Mind you, the proposal is for three years, totaling $99,000.00. Mackes is claiming they are losing players and teams because the County's fees are too high.
OK, let's get down to nuts and bolts here. Mackes has more than $900,000.00 IN ESCROW. WHY can't he just use their own money already in escrow to reduce the fees?
Instead, Mackes and Pollitt want the TAXPAYERS to subsidize these teams and players. Again, something you are not and will not see elsewhere in the local media.
So now your County Executive wants to RAISE YOUR TAXES by 4.3 cents and now you know why. It's NOT a quality of life issues for YOU. It's a quality of life YOU are providing for others OUTSIDE the County.
Here's what I would propose. The County forks up hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Salisbury Zoo and has done so for many years through the County Room Tax at Hotels and Motels.
If the County wants to start acting accountable, change the legislation so that ALL of those funds go to Parks & Rec.. STOP punishing the TAXPAYERS and START thinking like a good business executive.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
58 comments:
How come the Civic Center thinks it can shut down the road for every event now?.. it began with events geared towards Children and has now evolved into a weekly thing.
Typical Progressive mentality little by little they expand their purview until they decide it is their domain..they think they rule over us and they can do as poor a job as they please and not be accountable to anyone. Keep drinking and partying on our dime folks
Tax and Spend
This is just great, Pollitt proposes to tax us to provide services to another special interest group . . MANY OF WHICH DON'T EVEN RESIDE IN WICOMICO COUNTY!!!. In essence, he proposes to use Wicomico County taxpayers money to subsidize outsiders. This guy needs to take a reality pill.
I swear, Pollitt will stoop to about anything. He simply doesn't care about Wicomico residents.
The financial commitment to a play ball in a tournament is well known to the parents before they enroll in any type of sport with that particular league. They accepted the commitment, and my children do not play travel ball, lax, hockey, etc.. because I cannot afford the financial commitment. I deliberately did not enroll my children on tournament teams for this exact reason..If the parents agree to pay it, then why should I have to help fund it? I cannot afford to pay for it for my own children, and sure as heck aren't going to pay for someone else's children.
Keep their feet to the fire Joe! $900,000 in escrow? Put that money in the taxpayers hands and we can stimulate business without the county's help.
If these people want to come to the County and play ball, let them pay for it.
i say NO to that! the county wants NOTHING TO DO with the skateboard park, so why should i have to pay for drunken softball players?!!
i'm voting against rick pollitt!!!
too bad that idiot mackes' position isn't an "elected" position. he needs to go!!
lay off one of your boozing administrators.. we should hold a referendum on how many of them got drunk at Pork in the Park this weekend?
Everyone who is sick and tired of Gary Mackes building the Mackes empire with our tax dollars should vote for Bob Culver. Pollitt doesn't have what it takes to get rid of him and Strausberg is his drinking buddy. Culver will rid us of this person who has long outstayed his welcome.
If you want to play ball, pay the money!! Not the taxpayers responsibility!
Everyone who is sick and tired of Gary Mackes building the Mackes empire with our tax dollars should vote for Bob Culver. Pollitt doesn't have what it takes to get rid of him and Strausberg is his drinking buddy. Culver will rid us of this person who has long outstayed his welcome.
OK.. I'd hope the Council said NO WAY...
I'm not sure the reference to tournament teams is correct here. There are many county leagues held at the complex not inclusive of any particular tournament events. The fees have become too high relative to surrounding options. Many of the softball teams have fled to a Delmar league to avoid the fees. I think the question should be why can't our complex compete with surrounding examples.
There are very few at the GOB there because of their talent and abilities...instead of their political connections.
Not to say that the Culver cabinet won't have similar issues - but these guys seem to accept government money as their own!
VOTE!
Hold on to your wallets folks. Strasburg with the help of suck-up Prettyman and dummy Hall will engineer that this gets the right vote. Pollitt doesn't have what it takes to get rid of Mackes. He obviously doesn't realize what a drag he is on him. His "campaign manager" - whoever that is - isn't very smart either. Best thing Pollitt can do to try and save himself at this point is get rid of Mackes. In reality, Pollitt is a lost cause regardless though.
What about paying $3 to park at Perdue Stadium, take the taxi service to pork in the park, and pay $7 for each person just to get in?! Then rides for the kids, food for all. What a joke!
I noticed that Pork in the Park turnout was very light in comparison to previous years.
And as for Wicomico's taxpayers paying to host out of state tournaments, I say shame on our officials. Charity begins at home and I'll be darned if I want our County facilities to be turned over to NON-RESIDENTS. PEOPLE - PLEASE WAKE-UP AND SEE WHO IS PLUNDERING OUR ECONOMY. THE DAMAGE BEING INFLICTED IS WITHIN!
