This posting contains two (2) VERY important messages. The first being the notes from the last Board of Supervisors Meeting and the second being information on GANG activity in our backyard.
All that glitters is NOT gold.
Sorry but there are no pictures or video clips from Thursdays meeting. BUT that does not mean nothing interesting went on!
If you did not attend, or talk to someone who did, you might get fooled into thinking there were some major accomplishments if all you heard or read was the final outcomes, like we finally do have a vice chair and the budget belt was tightened to include a reduction to the Improvement Association funding.
Let’s look a bit deeper into what went on and how these came about and then you can make up your own mind is this truly a gold nugget or just another chunk of fool's gold we have been given by the Sussex County Board of Supervisors.
Rezoning hearing on Willow Woods:
During the public comments of rezoning meeting it sure seemed like one of the individuals making comments against the application was someone who Chairman Tyler “approved of” as he went on and on making at times comments that verged on libelous against the developer but was allowed to rant. These were personally and professionally derogorty and would not be surprised if the developer took recourse BUT he is in discussion with the county to get the land rezoned and probably doesn’t want to “rock the boat”. The outcome is still to be determined.
Vice Chair:
The first item of business after a 7PM public meeting on a rezoning request was the election of a vice chair.
It sure sounded like some back room politicking had gone on prior to getting to this point. Warren commented that this has dragged on for 6 months and something needed to happen and he supported Caple for vice chair withdrawing his name from consideration. Fly wanted to open the nominations back up and was reminded, by Tyler that the nomination process had long been closed and according to "Roberts Rules” it could not be reopened. I would pay good money to have a Board of Supervisor's meeting go from start to finish without hearing about Roberts Rules of Order. Every time that document is referred to is just another dagger into the ability of the board to coexist in harmony in conducting county business. Some discussion if you want to call it that went on and finally Fly, yes Fly said he supported Caple for vice chair since he was a senior member and nominated him. A vote was taken and it was unanimous, Charlie Caple is now your vice chairman on the board of supervisors. Yes he is a senior member; let’s hope he does not have many of his senior moments while conducting county business or doesn't fall asleep in the meetings as he has been prone to do so in the past.
Now to the Regular Meeting.
First the meeting almost never happened. The board in typical 3-3 fashion could NOT agree on the agenda and without an approved agenda there could not have been a meeting. In typical fashion Fly wanted to add a few items (3 as a matter of fact) and Tyler in typical fashion opposed this. However this time Tyler was drawing a line in the sand and rallied support to block this motion. The 3 items Fly wanted to add were 1) the paying of outstanding attorney’s fees, 2) the regional jail and 3) the budget.
Fly asked Tyler to “be the chairman and not have his own agenda and put back the 3 items back on the agenda”. This was not a good enough reason but realizing that if in fact the meeting was cancelled for not having an approved agenda several important county business actions would not have been attended to, Tyler “allowed” the revised agenda to be approved. Oh yes there was a vote and this time it passed but in reality Tyler was the lead in changing the vote and others followed. So now its 8:30 PM and the regular meeting can begin.
REPORTS
VDOT made a presentation about placing tolls on Interstate 95 at the ramps near Stony Creek where it is estimated that 36,000 vehicles a day pass. Trying to benefit from all the “out of area traffic” and generate 35 to 45 million dollars this would have a significant impact on those of us who are “local” and travel that road to business and pleasure destinations. You best make some noise over this one unless you want to be paying about $4 everytime you travel that corridor.
OK its 9:10 PM moving right along. Did you know the Sussex County Service Authority serves 2,800 homes and businesses, has 18 employees and operated 5 wastewater treatment plants? Oh yes and they are carrying an18 million dollar debt, does this indicate a possible rate increase? They say not but time will tell.
The County Administrators report was brief and non-controversial so it went quickly.
The County Attorney’s report included his follow-up on reviewing a resolution for a part-time county finance director. He indicated that it all looked ok and if that is what the board wants they should approve the resolution as submitted. Just like one of those infomercials … BUT WAIT.. Fly asked that this be removed from consideration which it was. The county is moving forward with purchasing the mega site for mega bucks.
