Salisbury, MD: Your Attention is Needed

To all kilbirnie residents:

 

A very important issue was brought to those attending our Spring General Meeting, Tuesday, march 16, 2016.

 

Large industrial chicken houses in Wicomico County, Maryland Neighborhoods.

 

A process is currently in motion to put a massive industrial-sized house operation at the northwest corner of Walston switch and Shavox Roads.

 

At least four to eight 60-foot by 600-foot chicken houses are planned, which if approved would result in millions of chickens processed each year and thousands of trucks transporting chickens on Walston Switch and Shavox roads.

 

there is a “Protect the Paleo Channel” Public Forum, which will be held March 22, 2016 at 6 p.m. at the Wicomico youth and Civic Center to address this issue.

 

Liberal NutJob Ron Pagano To Run For Wicomico County Council

There is a rumor on some blogs and liberal whacko Ron Pagano has filed to run against Joe Holloway for Wicomico County Council.

God help us all!!If this is true, what say you?

Updated:

Dear Friends and Family:
After much deliberation, discussing it with my wife, Nancy, and meeting with many folks in the area, I have decided to join the race for the Wicomico County Council’s 5th District. It is a large district, mostly rural, but also covering towns and villages, from Delmar to Willards, and out to the Eastern edge of the County.
What I hope to bring to the race is my passion to fight for the issues I take on, whether for the unemployed, veterans, former inmates who want to turn their lives around, the disabled, or the host of other issues I have worked on in my life.
As many of you know, I have faced many obstacles in my 60 years, but I have always been an optimist, knowing that I have the ability to overcome anything I put my heart and mind to. My handicap has not kept me from pursuing my dreams, including my education, my family, my businesses or my beliefs. In fact, it is my handicap, along with all of the accompanying problems associated with it, that has pushed me to become the person and advocate I’ve become. I see problems and I want to help solve them, just as I’ve solved my own! If there is one thing I can impart from my own experiences, it is, “Never give up!”
My district is mostly rural, including many farms and rural communities. I may only have ‘farmed’ my backyard vegetable garden, but I have lived in rural, farmland communities for most of my adult life and when I met my wife, (who was born and raised in Parsonsburg), instead of discussing whether she might move to Anne Arundel County (where I was living at the time), I chose to move here, to Wicomico County, because I had come to love rural life, the slower pace and the people who live in places like this.
I promise the voters of the 5th District that I will fight for their concerns, just as I’ve always fought in the past. I look forward to opening a dialogue and finding new solutions to old problems. The way to the future is not through arguing, obstructing or refusing to see both sides; it is through finding ways to meet, talk, understand and compromise. All I ask from the voters is to hear what I have to say, and then watch, as I follow through. THAT’S the real test of any elected official!
The slogan for my campaign is, “Honor the past, plan for the future!” I hope that everyone will join me in this new challenge I’ve taken on. I’m eager to get started and find out how I can make life better for our community! I will be posting additional details about the campaign over the next few weeks.
With Warmest Regards,
Ron

Again, God help us all from this idiots.

Muir Boda Files For Wicomico County Council At Large

Thank you so much for taking to the time to visit and learn more about why I wish to serve you on the Wicomico County Council.

The obvious questions you may have is why am I running and what do I have to offer?

To answer the first, I love Wicomico County and I am pleased to say we are one of the 100 Best Communities in the Country in which to live. We have so much to offer people who are looking for a great place to live, work, worship, learn and play. My purpose and my goal in running for County Council is to ensure that we remain one of the 100 Best Communities.

As I see it, there are several key issues we need to address to not only keep that status, but improve our standing among our 100 peers.

Today I am putting forth the Wicomico Initiative, a five point plan to take our County and Region to the next level. These five issues are key to addressing many of the problems that threaten our way of life and I am committed to working with all municipalities, Law Enforcement, the business community, our educational system, civic groups and those elected with me to County offices to strategically implement the Wicomico Initiative.

The five key actions we need to focus on are Reducing Crime, enhancing our Educational Opportunities, refining and developing our economy, Defending our Revenue Cap and Protecting our Property Rights. Though there are more issues that will need to be addressed throughout this campaign, these issues are key in setting the foundation on which I stand.

I certainly understand that I alone cannot implement policy direction and legislation. It will take the Council as a whole in cooperation with the County Executive and all public servants in Wicomico County and its municipalities to do what is right for our people, our neighborhoods, and our County. It requires us to put aside political differences and egos, for those are the greatest impediments to positive progress. Join me and send a message to our leaders to stand with us in protecting our way of life.

If you would like more information on my campaign please Visit our website at boda4council.com.

Muir Boda
At-Large Candidate for Wicomico County Council

The new Salisbury ‘Dream Team’ – Day and Ireton

It probably wasn’t a big surprise based on the primary results and the perception that this election was a tag team match between Jake Day and Jim Ireton vs. Debbie Campbell and Joe Albero. But the preliminary results are in, and it’s all but official that the Day/Ireton side won handily: Day picked up just under 72% of the vote in routing two-term incumbent Debbie Campbell while Jim Ireton managed just 68% of the vote in defeating Joe Albero and winning a second term.

