Elk Konnected Hand out at County Commissioners meeting on 4/25

[Mom70x7]

Great response Liz, keep on keeping on, you are appreciated.

I agree! 

[Jo McDonald]

Mark, your response makes more sense than most.  I am a firm believer in having happy children, but what is wrong with letting children learn to play and make their own games?  Why do people think you MUST ORGANIZE EVERYTHING?
 Elk County needs a lot more than Organized play times --- We need some incentives for businesses  to want to move here.  
The counties around us are having some success with this -- maybe talking to them might be a good idea.

[Patriot]

Ross & Patriot -
I don't understand.  

First, to assume that Ross and are the only local folks who question the intent, operational integrity and long term value being provided by Elk Konnected, LLC. is lacking in perspective.  There are many, many others.  As to your lack of understanding... I opine that's true. As Commissioner Ritz said at a recent commission meeting discussion about EK's involvement with county government, "You just don't get it."  With all do respect, I agree with him.

We provided a public forum for you to ask these questions and you chose not too.

You provided a forum billed first as an opportunity for Elk Konnected to tell all about itself.  And your partner and supporters attempted to do just that.  You told we listened.  I came to hear what you had to say.  I heard, and I intend to analyze it honestly and carefully.  But as we shall discover in days to come, your group provided many half truths and ill-conceived (or at least uninformed) answers to many questions that have been posted on this Forum.  A Forum, by the way, that we were told last night that few, if any, of you even bother to read.

Yet you continue to bash us on this medium.  WHY?  

Bash?  That's something of a sophomoric view, isn't it.  We question here for several reasons.  Here are three:

1.  Because we are voters and taxpayers with every right to do so.
2.  Because this format provides an open dialogue (like this one) unconstrained by time and distance and with time for careful reflection.
3.  Because, based on actual viewership statistics, this thread is reaching over 2000 individual households as opposed to the 10 or 20 or even 200 folks who can (or will) drive to a facilitated Kommunity Konversation.  Let's face it, facilitated is libspeak for guided/controlled.

Perhaps the better question is:  Why have you avoided this Forum for some six months?  It seems a damned sight cheaper in volunteer time, energy and money than putting on a 'facilitated' Konversation.  It further doesn't involve the use of county paid law enforcement time and resources to provide some sense of security.  

Which begs the question, who asked for all that security and did (or will) Elk Konnected reimburse the county for the time & fuel for that 'security'?  Oh, the 'No concealed carry gun' signs were a nice touch.  What ARE you afraid of?

If you don't like what we are doing, then what do you propose?  

What Elk Konnected does has never been the core issue.  How Elk Konnected does whatever it is doing is.  In that area, here are a couple of suggestions:

1.  Make NO use of county resources (copiers, labor, mileage reimbursements, etc.) in connection with ANY Elk Konnected function.

2.  When you get resources (funding, etc.) via Elk County, the Kansas Health Foundation, See-Kan, the ECCEF, or even the tooth fairy, stop branding your own program, and thank those who actually made the function possible in the first place.  It's a positive thing to honestly give credit where credit is due.

3.  Recuse yourself, Madam Commissioner, from ANY government vote on ANY disbursements of county controlled funds or resourses, to any private company, group or foundation where you have a private personal involvement, ownership, or management interest.  We used to call that ethics in government.  The avoidance of even the appearance of impropriety is a mark of character among elected officials.  I think that was pointed out by a couple of guests last night.  Guests who, by the way, don't post here.

4.  Stop the disingenuous and de facto use of Jennifer Brummell as an Elk Konnected Employee when, in fact, she is being paid by the taxpayers to do work for the county taxpayers and voters.  When a formal job description for a government employee lists specific tasks such as maintaining a private company's web/facebook presence as a function of a county job, something's wrong.  Better yet, let Elk Konnected hire her and pay her to approach the commission from the outside for Elk Konnected's youth fund money needs.

5.  Realize that, while youth are important, they are NOT the key issues facing Elk County.  Mtcookson, is on the right track in his post above, and we had this discussion at a recent county commission meeting.  Infrastructure, high taxes, limited employment opportunity, aging population, high welfare rates and other issues are.  West Elk, USD 282, has a budget of over $9 million in taxpayer funds for the 'development' of our youth.  All Elk Konnected seems to be doing is providing entertainment oportunities for them.  

