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

[Ross]

I stand corrected.  My apologies.

however: quote:  "  If you think your school board is being respectful, then Hillary must be right and people should shut up and praise her and Bill as very honest people."  unquote
This was uncalled for...has nothing to do with your petition and the school board...mixing up the threads?? 

Rosser...you have calmed down, and it is good to see for a discussion.  And, then....lol

ready

As far as my calming down, I don't have anyone calling me names or threatening me. That makes it easy to be decent.

You are entitled to your opinion ready and i respect that.

The remark about about Hillary was not directed towards you. But it is my opinion that wrong is wrong whether school board or Hillary.
Nothing more.

Good Night
It's past this old mans bed time.

[Ross]

School Board Dweeb Meeting was Tonight !

Dr. Black was a no show.

Yes, Dweebs, because they are totally controlled !

How in the world can I say that ?

Well, the School Superintendent sits right there ate the head of the Board beside the President of the Board.
And the Principle sits at the other end of the table! Only elected board members should be setting at that table.

So anyway, the Superintendent at one point took Control of the board Meeting asked for someone to make a motion to keep Matt Hilton as the Board President and someone did and there was a second and a unanimous vote to keep Matt Hilton as President.  I believe the proper way would have been the President of the Board to ask for nominations for the President of the Board Position. It is the President of the Board's job to run the meeting not the Superintendent's job. These people act like it is a Superintendents meeting rather than a Board meeting. The dweeb's don't seem to understand that the Superintendent works for them and that they are not children in school under his tutelage.

The Superintendent did the exact same thing for the, I guess Assistant President of the Board. Talk about total control. No body will say no to him. So anyway Matt Hilton remains the president of the Board thanks to the Superintendents control of the Board and Hilton remains the Superintendents Trainee. Not Educated but trained.

The County Commissioner Kaminska was called on from the audience to speak as an open forum speaker.
Now if you or I want to speak to the board the rules say we have to give two weeks notice and be placed on the Agenda. County Commissioner Kaminska was not on the agenda and was permitted to speak. How's that for double standards? She was there to discuss a communications tower that the school uses to communicate over radios in the buses and such. The County wants to lease that land it is on and to tear the tower down and have a new tower built for $84,000,00 so the county can use it for fire and emergency radio's. She said the school would need to update their equipment.

The Superintendent said they are budgeting for 350 students.
We should have only about 300 students.
I wonder where they are getting the extra 50 students.
I asked someone at break and I was told Grenola and Fall River.
Fall River is a half hour drive and an extra 25 miles of driving expense for a bus.
Grenola is a 50 mile drive and an extra 45 miles of driving expense for a bus.
This does not include time stopping and idling and loading kids, that is extra time and extra gas expense.
And if you recall the Superintendent told us in the newspaper it cost $8000.00 a year to educated these kids.
So if they get 50 out of district students that is going to cost the property owner taxpayer an additional $400,000.00. How neat is that ! I don't suppose that includes the wear and tear on buses and gasoline costs, do you reckon?

Superintendent Moore read small portions of each of the Board Policy Updates, even though each Board Member received copies they themselves could read. Some thing just had wording changes. For instance where ever they use to use the word gun, it is now changed to weapon. He said a two inch pocke knife, an ink pen or a chair used in a threatening means will be called a weapon.

As always, because they speak among-st themselves and at a low volume of speech I did not hear what it was about but the Superintendent said 6 mil's equals $120,000. since property values have been increased by the state.

That's all i have for you this evening.

Goodnight everyone.

[proelkco]

Grenola is not 50 miles

[Ross]

Grenola is not 50 miles

Thank you for pointing out my mistake.

Yep, I'm human !
I don't know how a made such a blunder!
NO excuses.

Mapquest says it is 22min 17.5 miles to Howard but again that does not take in various pick up spots.
Mapquest says it is 21min 18.9 miles to Howard but again that does not take in various pick up spots.

I stand corrected.

Thanks again.

[Ross]

Well, I did it for you and me ! Because "We the People' deserve better and our children deserve better !

I sent of three packages of information, questions and documentation to the Kansas Attorney General, the  Kansas State Department of Education and the Kansas State Governor.

I have asked that the illegal tax increase be returned to all of the taxpayers and a written apology in the Prairie Star.

I asked that and much more.

So who of the elite is going to organize my tar and feathering party?
I have already invited a few of my friends to attend.

I will stand by my convictions.

[Ross]

Last nights forum of folks running for office was calm and well handled by Doug Ritz ?

I'm not gonna discuss the forum although it went very well in my opinion and that Doug Ritz did an exceptional job MC'ing it. Especially he had a last minute notification that he would be doing so.

What I do want to share with you is, I appreciate each and every person that spoke with me about the Opposition Petition's for last summer and this spring. I am grateful for the thank you's, I received.

I spent a lot of time and money doing all that work, neither of which bothered me. Well, last summer a man handed me $20 and said this is to help with your gas and I was flabbergasted and tried to refuse the money. But he would not take no for an answer.

Last night, I was handed another $20 and I was told this to help with all the gas you used. I was floored. I'm not use to anyone giving me money and I don't even know if I said thank you. I told the gentleman that would offset my expense of sending out those 3 envelopes that cost $8.40 each.

Surprise - Surprise, I got home and was telling my wife about the $20 bill and I pulled it out of my shirt pocket to show it to her and my mouth fell open when I unfolded the bill, it was 2  $20 dollar bills.

Sir, I thank you for your generosity.

