WOW!

If you want to see some unbelievable photos of the fire at Dough Rollers in Ocean City, GO HERE!

A Friend Sent In These Additional Photos Of OC Fire

Nationwide Truckers Strike?

I just heard something about a nationwide truckers strike to begin at 8:00 a.m. on 4/3/08. This strike is to be held in order to get the attention of the federal and state govts. and to get them to suspend federal and state fuel taxes. I checked out this site

http://www.americanfuelconsumersmovement.com/.

Has anyone else heard about this? As I looked into it, I saw that it got a lot of media coverage down south but I haven't heard anything about it here.

If this is true..we'd better get our groceries in a hurry!

Mr. Gibbs

The Gentleman on the left is none other than Mr. Billy Gibbs, Owner of Dough Rollers. Both my Son and Step Son worked and lived above this Dough Rollers for several years. One of our kids still works for Dough Rollers, as a matter of fact.

The Gibbs have always been wonderful to our children as well as thousands of others. Keith, their General Manager and Partner of this location also treated our kids very well over the years. It's a sad sight to see this building burn like it did.

While speaking to others on the scene, many were saying just how important it is to sprinkler these buildings, if possible. God Forbid this were to happen during the heart of the season and kids are living upstairs. We're all very fortunate this wasn't the case.

More Ocean City Fire Photos

This was an 8 alarm fire using more than 10,000 gallons a minute of water to put it out! I spoke with Fire Chief Laramore who was on his way back from the Philly Airport when the calls started coming in and unofficially he had heard the fire may have started between the two buildings but couldn't be sure. He was on the scene about an hour after it started and told me only one Firefighter was slightly injured by getting something in his eye. I was told by an eye witness that they believed it started in an upstairs apartment on the back up the Playland building?

Considering the winds are as strong as they are in Ocean City today, this is a perfect example of old buildings, high winds and the large volume of apparatuses needed to contain and control such a fire. Great work, all of you!

Ocean City Dough Rollers/Playland Fire

As I'm still pulling in details, here are some preliminary photos I thought everyone might enjoy seeing, many more to come.

Some are saying it started at Playland, some are saying it started upstairs in the apartments above Dough Rollers, Billy Gibbs, (Owner of Dough Rollers) stated there was no one living upstairs but I just got an inside report that there was a young lady and a friend allegedly living up there.

I don't care who you are, I don't think anyone is going to deliver any better pictures than what I'm delivering. Also, watch 47 WMDT News tonight as they were first on the scene and got some great footage.

More to come..........

Breaking News! Massive Fire in Ocean City

Joe is on the Scene now of a major fire in Ocean City. I'm told it's very near Trimpers and that every fire company from Bishopville to Pittsville has been called in. I just heard the Parsonsburg siren but they may have been toned out to cover another jurisdiction.....I don't know. Joe will have pictures soon. Wish them all well!

TODAY IS THE BIG DAY!

Ladies & Gentlemen, if you don't have anything to do today, please come out and support this Group. Even if it means dropping by and making a donation, please consider it. At least they're doing everything they can to raise money, unlike so many other groups, (like to Zoo and SFD) who want to Taxpayers to pay for it all. A Skate Park is needed in Salisbury and I hope people realize the efforts being made here to make it become a reality?

The event starts at 1:00 PM.

The City Can Find Money For A Dog Park But Not Shumaker Pond?

If you listened in on the link I provided the other day for the audio of Monday night's Council Meeting, even though Debbie Campbell & Terry Cohen did everything in their powers to break up one large resolution to include funding for that Pond, the City admits they had $3,270.00 for partially funding a Dog Park? It makes no sense, does it? Who made that decision to come up with those funds?

The House That Salisbury Taxpayers Paid For

At the last meeting of the Salisbury City Council one item on the agenda was appropriating more money for Salisbury City Attorney Paul Wilber. Small wonder. Wilber has a new $700,000 house to pay for.

