an end run around the Charter to make it fit the BOE needs (using previously legislated funding for the project without going through the proper legislative procedures), presenting conflicting information to the County Council (BOE stating the school could not be renovated by a recommendation that someone thinks was made in 2005 but for some reason they didn't have a copy of this document. Councilmen Culver was however able to produce documentation from the County Executive's briefing stating the school could be renovated). Perhaps if the BOE had just told the citizens right up front that they didn't want to renovate the school because it was in the way of the ball fields layouts and a renovated middle school wouldn't go along with the aesthetics and grandiose they wanted to be projected by the new high school.
All the problems that were presented by concerned citizens are all items that could be addresses in a phased renovation of the school. These are the air conditioning, asbestos and lead abatement, electrical upgrade, modern technology in electronics and security are all taken into account during renovation. Wouldn't it have been nice for the citizens and County Council to at least have had something to compare in order to make a decision? I know of a sixty eight year old building at one of our local colleges that was recently renovated to Gold LEED standards. I've recently read where someone said distrust has crept into this project. I've got news for that person. There has been distrust mounting between the BOE and the citizens for many years and it doomed this project from the start. I've also read the recent rant by retired school teacher Mr. Geoff Smoot and found that it is extremely sad that this once productive member of our school system has fallen victim to his own headlines. Mr. Smoot, VOICE believes that if you give the citizens and the County Council the true information they will make a wise decision. I once again invite you to join us in finding the facts behind issues and presenting them to our fellow citizens for them to make informative decisions. We currently have some informative information that we will be putting out at the BOE budget hearings and hope you can come join us. Perhaps you will be able to justify our findings.
To the County Council we once again want to thank you for making the proper decision.
John Palmer Jr.,
President
VOICE Inc.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
8 comments:
As another poster pointed out, this "exercise" is being orchestrated at the State level. Sure, the State will pay a large portion of the cost. Where exactly is THAT money coming from though. Can you say "Teacher Pensions"?
What teachers need to ask themselves is how much risk is the State putting them at by making them the pawn in an effort to bolster the purses of large construction companies. If the County ends up not being able to underwrite the State Pension obligations to teachers, who loses?
I suspect that Joe is onto something that may be much larger than he thinks but maybe he's holding back much more than he's revealing.
is this not what the private industries did..Leverage their Pension plans? This is bad what happens if the bottom falls out ....another useless IOU?
Teachers need to be mindful of what they're supporting. When the county goes bankrupt, it's too late to wish somebody had the guts and the foresight to slow down the spending train.
anonymous 6:06, with all due respect, do you really think those liberals care?
Remember, this is a party who believes in making sure each and every person and or business gets bailed out by those responsible people who run businesses and create enough income to pay for their screw ups.
It is what it is.
That is why I come and read this site each and every day - twice, thrice, muliple times.
One would never read this factual information from The Daily Times. Quite the contrary - the Daily Times would make-up news and then supplant information using treacherous ways to deceive their reading audience.
Thank you SBYnews for setting the record straight. As much as it hurts, I'm going to take off from work tomorrow and attend this gathering.
Joe,
I will try to be brief which is very difficult with the topics at hand. As a lifelong resident of Wicomico County I can say that I have seen the best and the worst this county has to offer in all areas of education. Mr. Smoot when he taught me and my classmates was at least able to start out maintaining some level of moderation when it came to his political passions. This however changed when as a junior I began to lean hard towards and in my senior year registered as a Republican and as a conservative became the enemy of many of my teachers who I suddenly found increasingly argumentative when classroom conversation became outright combative! We would eventually come around to the Democrat/Liberal correct way of thinking. Here I am some 35 years later and I am still a committed Conservative. Mr. Smoot is a my way or the highway t-totaler Liberal and I'm glad I'm not in his classroom these days because no doubt he'd flunk me at all cost. Fortunately my children had a mother and father who heated with 100 % wood, all our meats were harvested wild game, our fish was caught by either myself or friends and we in general sacrificed to put our kids through private school and they are very well rounded individuals who make there own decisions and have large amounts of common sense THANK GOD! I say all this to preface my thoughts on the Bennett Middle School we as citizens need to seriously rethink the way we have been just spend, spend, spend .......... you get the idea! whether you're conservative, liberal, moderate, libertarian take your pick it has to end somewhere or we as a nation will spend ourselves into oblivion. Joe recently featured an article that showed the nation of Greece had a net worth less than that of Apple! Folks this is a global issue but, I'm sure anyone with a lick of sense could work this equation back to a local issue of out of control spending and regardless of political affiliation we are all guilty to some degree for allowing it to get this way!
I recommend we take the board of ed and start at the top and trim the dead wood of anything that is not achieving it's intended productivity for the dollars necessary to accomplish the desired goals get out the axe and it's time to do this with no regard for sacred cows. I hope this covers the topic adequately but, it is indeed a very broad subject as most government entities are.
Regards, Dead Wood Chopper
We the people must get the News out to a National News outlet this is going to cost everyone.How will we pay and how will we sell our houses to get away from it? no one will want to buy our homes in a high tax area. And the gangs will make hard to sell ,that should be fixed first!
8:15, did you know that Geoff Smoot started out as a Republican? I'm not sure what happened over the years.
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