Don't Worry Chief, He's Got Your Back!

FREEZE!

As many times as I have tried catching just one hummingbird in flight, I had been watching these two go at it for a while as they were playing king of the hill over the feeder. As fast as they move I simply let loose on the shutter in the hopes of catching something and I got lucky! Hence the photo above.

Who's In Control And Who's Not?

Wow, where do I start? Do the developers go to the County on a project that's supposedly supposed to be in the City? When and if this property is annexed, who's to blame for past and present decisions?

The Sassafras Meadows "Osprey" Project sounds wonderful for Senior Citizens. Well, 40% of them anyway, (maybe). This would mean you'd have to be over 55 years of age making between $13,000.00 to $30,000.00 a year to qualify. I believe they said the rent for "SOME" of these units would be between $280.00 a month to over $700.00 a month offering independent living.

However, the Osprey Project is NOT a non profit Group and yet they are asking for $122,000.00 in tax breaks to build this new luxury facility that's supposed to be for affordable housing for Seniors? There will be a total of 80 units and the Group has to offer a supposed 40% of these units to Seniors that qualify, but they don't actually have to. I heard that slip while they were introducing the package.

So keep a keen eye on this project because the County Council agreed to give them a letter of intent so this Group/Developer can qualify for even more Government money for the overall project.

I will agree that there needs to be more affordable housing for "ALL" Seniors and I'd like to know what it's going to cost "OTHER" Seniors to live there above and beyond the 40% they "claim" they're going to offer this to. I say, build the entire project around one set of rental fees and stop the crap about asking for massive tax breaks, grants and discounts for a supposed 40%! They also admitted they needed to go to the City for more breaks such as water and sewer and even electric hook ups. They want the City of Salisbury to simply "give" it to them at the City's expense. I'M IN THE WRONG BUSINESS FOLKS!

Earlier in the Council meeting a individual property owner confronted the Council about receiving similar breaks on impact fees and she had every right to do so. The Health Department simply screwed her over as she did everything honorable and right and the Council turned her down in fear that too many citizens would come forward and ask for relief in their situation regarding the County Offices dragging their feet and forcing citizens to fall into the same relief catagory and they turned this woman down. Yet they're considering relief to Developers?

Welcome Aboard!

Sheriff Hunter Nelms and Major Doris Schonbrunner arrived early for today's County Council Meeting where they sat VERY patiently for more than an hour so they could introduce two new County Deputy Sheriffs. Mr. Ted Mc Laughlin came from the Maryland Transit Authority and Mr. Tom Brannan was a former City of Salisbury Police Officer as well as Pokomoke City Police Officer.

The Sheriffs Department will be hiring a total of 14 new Officers this year alone. 9 Officers were allocated to work in the County Schools out of the 14 they'll be hiring. 4 have been hired and 5 are just going through the final touches before they are formally hired, which will be very soon.

On a personal note, it would be nice for the County Council to recognize these Officers are in fact on the job and could certainly put to better use their time on the streets and not sitting in chairs waiting to introduce these new Officers. I do understand there was a busy schedule for the Council today but the Citizens should come first and everyone else could have waited for what took about 30 seconds for the Sheriffs Department to get through.

Thanks Gentlemen and all the very best to both of you!

Today's Wildlife Photo

This photo was sent to me by one of our loyal readers/viewiers and I lost his e-mail. I am hoping this person will make claim to this photograph as well as the post below because they're absolutely breathtaking. I can't post them all but please do keep the pictures rolling in so we can share these animals NOT in captivity.

A Carving Like None Other

You'll have to forgive me as someone sent me this photograph and I somehow lost the message. However, I just found the photos and am publishing it in the hopes they can fill you in on the details. This is a carving, unbelievable!

You've Got To Have Balls To Play With This Harley!

There's no better past time than owning and riding a Harley. Once you're addicted you'll find that it's all the after the main purchase, (the bike) that cost you a small fortune. Today I visited my friends John and Mike Rafer of Rafer Billiards in Selbyville, DE. "Just In" is the new Harley Davidson Pool Table for a mere $5,500.00. It even includes the trademark black cloth and orange bumpers. Mention my name, you'll get a great deal!

Alessi Does It Again!

Contender Ron Alessi will stop at nothing to break all the rules, including breaking the law. It's my understanding you must file for a permit for any sign on a commercial piece of property. I wonder if the City is keeping tabs on how tall the weeds are getting on one of the biggest street corners in all of Salisbury as well? Nevertheless, is this the kind of representative the County is looking for? One that will blatantly break the law because he simply thinks he can get away with it! Keep it up Ron, this is exactly what we want you to do!!!!!!

