03 MAY 2014, Vol.1, No.40 > DEMOCRAT
MEETING FREE-FOR-ALL!
The POCAHONTAS CRIER
‘When the Righteous succeed the people rejoice,
But when the bad govern, men groan!’ – Proverbs 29:2
[New
Email address: pocahontascrier88@gmail.com]
DEMOCRAT MEETING
FREE-FOR-ALL!
On MAY DAY, the Pocahontas County
Democrat Party held an open house to meet & greet all the candidates on
their party ticket at the Marlinton Library.
It turned into a standing-room only audience
and the meeting started around 6:30 pm and went until about 10 pm after all the
‘fire-works’ died down and the ‘last-bang’ was heard. Typical of a Democrat Party meeting, though,
it turned out to be not only INFORMATIVE but also QUITE ENTERTAINING as the
various candidates made opening statements – then dug in as question after
question came from the audience. At times it seemed as if some of the candidates were in front
of a ‘FIRING-SQAUD’ as many folks
expressed their disgust at the current county
commissioners running for re-election, i.e., David Fleming and William ‘Bill’ Beard, Jr.
The meeting started out with our county State
Representatives making opening statements and then fielding numerous
questions. On hand was State Senator Gregory A. Tucker (Nicholas County), House of Delegates Bill Hartman & Denise L. Campbell
(both Randolph County). Each gave a
short summary of the difficulties within the State Legislature this year as the
‘Republican
Party’, in general, tied up most of the ‘social legislation’ that would have
either fully-funded or at least expanded legislation aimed towards education,
drug abuse & rehab, and funding social services, like ‘Meals-on-Wheels’ for Senior
Citizens, as well as maintaining the ‘Homestead
Exemptions’!
The struggle between
placing THE
COMMON GOOD BEFORE SELF OR ANY SPECIAL INTERESTS, according to Bill Hartman, is becoming harder
by the day as the ‘GIANT CORPORATIONS’, like Wall-Mart & such do not want to provide either an increase in the ‘Minimum-Wage’, any health & welfare benefits, or any other type of
social services, such as maternity-leave, for their employees, etc.! Just as the Republicans in the U.S. Senate
voted DOWN an increase to $10.10 for the ‘Minimum-Wage’, so too did the Republicans vote
it down here in our State Legislature!
Economists like Ralph Nader say the ‘Minimum-Wage’
should NO LESS than $15.00 p/hour to keep up with the ‘Cost-of-Living’ (COL)!
Since multinational-corporations
are currently allowed to donate all they want to ‘buy & sell’ members of Congress, and those in the State
Legislature – the ‘Radical Republicans’ – are funded by multi-billionaires like the
Koch Brothers, Sheldon Emery, and other scoundrels – who
are actually hurting Citizens at all levels – whether it be cutting
services to Veterans, Disabled-Handicapped, Senior Citizens, Unemployed, Single
Parents, and ‘Food-Subsidies’
meaning the ‘Food
Stamp’ assistance program.
Cutting
that program alone has cost BILLIONS of lost revenue all across America! It is currently the worst-of-times since the same mindset of the ‘Radical
Republicans’ following the ‘War Between the States’ when Carpetbaggers
& Scalawags tried to take-over all the businesses in the Confederate States
under Yankee-Occupation! It took 12 – 15
years of continuous ‘guerrilla-warfare’ against the
Yankee-Blue-Bellies by ex-Confederate soldiers joining the KKK before the
occupation ended – and then the same Federal Occupation forces went into the
lands of the Native Americans and started the ‘Indian Wars’!
Well at the Democrat Party meeting,
the hottest issue was when the pre-colonial Native American land, and
Indian-burial-ground in Green Bank was brought up whereby the county commission,
IN SECRET, gave three-acres away FOR FREE to the
Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Authority (GVEDC), a
private-self-serving-corporation, which claims it ‘jointly-owns’ the land along with
the Pocahontas County Commission (PCC).
But the GVEDC in turn leased the three-acres to a private-for-profit
business corporation, for ‘99 years’, agreed to by the PCC, in which the GVEDC gets ALL THE RENTAL FEES & IMPROVE-MENTS,
while the Citizens get stuck with all the LIABILITIES – in violation of State Law since no debts
can be upon ‘public-lands’ without a
vote of approval by the taxpayers!
