Messages

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm

I have filed to run for commissioner in District 3.  Signs have been ordered and will be in
in 3-4 weeks.  Please spread the word about my campaign.  I hope to have a facebook page
up by this weekend.

I am not a politician (yet) and will accept whatever help you are willing to offer. 

Hope to talk to a lot of you over the next few months and get your input as to how we can
make this county better.

Thank you

David Evans

                                                             

Horseshoes??   You gave me a headache the other day with your kindergarten question.  I found the first public school in the US was St Louis in the 1880's.  Struck out on the 1st in KS though.

Mickey Wunderlich asked me to post the following as his computer is down.

At the September 28th commissioner meeting commissioner Kaminska said how happy she was the the ambulance was going to be 8 minutes closer to her mother.  When I asked about my mother she said "she'll just have to wait 8 minutes.  This is not just about my mother but people that live in the northeast and northwest part of Elk county.  The geographical center of the county is less than 1 mile south and east of Howard.  I submit that this move is not professional nor pratical but personal and political. Commissioner Liebau during this same meeting stated that "We're going to run this county the way we want to until the voters vote us out."  I don't think these positions and statements are being made to improve our county. 

Shouldn't we try to live within our means?  In regards to the EMS and Health Department building $819,000 for the building seems to me to be excessive.  The huge initial cost is just the beginning.  What about the furnishings, personnel, insurance(not being located in town), security(same thing), and other costs not included in the building price.  The $400,000 grant is being more than 100% matched by the county.  Are the architect and grant writer fees covered by the $819,000 or will we have to come up with more money to cover these.  These things had all been brought up in previous meetings but have the commissioners listened? Mileage across the entire county needs to be addressed, not just the distance to the commissioner's mother's house.  Why can't we spend less money. Why is the rodeo grounds the only option? Why just one building?

Just remember if you live in the northern half of the county don't worry.  Just wait.

Citizens of Elk county and America wake up before it's too late.  Maybe it already is.

These are my opinions and I'm willing to discuss any of them with you.  Face to face please, I'm not on the forum.

Thank you
Mickey

Mickey called me last night and asked me to remind you of the original post.  What happened?  Ross posted a reply and immediately people started jumping on Ross.  Micky and I wish that you would drop your childish comments and respond to this post as it was printed.  Micky has not had anyone come by the shop or call regarding what was originally brought forth in this post.  Please contact him directly if you have something to say about his comments.

Mickey Wunderlich asked me to post the following as his computer is down.

At the September 28th commissioner meeting commissioner Kaminska said how happy she was the the ambulance was going to be 8 minutes closer to her mother.  When I asked about my mother she said "she'll just have to wait 8 minutes.  This is not just about my mother but people that live in the northeast and northwest part of Elk county.  The geographical center of the county is less than 1 mile south and east of Howard.  I submit that this move is not professional nor pratical but personal and political. Commissioner Liebau during this same meeting stated that "We're going to run this county the way we want to until the voters vote us out."  I don't think these positions and statements are being made to improve our county. 

Shouldn't we try to live within our means?  In regards to the EMS and Health Department building $819,000 for the building seems to me to be excessive.  The huge initial cost is just the beginning.  What about the furnishings, personnel, insurance(not being located in town), security(same thing), and other costs not included in the building price.  The $400,000 grant is being more than 100% matched by the county.  Are the architect and grant writer fees covered by the $819,000 or will we have to come up with more money to cover these.  These things had all been brought up in previous meetings but have the commissioners listened? Mileage across the entire county needs to be addressed, not just the distance to the commissioner's mother's house.  Why can't we spend less money. Why is the rodeo grounds the only option? Why just one building?

Just remember if you live in the northern half of the county don't worry.  Just wait.

Citizens of Elk county and America wake up before it's too late.  Maybe it already is.

These are my opinions and I'm willing to discuss any of them with you.  Face to face please, I'm not on the forum.

Thank you
Mickey

One item that I have not seen fully discussed at any of the board meetings I attended was the fact that if any of these new additions are attached to the school, the entire school must be brought up to current American with Disabilities Act.  This may not sound like much but just imagine doors that must be widened, bathrooms that must have special stalls in place, braille placed by doors and offices, and other items we can't even imagine.  No money has been allocated to address any of these issues.

As I said in my earlier post, The figure of $4,000,000.00 was basically pulled out of the air.  Although we have already spent close to $30,000 on an architect we still have no firm plans for materials, no construction firm that has put in a bid, and no answers on how this will be built if the money raised by the bond issue isn't enough.

We could have had a new roof and new air conditioners installed this year if the board would have followed through on the motion to accept a bid that was presented earlier.  The contractor for the air conditioners said that the efficiency of the new units would pay for themselves in 5-7 years.  We have the money to do this in the capital improvement fund, but now we will have to wait until 2015 at the earliest to complete this project.  Why?  Because the bids given have an expiration date and that date is gone.  If the bond fails, the board will have to decide what to do now.  Even if they put out for new bids it will probably be too late in the summer to start this project.  I can't imagine roofers and installers working with classes going on. 

Do your own due diligence and check with the school and see how many leaks we have had so far this year.  The last time I heard there were four.  I don't even remember four storms this year severe enough to account for these leaks.