Gary Mackes essentially runs the county and does as he pleases. He always has ever since he was the Golden Child of Henry Parker.
I will be voting for Culver, no end to Pollitt spending and taxing.
Mackes runs a money hungry enterprise at the Parks and Rec. He has no concept of appropriate spending and allocation of the funds he brings in from various events throughout the year. Then he complains every year because his department doesn't receive as much money as other County departments but yet his department is actually a source of revenue and should be self sufficient. He treats his employees like trash and manipulates people to get his way. He does things, like raising league fees and admissions fees, to attempt to bring in more revenue, but doesn't understand that there is a break even point where the fee is too high and lowers participation. For example, if you have ten teams and charge each team $100 to play then you make $1,000 right? But if you raise it to $125 per team then maybe only 5 teams join the league and you only make $625. In the other direction, say you lower the fee to $75 then you may get 15 teams joining the league and now you're making $1,125. And judging by the attendance at Pork in the Park this weekend, it is perfectly clear that raising the admission deterred people from going. Attendance was clearly down. I don't think a single vendor ran out of food like they have in the past and I know that there was a lot of leftover beer from what I have heard from the Jaycees. Now do you really think that vendors are going to return each year if they don't have as many customers to sell to?? Doubt it...
Anonymous said...
i say NO to that! the county wants NOTHING TO DO with the skateboard park, so why should i have to pay for drunken softball players?!!
i'm voting against rick pollitt!!!
too bad that idiot mackes' position isn't an "elected" position. he needs to go!!
May 12, 2014 at 11:29 AM
If Bob Culver makes a public commitment to relieve Gary Mackes of his duties I will make a public commitment to vote and campaign for him.
I am sick and tired of the tax and spend Democrats like Mackes, Pollitt, O'Malley, Miller, Busch, Conway and Obama. Please vote Republican.
Yet they stick it to the kids for all those fees.
Here, here to the person who said they wanted nothing to do with helping with a skatepark. They left the city holding the bag, Pollitt especially so his political crony Ireton could be a hero.
10:53--
Road closures have nothing to do with this article. The road is closed depending on the amount of attendees of an event, to ensure the safety of patrons. Apparently you've forgotten, or didn't know, that there were 2 hit & runs of pedestrians during previous events when the road wasn't closed off. Maybe you should blame people's driving habits instead, or perhaps just get a life!
Pollitt is a Democratic JOKE !!!
Free fees for ball players when I have to pay $2.00 per person to see my child's music concert in Bennett Auditorium. I have already paid my county taxes... I should get in FREE instead of those out-of-state ball players.
Anyone agree with me?
If you do... sound off everyone!
Let's vote them out of office!!!
Vote for Bob Culver.
Joe Holloway brought this to public scrutiny -- because he is a watchdog of the public trough that's why Pollitt got Pagano to run against Joe and got Pretl to run Pagano's campaign.
The important question is are we losing tournaments to other venues because our fees are too high? People complain that we are unwelcoming to "come heres" but here we are saying we don't want to encourage their business. Most of these teams will spend a few days in our area and will patronize our local restaurants and hotels. Maybe someone has a better idea to encourage them to come here and not some cheaper venue?
1:44 there have been Hit and Runs in front of Giant Food too.. do you want to close them too?..
Always the proverbial power trip based upon the presumed safety of the people .. your domain is not our city streets
I have to laugh at the action plan that keeps Poodles safe from becoming roadkill while they park their SUVs for a week ..that really makes the Salisbury economy sing ..
Look at the news out of Worcester. I wish Rick would take a que from them.
OCEAN CITY – Leaders in Ocean City and Worcester County say the property tax rate won't be touched in the upcoming fiscal year.
"We will not raise taxes. That isn't going to happen," said Bud Church, president of the Worcester County Board of Commissioners. "We're going to be very conservative. We're going to look out for businesses in the county."
2:10 --
You are wrong. If the local restaurants and hotels benefit, then let them pay that amount, not the taxpayers, most of whom have no interest or benefit from those "tournaments".
its sounds like Pollitt & Macadoodle and company are up to the same old shit. Pollitt your days are numbered. Can't wait to Culver puts whoopin on you in the election. As for Macadoodle your just pathetic. Why don't you 2 just retire together in Allen Md. This is Ricky's homeplace,you two can sit back tell lies and war stories.
Time to kick them all out. Tried of the way this county is run. Can't trust county or local governments in Wicomico. County.
a friend of mine got tired of the money left started delmar . now a lot of ball is being played in delmar
Agreed,Enough is Enough but it won't stop as long we have idiots in powerful positions.Lets vote those no good SOB's OUT!!!
Why is the 900k in escrow? Escrow for what? Typically an escrow account is set up under some sort of legal or financial structure and is limited in what the money can be used for. Before we say they should use the money that's in escrow, shouldn't we find out if it even CAN be used.
