The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Speak Your Piece




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In addition to the telephone and the U.S. Mail, The Mountain Eagle accepts comments to Speak Your Piece by electronic mail. Our address is: mtneagle@bellsouth.net

I thought I was in a dream when I saw Camp Branch Road the other day. It was actually a nice road I was driving on, no longer filled with huge big holes. We were doubting the state would ever fix it for us since they skipped us for so long and fixed others that weren’t near as bad. Thank you for finally fixing Camp Branch. That’s all we were asking for. Now we can put this complaint to rest in Speak Your Piece. I’m sure some did get tired of always reading our comments from over here. But hey I guess we finally got something accomplished from it. Thank you from the Camp Branchers.

. What this country needs some good Minutemen, some good militias. The president was out of the country and ISIS is threatening to invade us and probably bomb us. What is he doing? He is worried about the damn climate change.

. The problem with this generation, from the perspective of an old geezer, is that the electronic cable has become the new umbilical cord.

. Any idiot that has $10,000 worth of ginseng on that property should surely splurge for a $35 video cam or deer cam to go on it. If you have that kind of money involved you lost it over nothing.

. I can almost hear the terrorists laughing all the way over here in the land of the somewhat free and home of the scaredy cat Congress.

. I watched the Letcher County Fiscal Court meeting on the government channel. The five percent the magistrates wanted to reduce on salaries, why can’t they go ahead and donate five percent of their salaries to each of the districts they serve? I know they can’t reduce their salaries legally, but why can’t they donate part of it?

. Thousands of women and children are fleeing their homeland to keep from being raped and murdered,

but many of our politicians, including several from Kentucky, want to show how cold hearted and uncaring we are by refusing to give them shelter. This is doubly immoral given that it was our previous president who destroyed the stability of the region.

. I think county treasurer Phil Hampton is a good and decent man. I wouldn’t have a car, a house or a piece of land to put it on if Phil hadn’t been my loan officer at the bank. Now on the other hand, I didn’t hear Bill Meade say that he wasn’t an office man. My second comment is that I voted against Jimmy Asher twice when he ran for mayor, but he made more sense up there than any public speaker who was there the whole night and he did it every bit in a decent, civil way with no profanity. I was pretty proud of him for that. One of the main problems I had with the meeting was the fact that a nonelected employee continued to interrupt. We really didn’t need to hear any of her personal comments about what she thought about some of that stuff.

. I think Judge Ward should not get on the ‘Round Table’ radio show and lie about the recreation center. He knows that is what destroyed the county.

. Can we get Jimmy Asher as county judge?

. I miss Mayking BP so bad. I wish, Woody, that you would get back in business. I don’t want to pump gas. Please, reopen your gas station.

. What does Judge Ward have against Bill Meade? Bill was not making a disturbance at the meeting. He was attacked by county staff and he was responding in a reasonable, low-key manner. The Judge’s action smacks of suppression of free speech. I’m not necessarily a fan of Meade, but ejecting him was bad behavior by the judge.

. I listened to the ‘Tuesday Morning Round Table’ and it is almost laughable. Letcher

County Judge/Executive Jim Ward has the nerve to get on the radio and expect us to believe that 238 seniors are already going to the rec center daily. He said by combining all of the senior centers and having the seniors go to the rec center, they can now go bowling, walking, play basketball and even climb the rock wall. What a joke. That program is no more than Jim Ward propaganda.

. I used to have a great deal of respect for 103.9 the Bulldog. Now, it is just one more outlet for Judge Jim Ward to spread his lies.

. Thanks to Rand Mitch for helping to ban women and children from being able to escape to our country from our enemy, the Islamic State. Send them back to be raped to death; that’ll show the terrorists. And keep making sure that if a red blooded American wants to buy an automatic weapon with no background check and machine gun dozens of children, that’s still perfectly OK.

. Someone at the WMMT radio station there in Whitesburg needs to get his or her act together and fix the signal so we can hear it again over here in Pike County. What’s the problem? It’s been months since we’ve been able to hear good radio over here.

. One of the dumbest complaints I’ve heard in many moons is the whining by the person fussing because the Letcher County Recreation Center was located in Whitesburg. Hey, Einstein, the rec center is in Whitesburg for the same reason the courthouse is in Whitesburg. The town is the geographic center of Letcher County.

. I’m speaking my piece about shutting down the senior citizens centers. How many judge/executives did we elect? I think we elected one. Evidently, we’ve got two or three. We need to get rid of them. We need to get rid of the rangers. We need to get rid of the dog catchers. Let’s clean the house up down at Whitesburg before you start shutting down the senior citizens centers. I’m very concerned about it. I don’t go any of the senior citizens centers, but I know that they are needed. There are people that don’t have any way to eat or anything. Let’s clean house and get rid of employees who aren’t needed.