Those are a few by by no means the only possibilities.

How do you plan to get engage and make Elk County better than it is - and I did not say it was a bad place, I am just saying that I want it to be better.  Myself and the steering committee have invested a lot of energy into trying to make Elk County better and yet you sit in the stand and criticize us for what we are doing.  Why don't you get involved and try to help Elk County instead of spending HOURS criticizing those of us who are.  Last night, we again asked people to become engaged, ask questions, offer ideas for further improvement and yet you choose not too... but then sit at home and post for hours nit picking every last thing we have done.  

The steering committee members are all working USA citizens and Elk County Citizens who have 1,2,3 jobs in order to live here.  We are all involved in many volunteer activities, which takes time away from our spouse and children.  Yet we have decided to make this sacrifice to help all of Elk County.  We have made a choice to live here and we have decided to get involved to make Elk County better.  Has Elk Konnected done everything right – NO!  Have we made mistakes – SURE WHO HASN'T!  Are we willing to admit and try to correct them – MOST DEFINITELY!  Are we getting rich off of Elk Konnected LLC – HECK NO!  In fact, most of us would probably have been better off financially before getting involved.  We would not have spent money driving to meetings, volunteering at youth activities, going to several towns to help clean up their physical image.  BUT WE MADE A CHOICE TO NOT BE SELFISH AND TO  VOLUNTEER!  

Again if you don't like Elk Konnected – let's hear your plan....

Nobody here is saying Elk County is a bad place.  Actually it's a good place with tremendous upward potential.  But the rest of your speech has a real martyr tone to it.  Since you and your group chose to do what you're doing and take on such a public role, then you are inviting critique in a free society.  It's sometimes hot in the kitchen.  But you aren't martyrs, so don't expect a martyr's eulogy.  You claim one of your objectives is to engage the citizens.  Well you have.  Just because the engagement isn't on your exclusive terms, in your exclusive format, and according to your progress plan, is unfortunate, but it simply is.

Now, please don't try blame shifting with us.  We aren't the ones with the grand plan, you are.  Perhaps one of the most honest statements last night was made by one of your steering committee members. She said, "We're just a bunch of ignorant volunteers."  True perhaps for many volunteers, Mrs. Hendricks, but I think not for you and a select few others.

[frawin]

We own property in several counties in Texas, property in Oklahoma and Property in Kansas, including Elk County and we don't think the taxes in Elk County are that much higher than any others we have. In fact we are looking at buying more property in Elk County. We have been discussing building a home in Howard or the immediate area. I was born and raised in Howard along with 15 brothers and sisters and it will always be home to me. The constant petty posts about EK and complaints about providing fun and entertainment for the young people have made us have second thoughts about building there.

[jprxmkt]

mt, you make some good points about government spending and no one disagrees, yes there is wasteful spending but more so at the higher levels than local.  Our commisioners and other county leaders have a very small budget in the grand scheme of things.  They are much more mindful and cautionary in their spending because the budget is small enough that they know where every dime is being spent. Unlike the national government who spends a couple million dollars without even blinking an eye.  The reason our taxes are so high is because we have a low population, the taxes are spread out between fewer people.  How do we lower taxes?  Let's bring in more people.  Since we don't have an overabundance of job openings with our current local businesses, we are going to have to encourage entrepreneurs.  Our best chance of drawing those people and keeping them here is to start local.  Elk Konnected is looking long term.  EK is not just providing these activities to the children so everyone will have something to do this weekend.  They are helping to improve the communities image of itself and hopefully instilling into the children a sense of hometown pride; so they won't graduate from High School and say "I'm getting the he** out of this place" like so many of them are currently doing.  EK wants them to realize that this is the kind of place they want to raise their kids when they have them.  If my husband and I were not from here, there would not have been much that would drawn us to this area.  But because we already knew some of it's benefits,  we were drawn back, it just felt right.  That is what EK is trying to accomplish.   EK is not just comfortable to sit back and complain about everything that is wrong.  We see the declining population as our community's eventual demise and we feel a strong need to turn it around.  Why is that so wrong to some people?  

[Patriot]

That is what EK is trying to accomplish.   EK is not just comfortable to sit back and complain about everything that is wrong.  We see the declining population as our community's eventual demise and we feel a strong need to turn it around.  Why is that so wrong to some people?  