WWTP Update

I just spoke with Dave Pushkar who heads the MDE here on the Eastern Shore. Dave has informed me that they are willing to work with the City of Salisbury on the "sludge pit" and have been willing to do so from the beginning "IF" the City is willing to put in several monitoring wells.

The City has refused to cooperate with such said wells which hightens the curiosity within the MDE that there is in fact some stalling going on and they do expect to find contamination even after the sludge pit is removed. The fact that the City has not come back with an agreement to put in these wells clearly tells the ultimate story.

One way or the other the City is in deep poop on this matter because we all know what is expected in the end. Barrie Tilghman, John Jacobs and Dave Winslow can stall all they want on this matter, there's something seriously wrong at the WWTP and the Taxpayers are ultimately going to pay the price in the end.

My thoughts on the matter are, wait till elections are over with Dunn and the rest of the crew before they move forward with truly complying with the MDE as they do NOT want this to be an issue.

Which brings me to this? I believe the County Executive Candidates should all be digging deep into this issue and demanding the Mayor answer with facts and truth so these Candidates can tackle this issue as one of the major topics in their campaign. What are they going to do about it? What are they going to do to assure this is not a major catastrophe down the road in other parts of the County?

On another note still referencing the MDE. The Salisbury Zoo has corrected the illegal pipes that were draining raw sewage into the river as well as a very important valve that will forever stop raw sewage from backing up into the Bison Exhibit again. Because they cooperated, there will be no fines from the MDE. Their main goal was to correct the problem there, NOT to take money from the Taxpayers.

A little message to Barrie Tilghman, cooperate with the MDE like the Zoo did and maybe you won't force the MDE to fine you out the ying yang? Your games with the WWTP & the MDE have cost the Taxpayers $25,000.00 so far and you can't win all your battles Barrie. I think we all know what's underneath that sludge pit liner and I don't think we're going to let this one slip away until it's completely resolved. The Daily Times can't cover it up any more and there are more readers on the Blog Sites than there are with that newspaper anyway.

Good Morning!

Another beautiful sunrise from West Ocean City overlooking Ocean City. Moday's always suck but I hope this helps get the day started right.

Daily Times Hires Color Blind Production Manager

Was it just me, or did everyone else get a black and white Comic Section today? You know they print these things way in advance, right?

Today's Wildlife Photo

Foal Rescue (click on any picture to enlarge)

I've stated this in the past and I'll state it once again. There are only a hand full of unbelievable moments and or things you can easily say were the very best moments of your life. My first would be the birth of my children, WOW!

The second in my lifetime was the experience Jennifer and I had last year traveling around the Country rescuing foals that were headed to slaughter.

So everyone is aware, the Thoroughbred Industry has a law in which you must have live contact breeding and no, (AI) artificial insemination. When a very expensive mare has her foal she goes back into heat again within 7 days. This means they separate the mother and foal usually within 48 hours and a nurse mare is brought in to take over nursing this new and very expensive foal. There's also usually an agreement that while this nurse mare foal is nursing the new foal, they allow it to breed once again with another stud there at the farm, which is usually another very expensive horse.

Ultimately the nurse mare is delivering a perfectly healthy and fine foal but that foal is actually considered a "junk foal." These foals are usually brought to slaughter as the Italians, the French and the Canadians enjoy foal meat similar to American's enjoying veal. So these foals are sold to slaughter houses and even the Garment Industry gets involved and they buy the hide. Especially a paint horse hide. They'll actually pay some $50.00 more for the colored hide and they use them for shoes and or purses.

When Jennifer and I learned of this we immediately bought a brand new truck and a new horse trailer and started traveling to wherever these foals were located and we started buying them up by thew dozen. With Jennifer's background as a Vet. Tech. at the Salisbury Zoo for so many years, this was a perfect way to make good use of our new Ranch in Delmar. So we bought a ton of foals paying $50.00 more than the meat market would pay and we brought these little guys home.

As you can see from the pictures, they were anywhere from 1 day old to 2 months old and completely helpless. I'll tell you as well, it would cost us around $150.00 a day in mares milk formula alone just to keep these guys fed properly and healthy. It was the best money I had ever spent in my entire life!