While ordinary citizens and business owners have been forced to pay a tax increase, at least one Salisbury resident has benefited from Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman's mismanagement of the city's finances. While the ordinary Salisbury taxpayer can't view Wilber's work due to his practice of stamping "Privileged and Confidential" on almost everything short of toilet paper, Tilghman and her "council leadership" of Louise Smith, Gary Comegys and Shanie Shields seem sufficiently pleased with his work. It is my understanding that SAPOA, the city's slumlord guild, is also extremely happy with Wilber's work and plan on inducting him into their Hall of Fame.

Has the ordinary taxpayer received value for their money? Let's see... Wilber drafted a rezoning for the developers of the old mall that was challenged by a group of retirees and homemakers. Wilber's legal prowess was so great that they managed to have it overturned. Recently another ordinance crafted by Wilber was before the courts. This time the stated that he had no choice but to find for the city... because Wilber's ordinance was crafted to benefit the slumlords rather than the citizens that he supposed to serve.

If I am not mistaken, Wilber received an increase in his hourly rate in the last budget. Now the Mayor and her serfs on city council want to pay him even more. Of course Wilber needs that money to pay for his new house. Tilghman realizes that its hard to find a man willing to twist the law in order to allow Tilghman and her new "Dream Team" to continue abusing the citizens of Salisbury. They need to keep him happy.

I hope that Wilber shows his gratitude by inviting everyone who paid for his house over for a little soirée. And don't forget, if you ever need a place to crash ... YOU PAID FOR IT.

cross posted at Delmarva Dealings

Technorati Tags: Maryland, Salisbury, politics, Salisbury politics, fiscal policy, taxation, Barrie Tilghman, Louise Smith, Gary Comegys, Shanie Shields, Paul Wilber

One Year Ago Today

What's wrong with this picture? Oh, this should be good!

3 Years Ago Today

It was 3 years ago today my Wife and I were returning from a very long journey reaching out to the Nurse Mare Foal Industry purchasing as many foals as we could buy that were actually being slaughtered. That's right, the Canadians, French and Italians eat Foal Meat like we eat Veal.

We felt this was wrong, so we bought all the equipment needed to travel across the United States to purchase these foals from Nurse Mare Farms, bring them home and do everything we could to bring them back to health. Many were in horrible condition and we very quickly learned just how little many of these Farms couldn't care less about these babies.

We converted our Barn for Foals, created new paddock areas for their exclusive living requirements and spent a small fortune rescuing these animals time and time again. We even traveled all the way to Kentucky for 15 Foals and when we arrived the owner had them is such horrible conditions, we knew they wouldn't survive the trip back home and we weren't paying for animals that were certain to die. We came all the way back with absolutely nothing.

It was very sad to see but the rewards were by far the most rewarding experience, (besides the birth of our children) I have ever experienced. Years ago when we first introduced these pictures we had hits of around 50 people a day. Today were in the many thousands per day and if you're interested in seeing more of these babies, let me know? I have incredible pictures of our experience.

Delmar Fire Department Is Smokin

Yesterday the Delmar Fire Department went door to door throughout the community giving away smoke detectors like there's no tomorrow.

The Fire Chief told me they had handed out more than 100 Smoke Detectors and he couldn't even count how many batteries that were dead and replaced by the Fire Department. He was saddened by the amount of homes they entered with FAMILIES, (small children) and not one single Smoke Detector!

I didn't get the chance to ask but I will follow up today and find out just how many of these properties were rental units? It's a sad day when so many people are that stupid that they don't even have a Smoke Detector in their homes. Considering the Fire Department gives them out free and small children are so educated in School about such matters, this is ridiculous. IMO, this is also why every town and city across America should have laws allowing an inspection for such and fines to those who do not have them.

Gannett Publications Continues To Take A Dive

Gannett Co Inc(GCI)28.54 -0.37 -1.28%
Open: 29.10 High: 29.11 Low: 28.01

Previous Close: 28.91 Volume: 2,969,119

After Hours: 27.71 -0.83 / -2.91% Vol. 1,800

Eastern Time

Buryvoter Delivers Today's Wildlife Photo

Are Auto Commercials Driving You Nuts Too?