This deal was done IN SECRET
without public-knowledge until after-the-fact, and now Jacob Meck has seven or
more business operating out of the same address yet
PAYING NO PROPERTY TAXES – nor is the GVEDC paying any property taxes to
this county even though the GVEDC is taking $200,000
or more a year in rental income FROM this county to Greenbrier! To add insult to injury, the PCC even
pays a ‘membership-fee’
to belong to the GVEDC – instead of establishing a brand new county development
authority!
Both candidates Fleming &
David McLaughlin claimed to have supported the free-land-giveaway, even though
done in secret, but then McLaughlin acted ‘shocked’
when he found out that the taxpayers are stuck with all the LIABILITIES! And the real ‘fireworks’ began when it became
known to everyone there that Jacob Meck buried SIX-LEAKING-TANKS along
Deer Creek that he obtained from the former Texaco gas-station in Marlinton
when the DEP ordered them replaced for leaking gasoline, kerosene & diesel
fuel next to the Greenbrier River!
But since Meck claimed to ‘self-inspect’
the tanks – Fleming said that was O.K. – even though the leaking tanks rose
out-of-the-ground during high-water on Deer Creek!
Candidate PATTI HEINEMANN, Northern
District, was the first of the candidates to raise the issue of turning
the Green Bank wetland into a ‘Tourist Park’ and rebuilding the pre-colonial
Fort Warwick & Indian village on the order of Cranberry Glades since the
Green Bank land is a seasonal wetlands, and doing so as
a ‘Public Works’ project to create
new jobs in the county. But then
a new issue arose when Fleming suggested giving six-more-acres to Meck to allegedly
create new jobs for his business expansion!
But that came crashing down on Fleming at the public meeting as a
ton-of-bricks since Meck’s plan for expansion
consisted of digging SIX-OPEN-PITS to store upwards to 50,000 gallons of raw-human-toxic-sewage-waste
in EACH PIT, plus build a ‘tank-farm’
to store human-sewage in 100,000 gallon tanks – all of
this right across the road from the Green Bank Senior Center & new medical
facility! Both McLaughlin &
Fleming claimed that Meck will no longer ask for additional acreage, but that
drew a ‘big-laugh’ when the audience
asked, ‘For how
long, until after the election?’
Kenneth ‘Buster’ Varner was there and confirmed that Meck’s leaking buried tanks rose at
high-water and agreed with Patti Heinemann that
those tanks must be removed – especially since the three State Representatives
had just discussed the struggle they had passing a law that
NOW REQUIRES A REGISTRATION OF ALL STORAGE TANKS + PERIODIC INSPECTION FROM
QUALIFIED INSPECTORS AND NO MORE SELF-INSPECTIONS as was done in
Charleston disaster as well as in a pending Green Bank disaster! The irony of this discussion was the more
Fleming tried to explain-away the Green Bank fiasco, the deeper he sunk with
the public since he tried to portray himself as being all things to all people
all the time to the point of being nothing to anyone at anytime – not even
himself!
Another big issue discussed was
the clichés about supporting local farming and including crop farming along
with livestock farming – but several drawbacks immediately
arose during the discussion: (1) difficulty in converting or including a
livestock-farm to a produce- farm for lack of equipment & capital resources;
(2) Organic certification can take 3 – 5 years or longer depending on the
degree of ‘chemical-residue’ in the
soil; (3) IF any farm has any of Jacob Meck’s ‘untreated-raw-human-sewage’ spread on
its land, that land will NEVER get certified organic, nor will any adjacent
farmland, whether raising livestock or produce; and, (4) the lack of any
‘Credit Bank’ in West Virginia since
it’s been over 75 years since a ‘Credit
Bank’ has issued a crop loan in this State!
A ‘Credit
Bank’ was part of the ‘Land-Grants’
issued to the original 13 Colonies, and since West Virginia was once
known as, Augusta in Virginia, West Virginia became the 14th Colony
when WVU was issued a ‘Land-Grant’! A ‘Credit Bank’ issues loans to farmers
for crops and/or livestock pursuant THE YIELD OFF THE LAND – and places
no lien upon any real or personal assets of the farmer as do ‘commercial banks’!