I am just a  crazy retired old fart living on social security and a small retirement check so your contribution  and the other mans contribution are much appreciated. 

And to the folks that thanked me, while signing the Opposition Petitions, those thank you's were invaluable, they kept me going.

I never once gave any thought to my out of pocket expense, my main thought was about the elderly
of Elk County that can not afford these outrageous property taxes.

Now, I have to make a confession, I have been wrong about West Elk raising our property taxes every year.
That was the only place, I could figure the tax hikes were coming from. Well, I discovered where the hidden tax increases came from.

When the state wants more property tax, they don't raise the mill rate. They raise our property values.
When they raise our property values each mill is worth more dollars. It is the same as raising property taxes for every government item listed on your tax form at the end of the year.

That means that all school districts and all county and all city governments automatically get a hike in the amount of dollars they take in.

Even though, Elk County Government has lowered the mil rate they tax us for, the dollar amount out of our pockets goes up. West Elk never lowered their mil rate which means every time our property values go up, so does the amount of money West Elk takes in.  If we were permitted to see the total amount of money West Elk gets from our total property taxes we would see that change in the $ amount.

After last nights Forum and listening to Mr. Hebb, I believe it was he that said, about the so called, "Wind Farm" money, that the State lets us have that money. And if a new governor gets voted in, we could lose that "Wind Farm" money. That would be up to the new Governor, as he would have the right to stop that money to Elk County.   BIG OUCH !

It was said, the cost of operating the County has gone up from $3 million to about $5 million and that the county should be saving some of that money! I totally agree they should be saving money for possible hard times ahead.

It was said that the "Wind Farm" money for this year is already gone.
And I do believe the County still has outstanding debt.

So, why are two out of three Elk County Commissioners playing Socialist's and giving money away?

Why does the Elk County Commissioners claim they have an obligation to the community's !
Their first and only obligation is to all the citizens that pay property taxes,
not the city Governments,
no matter how they twist it.

The Cities property owners are taxed by the County for the very same services you and I are taxed.
And therefore are not "ENTITLED" to any more than you or I are entitled to.

What I see happening is Konnected Kounty Kommissioner Kominska is making points with some people by doing them this favor and I wonder what favors she might be getting in return?
Or is it that giving away 100,000.00 Dollars simply makes her feel important.

Just remember this stuff, if we get a new Governor and he decides the State needs that "Wind Farm" money more that Elk County does and he takes the money for the state.
Kansas IS having financial problems!

What kind of financial problems do you think Elk County will have if we lose that tax money to the state.
OR
What if a tornado were to wipe out the "Wind Farm" ?

What contingency plan do the County Commissioners have?
NONE

The tax breaks, the county has given us would go away and property taxes would sky rocket, as I see it.

I love this little county, because we are isolated, but not too isolated.
We have beautiful rolling hills and beautiful flat grazing lands,
And sort of a shelter from tornadoes, according to some student meteorologists that visited my little farm, during a severe storm watch. They said the terrain to the south west of us probably protects us.  I have watched many a severe storm coming from that direction and they split and go around us and then come back together as they continue north west. I've watched it live on weather radar numerous times.

I also like the people,  the majority of people in Elk County are exceptionally friendly.

I hope every one has a great weekend!

My sincerest thanks to each of you.

[Bullwinkle]

        I would like you to explain how the state could seize the PILOT money paid to the county.

       Brownback has already taken money from several landowners who leased ground to Enel for phase two of the wind farm project, which was already planned and environmental studies completed, ready to begin after phase one was complete. Phase two was shut down by the governor after being lobbied by the Nature Conservancy and in particular, Mr Devlin, who fought the entire project from the beginning. Phase two would have placed turbines very close to property he and his buddies own.

      The landowners make money from their property leased to Enel, but that land is also taxed heavier than it would be as agricultural land. The money paid to the county is less than it would normally pay as a business of that size, ergo the deal made for payment in lieu of taxes. Not very hard to understand the reasoning.

     What the government could do at some point is take away the subsidies that Enel recieves. Not very likely.

[redcliffsw]

If so about Devlin, he's standing against government supported industry and there's certainly nothing wrong with what he supposedly did. 

The American economy is based upon government grants and subsidies.  Who gets it?

Why aren't more Americans standing for liberty?



   

[Ross]

        I would like you to explain how the state could seize the PILOT money paid to the county.

       Brownback has already taken money from several landowners who leased ground to Enel for phase two of the wind farm project, which was already planned and environmental studies completed, ready to begin after phase one was complete. Phase two was shut down by the governor after being lobbied by the Nature Conservancy and in particular, Mr Devlin, who fought the entire project from the beginning. Phase two would have placed turbines very close to property he and his buddies own.

      The landowners make money from their property leased to Enel, but that land is also taxed heavier than it would be as agricultural land. The money paid to the county is less than it would normally pay as a business of that size, ergo the deal made for payment in lieu of taxes. Not very hard to understand the reasoning.

     What the government could do at some point is take away the subsidies that Enel recieves. Not very likely.

I think what I stated from the Candidates Forum said enough. Beyond that I have no knowledge.

After last nights Forum and listening to Mr. Hebb, I believe it was he that said, about the so called, "Wind Farm" money, that the State lets us have that money. And if a new governor gets voted in, we could lose that "Wind Farm" money. That would be up to the new Governor, as he would have the right to stop that money to Elk County.   BIG OUCH !

[Bullwinkle]

        Liberty to me in this case would be the state not telling landowners what they can or can't do with their property. Which is exactly what they did.