Campbell was the only one of the three incumbents to lose, as District 1 Council member Shanie Shields won a third term with just 48% of the vote – a quirk in the City Charter allowed both challengers to advance through the primary. Cynthia Polk received 3 more votes than April Jackson did this time.

So where will Salisbury go now? Later this month it appears we will find that the 3-2 majorities which always seemed to stymie Ireton’s key initiatives will now become 3-2 votes in favor, with Day joining incumbents Shields and Laura Mitchell to provide a pro-Ireton majority. And I’d love to get a hold of Debbie Campbell’s green-highlighted copy of the Day plan just to see how many of these items indeed cost city taxpayers.

But another question may be the fate of River’s Edge, which was touted by Campbell as one of her achievements. While the money from the state is probably still going to be there, will the plans have to change to accommodate the retail aspect Day wants to bring to the city? (It’s still pretty sad that taxpayers all around the state are going to be paying a subsidy for a artisan community, but that’s a subject for another time.)

Still, given the primary results none of these results were completely unexpected. Both Day and Shields actually improved their percentages from the primary – which was not surprising to me because people like to back a winner. Day gained 723 votes from the primary while Campbell picked up only 292. Over 71 percent of the new votes went to Day, reflective of the final margin and perhaps a result of the (somewhat undeserved) negative reputation Campbell acquired over the years.

Of course, it’s too early to tell what the future will hold for the losers. While April Jackson was a first-time candidate in District 1, Cynthia Polk has now lost twice. And while Debbie Campbell can look back at eight years where she went from the reformer darling against the “Dream Team” in 2005 to being portrayed as the Wicked Witch of the West on one local blog, Joe Albero literally relocated himself to an apartment inside one of the properties he owns a year ago to establish city residency after living outside Delmar, Delaware for several years. Is he through with Salisbury?

Read more here.

Weighing in on the Salisbury races

On Tuesday, Salisbury voters will head to the polls to elect their mayor and two of five City Council members in the last partial election before changes in 2015 would require all Council members and the mayor be elected simultaneously. So in essence we are picking some of these Council members and mayor for a half-term to be completed in the fall of 2015.

Honestly, it probably doesn’t matter who gets elected in District 1 because they will be advocates for the city’s minority population getting theirs rather than necessarily the benefits of the city as a whole. I heard a lot of complaining from the three women who are running about what the city didn’t do for their district, and while we all want the benefit of good jobs their district in particular is the product of people who made a lot of bad life choices. We also all want a thriving minority community, but it should be in the context of a thriving community as a whole. Moreover, in 2015 that district will double in size and become home to two Council members if the plans remain the same.

But while I can dismiss the District 1 race quickly, I have a lot to say about the mayor’s race.

In 2009, Jim Ireton told us that help was on the way. Well, the city isn’t exactly thriving, and it’s spent a lot of money just to maintain its place on the treadmill. Furthermore, it appears that even more money will have to be spent thanks to government mandates to clean up Chesapeake Bay – despite the fact millions have already been spent on what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant. Meanwhile, Jim touts a lot of “accomplishments” which any halfway decent mayor should have been able to do in his sleep. This is what Jim lists on his website as “Improving Salisbury”:

Third Friday, The city’s first Latino Festival, lowering business capacity fees, people returning to downtown, the city dog park, improvements at Bateman/Onley Road. These are just a few of the important improvements to Salisbury that have happened while Jim has been Mayor. Coalitions across Salisbury have worked with Jim and city staff to move projects forward. Jim led the way on the city’s comprehensive plan, fought for and won a 60% reduction in business capacity fees, and hasn’t raised property taxes his entire time in office.

Jim has aggressively used the city’s revolving loan fund program to help businesses like Mojo’s, and he’s ordered the demolition of five slum properties and worked to close and demolish the Thrift Travel Inn.

Well, no wonder MoJo’s donated to his campaign! I’m just surprised they didn’t max out. But when you think about it – is that a worthy resume of four years in office? Oh, and he claims violent crime dropped 41 percent and he hired the first female chief of police.

Read more here.

Salisbury Maryland Candidate Forum

The $19 Million Dollar Question in Maryland

Over the past few days mayoral candidate Joe Albero has taken to his Salisbury News website – you know, the one with no authority line – and thrice bashed incumbent Jim Ireton for scheming to raise city taxes and fees by $19 million. But is Albero correct in blaming Ireton?

Yes and no. One could extend blame to the party Ireton is a member of and the politician he supported twice for President for signing an Executive Order compelling the federal government and states to increase their tempo in restoring Chesapeake Bay. It allowed the EPA great latitude in determining a course of action (like these marching orders show – orders which include the stick of possibly “withholding, conditioning, or reallocating federal grant funds”) and established a “pollution diet” which had little to do with maintaining the economic viability of the region but more to do with pie-in-the-sky goals for the state of the Bay twelve years hence. This supposedly would “ensure that all pollution control measures needed to fully restore the Bay and its tidal rivers are in place by 2025.” (Yet, as I’ll discuss in a bit, that won’t be the end of the road. Far from it.)