It's not often I watch TV but when I do it sickens me to see all the commercials. Today I have been subjected to more car sale commercials than I have ever seen in my life.

Tell them you want the Car Show Rebate! What Car Show? When we were manufacturing lamps last week, we were listening to 92.5 FM and were also subjected to what seemed like 20 million local car dealership commercials telling us now is the time to buy.

The ONLY thing I could see people doing is downsizing and quite frankly, that's what many friends of mine have been doing. One friend told me it would be cheaper for him to park his big 4x4 truck and only pull it out when needed and actually purchase a 4 cylinder truck to ride around in. He stated the payments would be cheaper than paying for the gas in the other truck and it makes sense.

So how and why Car Dealers think everyone is so desperate to go out and buy all these Lincoln's because they've never sold them for less, BS! I hope these SOB's all go belly up and the market really gets competitive, like the Real Estate Market!

Go to Lowes and don't make a payment for 6 months on anything over $250.00. Go to Johnny Janosiks and buy furniture and don't make a payment for one year! Join the Lincoln Signature Event and drive away without any money down, just sign on the dotted line.

Oh, don't forget to use Attorney Paul Wilber while he buys his $700,000.00 home in the same economy? Yeah, things that make you go, hmmmmmmm!

How many more people are going to have to pay for the sins of the Pocomoke City Government with their lives?

The tragic deaths of Delia Bailey and her daughter who were struck down while crossing the Route 13 in Pocomoke City has angered and infuriated residents.

Pocomoke City Maryland has long been known for its 'Boss Hogg' form of government where one man who was never elected has run the city into the ground over the past 32-years.

This weekend a young mother and her child paid for the sins of a corrupt city government with their lives by merely walking across the highway to get home.

The Pocomoke City Government has never planned ahead and prior to Mike McDemotts election as Mayor three years ago, would not change light bulbs unless they got a grant from somewhere.

P-City has more low income or subsidized welfare housing units than any other part of Worcester County and is home to an open air drug market that has operated openly under the protection of the City Government for over 20-years... All because the citizens vote for city officials don't mean a thing because of the longest sitting city manager in the USA doing anything he has wanted with no accountability to anyone, not even the voters.

There is zero pedestrian planning in Pocomoke City which requires property owners to build and maintain their sidewalks on a very random & totally inconsistent basis. When commercial development started coming to town across Interstate Hwy 13, or in the form of welfare projects, the city fathers were more interested in self dealing than in being public servants and making the developers give back or pay for infrastructure. So there is none, no sidewalks on the main footpaths to our schools, no safe pedestrian crossing for Route 13 no sidewalks on the main pedestrian routes.. not a freaking thing thanks to Russ Blake, City Manager and King of Pocomokes one man rule Boss Hogg Political system.

All of the major grocery stores that were once located within the 'traditional' city limits were put out of business once Wal-Mart came to town and now people who need (or want) to walk must take their life into their hands to cross a busy interstate highway with no pedestrian traffic controls.

There was no cross walk markings until my wife Stephanie Burke made it her personal mission to get a cross walk installed at the main intersection, where incidentally 8-people were sacrificed to the traffic Gods before the City was blessed with a traffic signal.

They may say its the State, but when a local government demands (I mean demands) something and makes it a public health & safety issue, which should be their business then it can be done.

The people are sick and tired of Pocomoke being famous for crack cocaine and crooked politicians.

This is the start of a campaign for not only safe crossing at multiple locations across the Route 13 it should be a citywide effort to improve pedestrian safety.

There is a grass roots effort organically coming together to contact the Highway Dept, the County Commissioners, Delegates, Senators, Congressman and the Governor to help provide the basic municipal services that a non-corrupt, duly elected government that is responsive to the needs of its citizens should have planned for and built years ago.