The animal control dept. is reviewing the Coyote ordinance which will include a bounty, so get your guns ready and stay tuned it could soon be the end for Wile E. Coyote in Sussex County.
It was determined that some county owned property within the town limits of Wakefield should NOT be sold at this time.
There were no other reports from the various county departments.
Several other items were acted upon without any issues until they got to appointing a representative to the Sussex Service Authority, Tyler nominated Stringfield and a 3-3 vote negated that and then Warren nominated Futrell and surprise surprise a 3-3 vote negated that so we have no representation on the Authority from the board at this time.
More standard business then the discussion of the Regional jail, Fly asked for a vote to NOT pursue it and the division on the board was very clear once again with a 3-3 vote. Sherriff Bell was not in attendance and it was discussed that he be asked for input.
And now to the Attorneys Fees. Remember back at the beginning when they almost did not have a meeting but Tyler finally “allowed” the items to be placed on the agenda. Could it be that he knew he would try and de-rail the discussion when it came up… Well he did, Tyler quoting once AGAIN Roberts Rules of Order indicated that in section 39 where it discusses improper motions. He went on to say Fly’s motion was a “Dilatory Motion” meaning that it was a motion that attempt to obstruct or thwart the will of the assembly. So this was basically the end of it at this time. We'll see! All this went on between Fly and Tyler with others just sat back on the sidelines. It would serve Tyler good if he read further on in section 39 where it says that “he should never permit his personal feelings to affect his judgment in such cases.” It goes on to say “If the chair only suspects that the motion is not made in good faith, he should give the maker of the motion the benefit of the doubt.” I don’t think Tyler would ever give Fly the benefit of anything. If you’re going to live by the Rules of Order you must live by ALL the rules not just the ones you like! Oh yes Tyler is not the only one who has copies of Roberts Rules of Order.
Now we get to the discussion of the Improvement Association. Remember Tyler is the Executive Director and Caple is the Chair of the Board of Directors. When Fly brought up questions on the operation of the association Caple spoke up that they were thrilled that so many folks were interested in the Association and if anyone had questions they could come to a special meeting of the Association. Fly then asked why is it that when the Board asked the Association to come to a county BOS meeting to answer questions about their request for funding like EVERY other organization that requests funding does that they are told you can come to “us”. After much discussion the final outcome is that the Improvement Association will attend the July BOS meeting to answer Supervisors questions. So don’t think for one moment that you as a lowly tax paying citizen of the county will have the opportunity to directly ask questions what you NEED TO DO is talk with your representative between now and then and have them bring forward you questions and concerns.
They did get to a proposal to reduce the Associations funding from $64,000 to $49,000 this passed with a 3 -2 vote with Tyler abstained. He looked directly at the county attorney when making that statement. I am not sure if you remember my last posting where at the budget meeting I asked that Tyler and Caple abstain from all voting when it came to the Association. I was told very bluntly by Tyler that they have a ruling by the Attorney General that they were allowed to vote on such matters and it was NOT a conflict of interest. Well it seems that that ruling did allow for a member of the Association Board of Directors to vote since they were not paid but did not include the CEO which is a paying position. Mr. Tyler once again twists information to how he wants in an attempt to blow smoke and hope folks won’t look through that smoke screen to the real facts. Mr. Tyler you should be ashamed of yourself.
The last interesting motion made before they went into closed session was when Futrell asked that each board member give up 3 months’ salary and donate it back to the county to help fund some of the programs that were cut. Futrell and Warren said yes, Fly said he already gives to charity and declined and Tyler and Caple said no.
It was now 11:30PM and they went into closed session.