Shay Huffman & William ‘Bill’ Beard, Jr. agreed on the principle of trying to
assist elderly farmers find younger couples to continue farming on their farms
through lease or CO-OP – but that suggestion still has to overcome the above potential
‘drawbacks’. Meanwhile Sarah
(Burt-Kinderman) Riley boasted that she doesn’t care about any type of ‘certification’ and already butchers
& sells locally – but at higher-prices than Wal-Mart, Save-A-Lot, and other
such grocery chains.
While several commission
candidates agreed that ‘Cell Phones’ & ‘Broadband’ are needed in the county,
only Patti Heinemann
raised the # 1 Issue of reorganizing the county solid waste authority to Stop
the Lawsuits & Expunge All Judgments.
She was also the only candidate that suggested we FIRE THE GVEDC
and create a new county development authority!
She was the only candidate to suggest bringing ‘Wind Turbines’ to this
county for self-generating electricity and new long lasting jobs! And she was also the only candidate that
suggested a long-term income producing program for every family in the county
that has Natural Spring Water on the property that can become part of a new
clean water bottling plan to make bottled water the #1 business so that everyone can SHARE
THE WEALTH!
Last, but not least, Sarah (Burt-Kinderman) Riley went out-of-her-way to avoid any questions regarding her private-organization,
High Rocks, and the amount of public-money it has received from the current
county commission, or even how those funds are being spent! Since Fleming has been a commission, the High Rocks compound has received in EXCESS OF $275,000.00
of county funds – $75,000 in 2013 & $80,000 so far in 2014, alone, yet
there’s no public accounting – and this is for a private-group that only caters
to a handful of young women at a time! Meanwhile the Durbin Library remains unfinished as well as a
host of other community projects that would benefit ALL THE PEOPLE and
not just pay the salaries for Sarah, her mother, and their assorted associates
who work for a self-serving special
interest!
THAT’S WHY…
THIS TIME…there’s no excuse…
IT’S YOUR
CHOICE…
TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER!
Just say ‘NO’ to
those who want to keep this county in Poverty &
Pauperism
– and –
Just say ‘YES’ to
real Progress
& Prosperity for the future!
On Primary Day – YOU have a chance to elect two persons
that will always put YOU first! They know that:
THE
GREATER COMMON GOOD ALWAYS COMES BEFORE SELF OR ANY SELF-SERVING SPECIAL
INTERESTS!
Keep up to Date – Stay tuned to these Websites:
► IF YOU are registered to vote as a Republican,
you can
Vote for Norman
Lee Alderman in the Primary Election
on 13 May 2014;
► IF YOU are registered to vote as a Democrat,
you can
Vote for Patti Heinemann in the primary election on
13 May 2014;
► If you are registered to vote, but with no party
affiliation, then you must request
Loud & Clear either
a Republican or Democrat ballot
on Primary Day when
you go to the polls; &
► Since Norman
is unopposed, he recommends that you
request a Democrat ballot to vote for Patti so that
this
county can again have an Honest & Just county
commission!
►
Early Voting is from 30 April 2014 to 10 May 2014 – so
Vote Early & avoid
the rush!
The Pocahontas Crier
is an independent Internet News Service that has so far endorsed two
candidates for County Commission
–
one a Republican & the other a Democrat –
in
addition to providing in depth news reporting on important issues directly
affecting the Citizens of Pocahontas
County!
[Our
apologies for any & all inconveniences for NEW EMAIL]
If you
wish to financially assist, kindly send all campaign contributions to: The United Campaign for County Commission (UCCC), c/o
Citizens for Common Sense Alternatives (CCSA), a registered Political Action
Committee, 7837 Wesley Chapel Road, Green Bank, West Virginia 24944-9063
Phone:
1.304.456.4565 or 3282 (also fax)
[The Pocahontas Crier is part
of The Crier Coalition of Internet News Services comprised of The Pocahontas Commentator, The
Pocahontas Crier, Signal Fires of WV, Rolling Thunder & Echoes from the Holl’r.]
No comments:
Post a Comment