Yes, some classes may be crowded now, but what can we do to ease the crowding?  How about looking into cutting some of our programs.  Is there really a need for 2 years of preschool?  The data I have seen shows a slight improvement in the first year or so of regular school but after that there is no advantage.  Remember, if you can, a few years ago when the was a push to help start a daycare center in our area.  What daycare can operate on dwindling numbers of children especially when the school is basically offering free daycare. 

"It's for the children" is a phrase I hear too often today.  Sports are a necessary part of any education program.  But do we really need to have electronic scoreboards on every field, press boxes, or underground sprinkler systems.  Our board seems to think we do.  Oh, by the way, we already have all of the above except the football field does not yet have the sprinkler system.  When the contract was let to add dirt to the football field, there were no specifications on the type of soil to be used.  When the contractor brought in the material to be used an uproar ensued.  Rocks the size of basketballs, huge roots, and the composition was mainly clay.  The next board meeting it was moved to have this material removed.  However, there now isn't time to replace and grade the field and get grass started so we will just try to get grass growing in time for football season.

These are some of the reasons that I will be voting against the bond issue.  I don't trust some of the decisions that have been made by this board.  Please don't get me wrong.  Being a board member is probably one of the most thankless jobs you can try to get.  My wife was happy when I was defeated in my attempt to get this great job.  But, as you know, if you have a few strong willed individuals they can sometimes, without even trying, influence the decisions of the board. 

Please vote.  It's about the only thing we have left.  But do remember, we have options other than throwing money at a problem we have now but may not in the future.

Thank you

Hey Ross here it is,

I have been attending school board meetings for the past few years.  Yeah, I lost a school board election, lost the chance to be appointed when the Moline board member quit, but I keep going. 

Starting with a school board meeting where we met with the Assembly of God church and took a tour of their new community center.  When the board took the tour there was a feeling that the AOG community building would be able to be used to supplement the lack of space that West Elk couldn't provide.  However, within  couple of meetings it was decided that West Elk needed to add on buildings to give the students space to grow.  No matter what the AOG said, the feeling at the following meetings was that we needed to add on to the existing building to best serve the students.  At one meeting it was stated that we couldn't ask the students to walk through mud to get to the community center.  Then, an architect was hired to develop a plan to figure out how to reconfigure the school to be able to accommodate the students now enrolled or to figure out an addition that would handle the classload.  One of the first meetings it was decided to add another portable to ease the crowding in the classes.  The architect said he could find a used portable for a mere $5000.  It was decided at this meeting to put the new portable where the school had just located a brand new playground for the children.  However, at the next meeting the architect informed the board he couldn't locate a portable building so it was decided to have him draw up plans for a new addition to the school.  I won't bore you with details, but after several meetings it was decided to add on classrooms to the school  and also add a new elementary gym.  Forget about the new building just to the north of the school.  When the time came to come up with the amount of money to build these new additions a board member made a motion to spend $1,000,000.00 to just add classrooms.  It died for the lack of a second.  Then, the board discussed various amounts of money they thought the public would approve.  The amounts ranged from just over $6,000,000 to only $3,000,000.  Finally the amount decided upon was $4,000,000.00.  Surely the public would approve this miserly amount.  However, when a contractor was brought in a few months ago, he stated that he could not give the board an estimate on cost because the plans weren't complete enough for him to accurately give a bid. 

To those of you that do not go to board meetings discussion was held last fall on repairing the roof and replacing the 15+ year old air conditioners.  A board member moved last fall to get estimates on repair and replacement.  It passed.  However, when the bids came in, a motion was made to get the roof fixed and air conditioners replaced during the summer of 2014.  It died for the lack of a second.  The president stated that when we got a contractor to build the new additions that they would give us a break on the new roof and air conditioners.  Yeah, I believe that.  Now, the earliest that we will see any improvements to the school will be in the summer of 2015.  When class is in session I don't believe that we will see workers on the roof or air conditioners being replaced.  There is approximately $1,000,000.00 in the capital improvement fund that would cover the cost of repair and replacement.
The editorial in the Prairie Star was correct that the growth in student population was from students already in district or coming from neighboring districts.  With taxes already about the highest in the state we have virtually no chance of attracting new businesses or homeowners to our area.  Local taxes have gone up 184% from 2005 to 2012.  Main reason.  School.

Let's think outside the box for a minute.  We have 37 teachers(2012 data from KDSE).  That's not too bad.  However we employee 102 other employees.  Bus drivers, cooks, paras, staff.  Some of these paras and teachers are in the special ed cooperative with Sedan and Longton.  However,  Independence in Montgomery County, employees 103 other employees.  Oh, but they have 1901 students.  Again, this is 2012 data from KDSE.  West Elk during this same time period had 307 students.  Hmmmmmmm.

West Elk also has two years of preschool.  The state doesn't count these as students.  They also don't require that we have preschool.  At a board meeting two years ago it was reported that the kindergarten class was huge.(21 students)  It was voted on and passed that the class be divided in two and two teachers hired(already were) and four paras(2 in each class).  The class, if memory serves me correctly was divided into 9 in one class and 12 in the other.  9 kids, 3 adults.  What would happen if we reduced the numbers of paras by half?  At least 50 less adults in the classrooms.  Possibly more room for the children?

Ross may be a salty old sea dog but he is not a liar.  Take it from one who is there. 

If you don't believe what I have written, why don't you come to the board meetings and see what goes on with your own eyes.  Very few of you do or have.

Ross.  Anytime you need a foxhole, I'll be glad to share mine.