I'll tell all of the above Posters as to why this years Pork in the Park attendance was lackluster. They raised the entrance fees to $7.00. Have you ever heard of Demand Destruction. You have now witnessed it first hand.
I did not attend the event this year because I simply didn't feel I could afford it. With the sagging economy and all - it looks as though there were a lot of other people who felt the same way.
I also noticed the attendance to be scant. The main parking lot wasn't full on Saturday night. Nor were any of the adjoining softball stadium parking lots. In fact, they were empty.
Vote for Bob Culver. Someone has to get Mackes out of this county. He is a very spender.
Also check out the trail on Pagano before voting.
Okay, county residents forced to pay higher taxes, so ball players from NY, NJ PA, Western shore where income is much higher than what the average county resident will ever make. Just so they can play ball in our county. Something is wrong with this picture. Mackes and Piollit need to realize people don't make the money they are making.
agreed on the fees for school activities. we pay a fee for each of our kids to play sports in the county schools. we pay taxes for the "kids to learn". we pay a fee to get to watch them perform in sports and activities like symphony, band, etc. Fees are taxes by definition.
Softball Teams left ten years ago to go to Pittsville. They truly wanted to play sports and have fun without being greedy! Parks and Recs has always been greedy!
I think they should raise the fees higher. surrounding towns like Delmar, Ocean City, Fruitland and Seaford love the business being directed to them. The complex holds 3 games a night on 3 fields 12 players on a team = 216 players a night x 5 nights = 1080 possible plus who ever come out just to watch , think about much traffic that brings to local business, I sure Delmar is happy!
Everyone charges fees! My kids pay big bucks to play at Fruitland Falcons every year! I think Gary has some ties to them.
Kinda robs from the pure enjoyment of the game. Darn did I love that game. The smells, the sounds, the pure joy of the competition. How it takes me back to my youth when I close my eyes.
no no no no no. you cant have it both ways. the fields bring tourism. the fees are fine the way they are. if teams travel, they foot the bill whether by the individual parents or with group fundraisers. Why the heck should I be taxed more for the county's inability to run its business?
Why does it cost big bucks to play on the Falcons since they are supposed to be a nonprofit organization?
Delmar is happy happy
Anonymous said...
Everyone who is sick and tired of Gary Mackes building the Mackes empire with our tax dollars should vote for Bob Culver. Pollitt doesn't have what it takes to get rid of him and Strausberg is his drinking buddy. Culver will rid us of this person who has long outstayed his welcome.
May 12, 2014 at 11:42 AM
That's the best comment I've read all day.
Vote Bob Culver!!
Vote Republican!!
Anonymous said...
I am sick and tired of the tax and spend Democrats like Mackes, Pollitt, O'Malley, Miller, Busch, Conway and Obama. Please vote Republican.
May 12, 2014 at 1:31 PM
You forgot to mention Jim Ireton.
Anonymous said...
Agreed,Enough is Enough but it won't stop as long we have idiots in powerful positions.Lets vote those no good SOB's OUT!!!
May 12, 2014 at 7:17 PM
Then it's up to you to vote for and support Republicans.
By this you have to make contributions to their campaigns and help them get elected. Walk door to door with them and wave their signs. It takes money to run an election and if you need good people then you need to help out in any way that you can.
Anonymous said...
Why does it cost big bucks to play on the Falcons since they are supposed to be a nonprofit organization?
May 18, 2014 at 10:04 AM
Because Ed Urban loves making big bucks and living high on the hog.
He also needs money to contribute to the campaigns of Rick Pollitt and Jimmy Sarbanes.
In this next election it would be in the best interest of every voter to vote for a Republican. Any Republican is better than a Democrat who will rape your wallet and give it to someone else.
we need a full disclosure of what the Parks and Planning staff earns..the Perks they enjoy and an accounting of what is happening ...with this type of attitude..we need a full audit and transparency. These Democrats sit in Bars and discuss their Grand Design. .you only have to wonder if the Craft Beers are on us?
The county is losing teams. A few years ago there were between 45 & 50 teams in men's league & this year there r 22. The fee is a lot cheaper in Delmar. Salisbury u have to pay 500 for a sponsor fee & 54 a man contract fee. The price is outrageous. Delmar is way cheaper. See u salisbury.
OC has the beach, bars, and absorbs the extra costs through their budgets. They keep the fees where they are, but you the taxpayer pay the extra costs. They are just smarter in OC, but either way the tax payer is raped. Look at salaries of Parks and Rec in Wi Country and Ocean City, the highest salaries in the state. Nice work for the selected few.
In defense of OC, they have MILLIONS of people using their parks and it takes a LOT more work to keep them clean and ready for use each and every day.
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