Thus, the state of Maryland became a greater participant in the effort – not that Governor Martin O’Malley, who Ireton also supported for election twice, was exactly going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the prospect of further power over and control of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay watershed population.

But it can be argued Ireton has his hands tied, and if Joe Albero wins? He still has to deal with it. As it turns out, this $76 million effort is just a portion of Salisbury’s share of costs to enact the Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan, lovingly presented to the EPA by the state of Maryland last year. This led to the mandate from the Maryland Department of the Environment for local officials to prepare a plan for Wicomico County:

As requested by MDE, each of the twenty‐three counties and Baltimore City were instructed to prepare a Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan that details / demonstrates how each jurisdiction will do their part in improving the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries across Maryland.

Read more here.

Daily Times Continues To Publish Liberal Garbage

I never envisioned the day when a congressman would violate his oath of office by approving of people wanting to overthrow our government.

On Saturday, Feb. 16, at 1st District Rep. Andy Harris’s town hall meeting on guns in Ocean City, that’s exactly what I heard and saw.

Read more stupidity here.

Law Abiding Citizens in Maryland to become Criminals

Testimony in opposition to SB281:
Firearm Safety Act of 2013

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate:

Let me begin by saying I find this bill to be improperly named, because its passage will not make Marylanders any safer.

As members of the General Assembly, you are charged with making laws. By definition, criminals break them.

Yet I predict this bill will make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.

Otherwise this law will deny the right to self-protection from many thousands of Maryland residents your government claims to be looking out for: the poor and disadvantaged among us. If one were to purchase a handgun after November 1, not only will they be responsible for the price of the gun but also hundreds of dollars’ worth of licensing fees, classes, and other costs associated with this law. They’ll be faced with a choice: self-protection or starvation. Is the state going to step in further and pay for gun safety courses for the poorest among us, waiving the $100 licensing fee on a sliding income scale? Of course not.

Certainly at this point you’re shaking your head at the crazy example I point out above, but I shook my head in disbelief when I saw this bill for what it is: a kneejerk response to a tragedy this law would not have prevented. Again, by definition criminals break laws. The very first victim of the Sandy Hook tragedy owned her weapons – the ones stolen to be a means for committing these murders – legally.

Logic and reliance on facts aren’t generally the strong suits of those who would take away the access to weapons, though, so that truism is lost on those who pushed for this bill in the name of “safety.” As you probably know – and will likely hear often throughout this day of testimony – the Second Amendment clearly states “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” It does not go on to say “…shall not be infringed, except when they put scary-looking enhancements on the weapon” or “…shall not be infringed, except for the payment of $100 and taking of a training course.” I would further argue that the people aren’t the “well regulated militia” but the “over-regulated militia.”

It’s rather unfortunate that I can’t be there today to deliver this in person, to see the reaction on your faces when I take a page out of the old saw many of us grew up hearing, “Question Authority.” It’s the people’s job to do so when authority oversteps its bounds and turns a right into a privilege for the chosen few.

I understand this bill probably has enough votes to clear the Senate based on the number of co-sponsors; furthermore, I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this hearing was scheduled at a time when President Obama would be nearby.

But I guarantee to you that I speak for thousands and thousands of law-abiding gun owners in Maryland who have never fired their weapon in anger; in fact, I would wager that most have not fired their weapons in the last year. Luckily, society is still civil enough that the need for self-protection is a rare occasion for most of us.

Read more here.

Lack of Depth in Salisbury Maryland Mayoral Race

The first press shots across the bow by Salisbury mayoral challenger Joe Albero came in a slickly produced press release decrying incumbent Jim Ireton for…not showing up at a boxing event.

When I saw the headline “Albero Supports Youth Sports Program” my first thought was, okay, where is he going to get the money to pay for it? Instead, the thin gruel I was subjected to went like this:

Salisbury mayoral candidate Joe Albero attended Saturday’s “Warriors of the Ring” event at the Main Street Gym. The event was in support of Main Street Gym’s youth boxing program. Albero and his wife Jennifer, along with other local businesspersons such as John Robinson and Danny Burt, were sponsors of Saturday’s event.

Albero stated, “The work that Hal Chernoff has done with our local youth is phenomenal! Boxing is a great sport which instills the values of hard work and discipline. These are the same traits which will help these young people succeed as adults.”

Albero lamented the absence of his opponent, incumbent mayor Jim Ireton. “I’m sorry that Jim wasn’t able to be here tonight. We were both asked to participate in tonight’s event. Regrettably, Jim felt that campaigning was more important than showing support for this great program and our area youth.”

Both candidates had been invited to participate in Saturday’s event. Ireton declined, stating that he was too busy campaigning for re-election.

So Jim Ireton decided not to show up at a boxing match in favor of “campaigning,” yet his opponent makes a campaign issue out of it. I think I’d be more worried if Ireton didn’t show up at a mayoral forum.

Read more here.