. Some of the county staff at the Fiscal Court meeting got really indignant when Bill Meade suggested that it would be helpful if the recreation center costs were presented accurately. They have no basis for that indignation. The fact is that it is not truthful to say the rec center makes money. It may cover its operating costs some months, but with a $50,000 a month mortgage payment, it is not accurate to say it ever makes money. Meade was right.

. Instead of raising garbage bills, they should collect from people who don’t pay their garbage bills.

. People who don’t recycle don’t because they can’t afford to purchase the blue bags.

. I think people need to lay off of Letcher County Judge/ Executive Jim Ward. This county has more than it has ever had. He brought in jobs. He got the rec center built. Leave him alone and let him do his job.

. I think they should do away with the Jim Ward television channel and that would save them a lot of money. Ward should have to pay for that station out of his own pocket.

. It looks like Magistrate Woody Holbrook is running the fiscal court now. We don’t have a county judge. I knew that was going to be a bad thing. Voting Woody in was terrible.

. In 1939 a shipload of Jews escaped Nazi Germany

and headed for the United States via Cuba. Cuba turned them away as did the United States. When they returned to Germany 250 of them were killed. Thank God we have a political party here now who have empathy for refugees. A real shame it’s not both parties.

. This is for Judge Jim Ward: We don’t need that government channel at a cost of $66,000 a year. We’ve got radio. We’ve got Facebook. We’ve got The Round Table on 103.9 the Bulldog. Cut out channel 98 and quit raising people’s taxes.

. They say there isn’t to be any smoking inside that Whitesburg courthouse, but they stand on that porch and smoke. It stinks. It’s killing everybody.

. There was a comment made about the county buying two Tahoes. Those were bought with grant money and didn’t cost the taxpayers a dime. Just had to have someone apply for the grant.

. Coal and gas severance money has gone down. Magistrates Wayne Fleming and Terry Adams, instead of working with the fiscal court to make cuts where needed, would rather cut all the workers five percent of their income. Adams wanted to cut county workers down to seven hours a day, which would cost more than cutting the five percent. And these are the people who provide a service for all of the public.

. I think the magistrates’ pay should be cut. I never see my magistrate and I live in District Two. Why should he get paid $30,000 a year for not doing his job?

. It is so hope inspiring to see America gradually returning to its senses and putting conservative values at the forefront of this nation’s political spectrum once again. The turnaround began in the 2014 when House Republicans shellacked Democrats in the congressional elections and now that momentum is visible in the recent Kentucky elections as well. I have no doubt that it will carry over into a successful Republican election to the presidency of the U.S. in 2016 as well, because Americans are waking up more and more every day to the reality that liberals are jeopardizing the very existence of the United States of America on every level imaginable. The liberal agenda is an atrociously ungodly, utterly dangerous, and completely idiotic platform that has absolutely harmed this nation to its very core with failed policies and weakened global standing, so much that the U.S. is teetering on a brink that must be halted before things pass a point of no return. The rise of ISIS, burgeoning national debt, atrocious support of vile, murderous programs like abortion with taxpayer funding, out of control entitlement giveaways, hostile prejudice toward people of faith, and the unconstitutional enforcement of gay marriage are just the tip of the iceberg that is gutting America’s once Titanic onenation under-God superpower status. Americans are waking up from the brainwashing fog that liberalism has tried to shackle them with under the current administration’s embodiment of rampant social injustice. That awakening is reflected in recent elections and thank God it will be unwavering when conservative values stand victorious in the 2016 Presidential Election. God Bless America.

. A couple of interesting observations. You don’t mess with children and old people. Tell me how this bunch ever decided to pay $50,000 a month for 30 years for this box of a recreation center. That’s $18 million for a building that could have been built for signifi- cantly less. Yet nobody ever questions anything around here. It has come to be seen as primarily beneficial to people in the greater Whitesburg area. Three functional

buildings could have been built throughout the county to entice more people and have been much more cost effective. Driving 38 minutes from Linefork isn’t worth the trouble. The losing of coal jobs had already begun and coal severance was declining and everybody knew it when they couldn’t see any further than the tips of their greedy little fingers. Refinance the thing to keep senior citizens centers open. They’re as important for socialization as they are for food and certainly more important than recreation of this kind. So if he thinks he can’t lose, he’s mistaken. I don’t think the county judge has the vision to seriously lead. He might just see in the next election. I heard he allegedly laughed when told not to do this to seniors. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of his undoing. He’s getting a little too big for his britches. Other than Wayne Fleming, you couldn’t add the IQ’s of the rest of the magistrates and get an average of 100 in my opinion. This electing good old boys coupled with voter apathy ruined this county long ago.

