PEP RULZ

[Maude]

Pep,
That would go for all citys not just Howard. Pep, you are right people should pick up their yards as much as they can. Even if the house is a little run down, having a yard that is taken care of helps it look better.
Maude

[pepelect]

OK lets not ban all portable housing units...Just the ones built before 1980 that have no inhabitants, have been used as a kennel, are attached to another structure, and have ever been considered for RED NECK YARD OF THE WEEK.   


You are missing the point if you think I am slamming your daycare.  Unless you were planning to only use the house as a temporary unit until you found a more stable structure, I am slamming the structure that your daycare resides.   I think that for the long haul a house with foundation, real windows, insulated roof, pitched roof and a attached garage would have made a better and more inviting daycare...Thermal pane windows, doors that keep out the drafts could lower your heating and cooling by about half.   Let alone the resale value, have you ever seen a 30 year note on a house of this nature, tornado's tend to be attracted to mobile housing units.

  But I tend to look at things from a not having to fix it if you build it right from the beginning, sort of twisted view..



There are nice houses... even the white house would look like crap if the front lawn was buck brush and pig weeds.  I am after the ones that bring down the standard of living for the entire county, the ones that anywhere where there is code enforcement would be hauled to the landfill.  If the only family that lives there has a white stripe down their back and are nocturnal.  Why do we have a limit on the number of dogs that are allowed but there is no limit on pigeons?  I only want to replace the paleolithic built existing ones with good solid taxpaying houses.



Just mow the damn yard.

[Rudy Taylor]

I'll stay off the trailer bandwagon and let PEP take the heat on that one.  But, boy, do I agree about pride in general.

I work with communities throughout southeast Kansas and they all have the same problem with pride. There are some nice exceptions, mostly in Labette County, and I can tell you why: Their pride is several generations old. Kids were raised with it. Parents and grandparents, many of them European immigrants, believe that keeping neat farmsteads and well-maintained property is part of their God-given heritage.

In Edna, Altamont or Mound Valley, Kansas, you would no more let your weeds grow high than you would pee in the collection plate at church. It's that divine to them. And PEP is right --- it costs nothing.  Fact is, pride saves money, both personally and and as a community.

My group at the recent Elk Konnected meeting talked at length about this and there are no easy answers --- only dreams.  Everybody seemed to want more pride but there is a devilish voice that whispers in some people's ears that says, "Hey, nobody can tell you what to do on your own property." And pride stops in its tracks.

Common sense must prevail in all things. Cities have a tendency to pass nuisance ordinances they can't enforce anyway. In the final analysis, it's still best to keep things as informal as possible in small towns. It works much better for a neighbor to help you get rid of your trash and weeds than to have a city official call on you.

I will say this, and I realize I am painting with a broad brush: MALES are the primary abusers of property, the ones who defy authority and dare anyone to apply rules to their lives. They insist upon keeping junk behind their garages because "they might need 'em for parts some day."  And the result is what I see every day when I pass by Peru, Kansas.  Yikes.

On a positive note: I don't know of any county where I see more positive steps being taken and more conversations being held to create a better tomorrow than right here in Elk County. And, if we can just elect PEP to pope, mayor, county commissioner or king, we'll be on the right course.

You're doin' good, folks.

[mtcookson]

Yeah, I need to get a mini warehouse or something for all of my cars. Some of them are junkers that are going to the salvage as soon as I get my tow vehicle working but a lot of the others are project cars... but since I don't have a building to store them they have to sit in a field making it look like they're all junkers. I had someone call my main/dream project car a piece of sh** (probably because it was sitting out back waiting for an engine... regardless, they're lucky they're still seeing straight (**** thief).

Anyway... back to the regularly scheduled programming.

[Maude]

People have to be responsible for the homes they rent or own. Some people think if they own it, they have the right to let it run down. On the othe side  are the renters that think"I do not own it why should I care". It has to be the responsiblity of each and every person to take pride in where they live. We can all sit around and talk about the problem when in reality it is action that needs to be taken.
Maude

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I get what you are saying Patrick.  I understand.  But I felt like, at the time, that getting someone to rent a trailer wouldn't be the best thing.  You are right about the up keep on trailers.  That is why I personally felt that having my daycare in the trailer would be much  better.  If I was renting, I would want to rent a house over a trailer.  Yes, tornado and trailer houses don't mix.  But in the same since some tornados tear up house just the same.  I don't think they pick and choose what they are going to take at on that day that they hit.  I have a tornado plan.  Luckily, I haven't had to use it yet.  We have put money in my daycare just as we have put money in our rental house.  Our rental house has better living room carpet than the house that we live in!!

I just choose to put my daycare in the trailer.  I do understand your point.  There is a really nice group of eye sores about 5 blocks down  the road.  But thank goodness that Lions Club mow the yards!!  I see your point!!  Not saying that you are right, because I love my business and no one has ever complained to me that my place looks bad, believe me if it does tell me and I will try to improve it.  I was thinking of paint the trailer a nice power cat purple, but maybe I should go with KU colors what do you think-PEP??

[Jo McDonald]

   KU  ALL the way, Angie !!!!!!

[Tobina+1]

Angie; be gentle... PEP is from a "broken home".  Only half his home is for KU.  The other half is for KSU.  So depending on whether you want to suffer more wrath from PEP RULZ or get on his good side... choose your color carefully!   

Devyn and I have it easy, b/c if we don't mow our lawns for a week, it still looks shorter than all the Johnson grass in the ditches, and our neighbors are far enough away to compare grass heights!
Do you think that people in town care less about their property if their neighbors' properties are unkept?  "Why should I, if they don't?"  How do you turn that tide, and get one person starting to care, which will hopefully spread to the rest?

How about that Yard of the Month program?  Has it started yet?  Why hasn't it been splashed all over the paper?  Rudy is looking for good full-color picts for the new Prairie Star paper, so let's get some beautiful yards on there!  (And Devyn and I are still commissioning for the Rural Yard of the Month, too!)

[heather_tyler_2014]

my Uncle Burt has died and pretty much left his yard to deteriorate and lately my mom has worked very hard to keep the johnson grass and weed and limb's ans stuff to a certain point..... anyway's well this house should be burned at the stake for what it look's like but i wouldn't be able do it even if I had to because well .... that Uncle Burt's house and will alway's be Burt's house

                            Oh yah i love "PEP" sign at Pep's  knew "work area" whatever that mean's lol 

[pepelect]

I don't work...............Do you still water the grass if it rains?





How many jr high cheerleader want to be's does it take to screw in a light bulb?