** GANG ACTIVITY in WAVERLY & WAKEFIELD **
A public meeting was help recently with joint law enforcement from both the Town of Waverly and the County of Sussex. The goal was to raise the awareness of the FACT that we have A GANG PROBLEM in both Waverly and Wakefield. And boy did they OPEN SOME EYES!! The only problem is that there were only 16 citizens in attendance, but that’s 16 more folks that are aware and can start helping, maybe/hopefully there will be 32 at the next meeting, then 64 at the next and so on.
Also, note that only one member of the new town council attended and one former member. There was no sign of the Mayor or other members of the town council. How can we make a difference in this town if the elected officials don't care?
What will it take ANOTHER one of our towns / county’s youth being gunned down? The rivalries between Waverly and Wakefield use to be taken out on the athletic fields or by some fistfight. Now it’s by violence, real violence and the police say they fear that by the end of summer another one of the “kids” will lay dead in the street unless some intervention happens.
There were folks at the meeting that live in places that the gangs are not “hanging out”, then some that at times find it difficult just to drive home or to the store without being fearful of their safety. Street lights are being shot out, yes shot out as target practice and to provide the security of darkness for illegal activity. We’re talking drugs, underage use of alcohol and tobacco and other illegal activity.
It does not matter where you live it impacts ALL OF US. Like one gentleman said in the meeting it takes all of the community, all of the village to make the difference we cannot just rely on the law enforcement and we can NOT just rely on the parents / guardians of these kids IT TAKES US ALL!
It might be too late to try and influence the adult members of these gangs but we do have hopefully time to influence the young, and I mean young kids that these gangs are influencing with money, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and sex.
Check out the two videos attached. They ARE NOT filmed in some other place that we only see on the evening news; they ARE NOT about New York, LA, Chicago gangs. They were filmed RIGHT HERE in WAVERLY and WAKEFIELD and the “stars” are the youth of OUR COMMUNITY of OUR VILLAGE. WARNING WARNING WARNING these videos are very graphic and full of vulgar language but it is with these videos that the gangs are marking their territory, communicating with other gang members and INFLUENCING potential new members. Watch them and you will see people you know or have seen and places you are very familiar with. The Waverly gang goes by the name SQUAD MONEY and the Wakefield gang calls themselves YESSA GOONZ, they do not respect anyone, especially the law, outside of their gang.
Wakefield Video: I Ball I Stunt
Waverly Video: Going Duffy *
Going Duffy=word to described the act of something being or going "crazy" "gangster", if someone says this it means something is going to go wrong.
Below is yet another video from the Waverly Gang
How can a business owner approve of this and in fact help?
So what can we do, what should we do, what is our responsibility? It is NOT to confront these gangs or to take the law into our own hands but it is to let the police know when something is going on. Groups of “kids” gathering in places and at times they should not, fights, gun shots, displaying guns, drug dealing ANYTHING that just doesn’t look or feel right, CALL THE POLICE. (Direct number to Waverly Dispatch is 834-2434). They told us at the meeting they would rather get 100 calls that lead to nothing, than NOT get that 1 call that might save someone’s life.
WATCH the videos and OPEN YOUR EYES, realize we do have a problem and there is something YOU can do.
We need to support the Waverly Police Department and Chief Lands in their efforts to stop this gang activity. They obviously have spent many hours in interviewing members of the videos and other locals that are known for un-lawful activity. They have gone to the homes of some of these individuals to speak to their parents or grand-parents who are trying to raise them to let them know of their activities. Chief Lands has done an outstanding job to bring the Police Department to a new level of expertise, increased use of technology, and deligence in researching any situation that occurs. The Waverly Police Department has been working very closely with the Sussex Sheriff's Office to make the streets of Waverly and Wakefield safe for all of us. There is a movement underfoot and behind closed doors to replace the Chief once the new town council is in effect on July 1 - this would be a drastic mistake. A change in any member of the Police force will put the nail in the coffin for this town. The Chief and his officers have the knowledge and familiarity with the known offenders and any change would put this town's safety 4 years backwards and will place us all in possible harm and jeopardy.
KEEP CHIEF LANDS ON THE WAVELY POLICE DEPARTMENT !!!!