. I’d like to have me some government cheese, some commodity cheese. You know what I’m talking about?

. I thought the idea of a percentage pay cut discussed at the last Fiscal Court meeting was a good one. I understand that the lowest-paid employees might not be able to afford it, but the magistrates make $25,000 a year even after they lost their plum expense accounts, a number of the county staff make $30.000 or better, and the Judge probably makes $80,000. Every one of the latter could easily make a small sacrifice to lighten the load on the citizens of this county. It could have been pro-rated, with a 0% or 1% cut at the bottom, 3% for $20,000 and over, 5% for $30,000 and over, and 10% for $50,000 and over. That way we all have a part in helping the county go forward.

. This is to the person who called in about the Hemphill Community Center that has bluegrass music on Friday nights: That has nothing to do with the fiscal court. We just let them have their senior citizens there, but the building doesn’t belong to the fiscal court. Butt out. You need to be getting Keith Adams out of there, instead of Wayne and Terry.

. I put my garbage in plastic grocery bags. I can’t afford to buy garbage bags.

. I watched the Letcher County Fiscal Court meeting on television and watched all of them squirm. When there was plenty of money to throw around most every worthwhile project was funded and they all looked like heroes. Now that the money has dried up all of them will have to do more than show up once a month to collect a paycheck; now they actually have to make hard, unpopular decisions. Welcome to the real world of budgeting and managing real money. Previously they could spend money like it was Monopoly play money. Just wait until the next election; you will see a lot of new faces on the court.

. These people on Little Dry Fork have three big dogs and they keep getting in people’s garbage. They tore up stuff in one person’s building.

. To the Letcher County judge and magistrates: Jim Ward wanted to increase garbage bills and raise taxes. The people of this county pay too much as it is. It is time to govern and lead the county in the right direction and to show your constituents you are worth your salaries and not just politicians.

. Bill Meade’s civil rights were suppressed during the last Letcher County Fiscal Court meeting. I urge him,

or anyone else who is similarly suppressed, to contact the United States Attorney. The telephone number in Lexington is 859-233-2661, or they may be contacted by mail at US Attorney’s Office, 601 Meyers Baker Road, Suite 200, London, Kentucky 40741-3035.

. With all of our people in Letcher County losing their jobs, people can’t make ends meet. They can’t pay water bills. They can’t pay garbage bills. They can’t pay child support. They can’t pay car payments. There are so many things that people aren’t able to do anymore because so many jobs are lost. It seems like the fiscal court has decided the best way to help them out of their situation is to raise fees on everyone else. Raise garbage bills. Take away some of the benefits that people have worked and earned some kind of respect for. This is totally ridiculous, but of course this is Letcher County. This is the way government runs here in Letcher County. I am opposed to anything of that sort. As a taxpayer and a citizen of Letcher County, I think it is pitiful the way our county government is run. I want to speak up against the men who take other men’s child support. They help keep their girlfriends and wives to help keep the men’s children away from them. Any man that would live on another man’s child support, in my opinion, is one of the lowest pieces of crap that God ever made on this earth. Every man in this country deserves to see his own children and deserves the ability to raise his kids as he chooses and not let some other man beat on his children and take his money and go running around on it. We need a change, starting with our public officials. We need the sheriff and his deputies to start arresting drug dealers.

. This goes out to the Letcher County court system: Mr. Ward and all of you magistrates, we voted you in and we will vote you out. I don’t think it is fair that you all of a sudden raised the garbage bills.

. So at least one of the county employees believes that, while citizens and others have to take hits, county employees should be exempt from sharing in the pain. Interesting.

. Wayne Fleming is the best magistrate we have. He took up for the senior citizens. Did you notice that the recycling center lost $198,000 last year and they still left it open? They raised garbage bills to do it, but they couldn’t find a way to keep the senior citizens centers open.

. Magistrate Woody Holbrook is just a yes man for Letcher County Judge/Executive Jim Ward. Wake up, people.

. I was amazed but not surprised by the speech of the lady who so resented the fact that the Fiscal Court Budget Committee had considered a small salary cut for county employees. The committee innocently believed that employees would prefer to take a small cut so everyone could continue to have a job than to have some of them lose their job entirely. Boy, were they wrong. The lady who spoke obviously didn’t give a damn who else was thrown out of work and placed in a terrible position so long as she didn’t lose a penny. What happened to ‘If you have two coats, give your neighbor one?’ I guess it’s been replaced by selfishness and nasty speeches.

. Jimmy Asher made a great presentation at the Fiscal Court meeting last week, and I hope the court members pay attention. It made so much sense that I wonder why the judge and the court didn’t think of it. It sounds like it could solve a large part of our problem.



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