Nothing wrong with those objectives at all.  Could you share, with some specificity, how you are accomplishing those objectives and what gains have been made in the last 5 or six years from your efforts?

[patriotdad]

If you want Elk County to survive take care of our own.  Most all of the business in the county are ran by people that grew up here. Batson's, Cookson's, Lanning's, Toot's, PEP, Mills Feed, Double-C, Crooked Creek, County Wide Trash, Mc Donald Propane and plenty more. Not to mention the farm families, school and county employees. And a lot of them are into the 2nd and 3rd generations of that family running the business. The county is led by people from here.  Very rarely does someone from out of town come in and start a business.  Would it be great if we could entice a new business to come in and set up shop, sure.  But it just doesn't happen too often.  Never has.  If we want to stay alive we need to take care of ourselves and our kids. 

I agree the property taxes are a major problem.  And infrastructure is too.  But cutting activities for kids is not beneficial to gaining or retaining young families in our community. 

[jprxmkt]

Nothing wrong with those objectives at all.  Could you share, with some specificity, how you are accomplishing those objectives and what gains have been made in the last 5 or six years from your efforts?

As I said, it is a long term plan.  The children that have partaken in the activities are only "5 or six" years older than they were when we started; not really enough time to see if we are growing any entrepreneurs quit yet. 

[srkruzich]

Edit: The above will definitely help but in the end we will not see the improvements people want until the federal government improves as well. Its actually probably going to get much worse, which is actually an even greater reason for the local governments to slash spending and lower taxes. That will allow people to use their money to prepare for the worst. I'm feeling that people are going to NEED to start buying as much long lasting food as they can because I feel that it is going to start getting really bad before long. Food and water is going to quickly become priority above all else if the system crashes. That is where the community getting together to help each other is going to be very important.

We are already there.  There is no way we can afford to sustain ourselves at the cost of everything now.  My feed cost has doubled in the last year, Not the fault of any county per se but the fact that the feds are fubaring the entire economy so that it drives the cost of everything up.  The feed cost alone is attributed to the foolish decision to subsidize and create fuel from our food source.  That alone will drive the ranchers out of business in the county as well as any small cottage farms that might produce some things like milk or eggs.  Right now i spend 45 dollars in feed just for eggs. To make enough money out of it in sales of eggs just to meet feed costs i'm going to have to charge at a minimum of 2.25 a dozen for eggs.  Theres no way to meet the feed costs any other way.

You are absolutely right about the tax burden.  That is going to be the number one thing that is going to kill communities all across the country.   When we as taxpayers have to slash our budgets so that we can meet the bills, then Government has to do the same thing.  They shouldn't be able to waste our dollars on non essentials.  They also should not waste dollars on trying to bring in new business or in the very least not spend it on pie in the sky only benefiting some individuals in bringing business here.  The business's should be contributing to the tax burden, not getting a free ride.  Thats what I see is so distasteful over the windfarm project. It doesn't benefit the county at all.  It is a interesting quandary.  Take what is being paid into the windfarm deal and use it to lower the tax burden or use the funds to bring in industry.  I can see both arguments.  One is a guaranteed result, lower taxes the other is a risk. 

Its a mess and i don't see a way out of it outside of cutting Government both federal, state and local to the bone.  There should be absolutely no fat on their budget.  Nothing extra to spend on frivolous projects.  Time for citizens as well as government to grow up and say ok we gotta do this the hard way. We have to do what our grandparents did in the depression and knock out all the waste.   Time to learn how to make lincoln squeel by pinching the hell out of him!

[srkruzich]

We own property in several counties in Texas, property in Oklahoma and Property in Kansas, including Elk County and we don't think the taxes in Elk County are that much higher than any others we have. In fact we are looking at buying more property in Elk County. We have been discussing building a home in Howard or the immediate area. I was born and raised in Howard along with 15 brothers and sisters and it will always be home to me. The constant petty posts about EK and complaints about providing fun and entertainment for the young people have made us have second thoughts about building there.

Oh but i too own property in Georgia another state whos taxes are extremely high. Yet i've seen the same acreage as well as buildings and elk's taxes are 3 times that of the property i have.  For a county as small as elk is the taxes should be 3 times less than the taxes i pay on my property in Georgia.