Please comment with suggestions and lets get a unified message to send to Annapolis.
At the risk of sounding like the dead horse calvalry people need to realize that nothing in Pocomoke will change until the 'Boss Hogg' form of one-man-rule has ended.

How many more people are going to have to pay for the sins of the Pocomoke City Government with their lives?

Why City Of Salisbury Attorney Paul Wilber Needs More Money

Paul Wilber had a new home built on Shumaker costing $698,000.

Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation
WICOMICO COUNTY
Real Property Data Search (2007 vw3.1) Go Back
View Map
New Search

Account Identifier: District - 08 Account Number - 020043

TOTAL TRANSFER
Sale Date: 03/14/2008 Sale Type: IMPROVED ARMS-LENGTH
Sale Number: 80494 IMPROVED
WATERFRONT
From: HOMES BY BIJAN INC Consideration: $698,500
To: WILBER, PAUL D & JOANN H

Location Information
Location: 919 S SCHUMAKER DRIVE Liber/Folio 1: / 2907/ 533
SALISBURY Liber/Folio 2:
Use: R
RESIDENTIAL
Subdivision: Town: 001
SALISBURY
Status: 0 BPRUC:
Class: 000 TAXABLE

Map Grid Parcel Section Block Lot
48 5 558 A 4

Structure Data
Year Built Stories Grade Basement Type Exterior Enclosed Area
2007 2 ARCHITECT DESIGNED NO STANDARD UNIT SIDING 4,256 SF

Land Area:

American Democracy is Alive in Wicomico County

The People Have Spoken!



I was personally happy to see the people come together and present undisputable facts to our elected officials which helped them understand that we are watching and we will not tolerate wasteful spending of our money. I see that someone has offered property at $13,000 an acre. STILL to high. Negotiate Rick. Help the sellers understand the fair market value. You might be surprised how far it will go.

After giving it some thought last night, I was somewhat disappointed to hear Rick say that people were "pitted against their government". They weren't. The people merely exercised their right under the first amendment to publicly address their elected representatives to speak their mind relating to a purchase being made with public money. The statement made me feel that the citizens were somehow being viewed as ......revolutionary.....for speaking out against a pending purchase. It wasn't their govt. the people were speaking out against. It was the decision before the legislative body the citizens were addressing. I don't think Rick intended it to be taken any other way.

Prior to the press conference yesterday I had the occassion to speak with Gary Mackes. He still feels the inflated price of that land was something we should have tolerated. I told him that I don't care what those appraisals indicated, there is no way that land was worth $18,000 per acre. Mr. Mackes stated that he doesn't think that $7.00 for a sub is fair. He doesn't think that $4.00 a gallon for gas is fair.....but we have to spend it. Uh....NO we DON'T! I disagree with this mindset based on my position that we can choose to go home and make a sandwich for far less than $7.00. We have become dependant on fuel. We are NOT dependant on on parks. We have an obligation to be responsible with our finances. We cannot allow our govts. to tax and tax so that they can spend like there's no end to the money pit.

On a different note.....in the near future I hope to meet with Gary Mackes to find out what it will take to create a relationship between our schools and the mgmt. of the Civic Center to assure that the high school proms will be held here, in Wicomico County, in a building owned by the tax payers, built for the youth of Wicomico County. My understanding is that there are things most of us don't know which have created the situation as it currently exists.

Anyone care to provide any input so that I can have a more....."enlightened" conversation relating to this subject? If there are any reasonable questions people want asked relative to this matter.......let's get them up here so I can ask them. Keep in mind that Gary Mackes will be out of town for a few weeks so the meeting will have to take place upon his return.

Remember Joe Millionaire?

"Ahhhhh. Mwhah. Mmmmmm. Maybe it'll go better lying down? Slurp. Gulp. Slurp." Oooh, scandal!

I can see it now, Michael Shwartz gets his own show called, Who Wants To Marry The Most Influential Blogger?