Dear Elk County Commisioners and concerned citizens

[Varmit]

Julie, KEEP ON KEEPING ON and ignore the negative crowd, I think there are a lot of people that agree with you. I know of someone that had purchased land in Elk County and had plans to build a Cabin on it, after following the NEGATIVE crowd on the Forum, they sold the land in Elk County recently and are making plans to buy elsewhere.

LMBO...how is asking questions being negative? How can we improve with we do not ask questions to assertain what works and what doesn't?  You want "negative" then lets keep on doing what we have been doing with absolutely nothing to show for it!  
As for the "cabin" you mentioned, so what?  If a person is going to move away because they don't like it when people express their opinions, I for one, don't want them here anyway.  Of course, it could be that they saw how this county was being run and said," Nope, screw that!"  

So on the upside, and in the intrest of being more positive, just how are the commissioners supposed to improve the county?

[kshillbillys]

Julie, KEEP ON KEEPING ON and ignore the negative crowd, I think there are a lot of people that agree with you. I know of someone that had purchased land in Elk County and had plans to build a Cabin on it, after following the NEGATIVE crowd on the Forum, they sold the land in Elk County recently and are making plans to buy elsewhere.

When my family and I moved up here 12 years ago, we knew NOTHING of this forum and would've never read a forum to base life altering decisions on, such as moving. We came to Longton one day, saw this house, asked about it, discussed it and decided to move here because of small town values and the fact that driving to work from Longton was really no different than driving to work from Sedan. I have family who live here but family is not the reason I moved here. There is a new couple here in town that have no family here either, knew NOTHING of the Elk County Forum and still moved here anyway. Why? SMALL TOWN LIFE.

There is NO such thing as the NEGATIVE CROWD on this Forum. There are people with different opinions, different points of view, AS THERE ARE IN ALL TOWNS, CITIES AND INTERNET FORUMS. Without that diversity, what would we have? Same shit, different day. Why does there have to be the FEW people on here labeling people because they don't like what they say? If you don't like to be labeled, I doubt other people do. Ask yourself this question, who are the people actually being NEGATIVE?---Jennifer

[Patriot]

... Nothing has ever been givien to me and I have worked for everything I have and all the debt I have incurred while doing it;  all to do what I feel was an improvement in our county.  It is my opinion that current decisions that have been made will negatively impact my business and our community 10-20 years from now.

Well, to be honest, there was likely an income/profit motive in there somewhere. 

But of greater import is that I think we agree on one thing.  If something doesn't change, the direction Elk County is headed is toward extinction.  I just don't think we agree on how to effect a turnaround.  With the national economy hurting and the local economy under the same pressures, and the fact we've been shrinking (even during the booming 90s), what we've been doing simply hasn't worked countywide... and continuing to do the same things won't likely produce different results.

[Varmit]

Do tell us what your big plans are.  I see nothing but cutting taxes and services on your agenda.

I didn't see Patriots name on the ballet either, so why ask a question you are not prepared to answer?  You accuse others of having an agenda, whats yours?  You want to work together, heres your chance...what are your ideas on county improvement?  I have already stated mine...lowering taxes, cut spending where it doesn't show a return, get county gov't out of town business, focus programs and policies on the entire county not individual towns.  
Your original post dealt with one person that, in my opinion, didn't really do anything.  Compiling names of businesses...look in the phone book.  Put together a list of needs, i.e. office space, lodging, food,...again check the phone book, pretty simple.  I am sure the windfarm folks already knew what they would need before they came here, it not like they made that decision on a whim.  

[jprxmkt]

The Revitalization program and the youth program have been in effect for 5 years, if even that.  That is not enough time to see if they would help or not.  It's not just a short term problem that will be fixed easily by compressing a few jobs at the courthouse or making them empty their own trashcan (no offense to the janitor at the courthouse) that will not bring people to Elk County.  To the contrary, it will only force more people to leave because now they have no job.  Each decision affects other factors.  
So are we for building a new courthouse and not a new school?

[jprxmkt]

The phone book? What year is this?  I am pretty sure that "places to rent" is not in the elk county phone book.  Are you saying that personal contact is not important and vital to our existence.  I'm pretty sure they choose Elk County for our wind not because they knew what our services were.  Our local services, I'm absolutely positive, had nothing to do with building here.

[kshillbillys]

Actually, I'm not in favor of building a new courthouse OR in West Elk getting a new school. West Elk created their own problems when they closed Moline and Severy without having a plan put into place to have enough space for the kids. I believe they could've put some more money into Moline and Severy to make them viable without planning to shove building a new school down peoples' throats. They voted on it, the people shot it down and they went over the voters' heads anyway and shut them down. They are going to do whatever they want to do and to hell with the voters. Using the words of a previous county commissioner, "Screw the public. We'll give them what WE want to!"---Robert

[Varmit]

The Revitalization program and the youth program have been in effect for 5 years, if even that.  That is not enough time to see if they would help or not.  It's not just a short term problem that will be fixed easily by compressing a few jobs at the courthouse or making them empty their own trashcan (no offense to the janitor at the courthouse) that will not bring people to Elk County.  To the contrary, it will only force more people to leave because now they have no job.  Each decision affects other factors.  
So are we for building a new courthouse and not a new school?

How could the Revitalization program been in effect for 5 years if it wasn't passed until Nov. of last year???

The phone book? What year is this?  I am pretty sure that "places to rent" is not in the elk county phone book.  Are you saying that personal contact is not important and vital to our existence.  I'm pretty sure they choose Elk County for our wind not because they knew what our services were.  Our local services, I'm absolutely positive, had nothing to do with building here.

UM, if a business is going to relocate or build here don't you think they are going to research the availible resources?  In short, they already knew what we had before they built the windfarm.  They didn't need  a list compiled for them as they would already  have done their homework.

[Varmit]

So are we for building a new courthouse and not a new school?

I would much rather see a new courthouse than a new school.  I say let the parents that send their kids to west elk worry about the school.  The people of this county already expressed their opinion on it.

[jprxmkt]

That sums it up, doesn't it. If I don't have a kid that will benefit or if I won't personally benefit from it, then why should I support it? Is that what our communty is about? Is that all there is? Is that how the majority feels!!!!!!???  Really???