When you see the photos of our horses, these are rescue foals. We adopted out some 35 foals last year and if we receive calls again from any of the farms we purchased from last year we'll be right back in business getting more foals. I'll close this story on this note. Although we have no proof, we believe Jim Rapp and or Employees of the Salisbury Zoo called the State of Delaware on us trying to cease what we were doing, claiming we didn't have proper health certificates to take these animals from State to State and or into the State of Delaware. If you know me well enough, I told the State to go to hell and sue me. They never did.

I have received a ton of e-mail messages asking me to please produce more horse pictures, so here they are.

More Fond Memories

Two Ways To Cool Off

Little Big Man and Ghost use the pond to cool off from all this heat. The post below is another way to cool off.

Only 4 More Months Away!

Not that long ago Ghost was wondering where the heater was.

Mike Lewis

With all this hoopla going on about the Sheriffs Race I have been trying to get together with what I felt the front runners are to get to know them better. To my great pleasure I have not only met some wonderful and new people, I am convinced that the people I have in fact met so far are extremely dedicated to their goals and they have the proper backgrounds to be in this race.

What I'm about to say is my own personal opinion but I wanted to share it with everyone to see how they felt about my idea. I have met Mike Lewis personally and I watched him recently speak at the NAACP meeting the other night. He is a VERY convincing man with a fabulous career and the state of Maryland had been very fortunate to have such a professional Trooper keeping us safe, especially in the drug enforcement area. I have come to learn in person that Mike has an almost hypnotic kind of personality, which is very rare these days. I say this in a positive fashion.

However, I tend to wonder if he isn't truly missing his calling? Mike is a NO BS kind of guy, (which I like very much) and he's actually the man they need desperately in the City of Salisbury as Chief of Police. The crime is in the City of Salisbury, (in my opinion) and they have young Officers that are in desperate need of the right kind of man that can lead these young men into becoming unbelievable Officers. So call it selfish but I really wish Mike could have been able to take over Chief Websters place rather than the County Sheriff because I personally think he'd be wasting 90% of what he's so good at.

They need to get the drugs off the street in the City folks. They need to clean up the neighborhoods where everyone knows the drugs are severe. We don't need TOUGH Sheriff's Deputies, we need TOUGH City Police Officers and Webster just isn't cutting it.

I'm NOT at all stating Mike Lewis wouldn't make a good Sheriff, so don't even go there. My point here is to simply say, what a shame the Mayor isn't begging Mike to come on board as Chief of Police for the City of Salisbury where Mike could put his gifts to great use where it actually belongs rather than only getting 10% of that action in the Sheriffs Department. This is purely selfish, I know.

Salisbury Outback

I have been a long time fan of Outback ever since they opened in the USA I'm a huge fan of their layered cheesy fries and I used to love ordering the prime rib with horse radish. Their burgers at one time were the best anywhere too. Over the last few months there's been a major change in the Salisbury Outback though.

We get together with friends once a week and we're considered one of Outback's biggest regulars. I have always felt "you can't change something you're not aware of," so whenever I have an issue with what I've ordered I let them know as politely as I can so no one spits in my food. (LOL)

Well there comes a time when enough is enough. I don't know about all of you but recently every meal is coming out with either 1/2 the portions or everything is burned. I love my prime rib rare, (Pittsburgh Style). Tonight they delivered my steak very well done and our waitress knew immediately it wasn't right. She took it back and came out with the manager and this time the steak was cooked even more so than the first time and I guess the manager was there to convince me this time they had done a better job. I simply looked at her and said, show me one portion of this steak that is rare? It had fat everywhere and get this, it wasn't more than 1/4 inch thick to boot. It should be told that I had ordered their largest 16 oz. prime rib too!

So what happened to the old Outback we used to know? Remember the old Bloomin Onions that were HUGE? You watch one table get cheesy fries and they're flowing over the sides and dripping on the floor on the way to the table and then you see the next order come out with next to nothing on the plate. They try to tell you they're measured and all the same, NOT! So I made a decision tonight to simply say I've had enough. Our friends enjoy the Alice Spring Chicken and I found out why their chicken was always so moist. The chicken is bought locally every day and it's simply fresh. Lately each piece of chicken has again either been burned and or there's no more moisture. Considering we've been telling them things just aren't right for quite some time now and nothing is changing, it's time to stop going to Outback.

It's a real shame to see such a great place fall apart like that but they've taken my money for the last time and I'm sick of walking out of there feeling cheated rather than full. I bring this up because I'm curious if everyone else who frequents Outback has been experiencing the same problems?

Today's Wildlife Photo

Num, Num!