surepip

At the local level, under TOTAL Republican control for what, 12+ years now, our property taxes have gone up virtually every year. And this year is going to give one hell of alot of people sticker shock come September. I am figuring for 30% or more increase. Cancelation of the Homeowners tax credit by Sonny P and Glenn R. This one will get your for $200 to $300 Green Space Courthouse/Government Complex Bond Increase in County M&O Increase in School Board M&O Possible increase in School Board Bond We could see our takes increase 50% or more depend

If your flight schedule can accomodate the GRTA bus, it is hard to beat. MrsSurepip has been riding the GRTA Bus to work downtown for 2-1/2 years now and loves it. When I found out about the after noon reverse commutes I started using it to go to and from the airport. They run from Movies 278 and Florence Road to either 5 Points station or Civic Center Station starting at 5:20 in the morning, until 7:50am. And there are 2 afternoon "Reverse Commutes" at 4:35 to the Civic Center Station and 4:53 to the 5 Points Station. The morning fare will be $3 and they will give you a transfer. T

HeeHaw, You are a bit out of date. About 1/2 of that reserve paid off the first years bond on the new courthouse / government palace since King Jerry decided to deny the fact a bond needed to be issued LAST year to pay for it. The rest of the reserve, or what we can spend of it has gone to operating the county with far, far less revenue coming in than King Jerry's budget anticipated. We are not only broke, Paulding is looking at something between a $4million and $6million shortfall for 2009-2010. The taxes will have to be raise, or that much will have to be cut. On our suits,

I only have a paper copy of the print out of the payments from Paulding County to Holland & Knight for litigation in our suit through January 31, 2009. The total is $749,215.54. My scanner is dead but I assume I could get it scanned and post it. Maybe you think that is a wise use of your tax payer dollars. We don't, especially in such economic times as the county is in. And the way things sit right now, the BOC has refused OUR offer to mediate and settle out of court. So we will continue to litigate and go to courth and let the jury decide. The first suit is for $1,500.000.00 a

\ Pubby, Did you by chance read the contract between the county.Jerry Shearin, and Pat Crook ? With the various "hold-harmless" agreements ? Sure reads to me like: Hey, we will pay you this $50,000, less $5 [for $50,000 or more, the entire BOC would have had to vote to approve it] and you will agree to tell us what we need to know if the situation arises where we need to know something we don't know. And we both agree not to acuse each other of anything. i.e., the county, BOC, etc. cannot technically go back on Pat Crook for ANYTHING she might, or might not have done while w

I was hoping David Austin would try to force the issue on the "HUSH MONEY" paid to Pat Crook. That was, IMHO, downright criminal when you look at how Jerry Shearin and Pat Crook left the county finances. Add that to the $750,000 they paid Holland & Knight, a fancy Republican Law firm representing the county in its litigation against myself and my wife. Holland & Knight was also a major contributor to most of our other local politicians. $750,000 to try and prevent us from getting our day in court. $50,000 to keep Pat Crook from telling what she knows. Fine group of folk

I will simply drag their perforated asses inside the house AFTER I shoot them with #1 Buckshot, and wash away the evidence. Don't go messin around my property. We never had neighbors before, and this was not an issue. It has been since the development has started going up on 2 sides of us.

Actually, other than the Dallas Dog Park Trailhead, Paulding has spent very little on trail construction. As I understand it, the Path Foundation has paid for Paulding's part. The basic agreement was we abide by the access restrictions, and they pave it. Part of that includes agreeing if we do ANYTHING to a roadway currently crossing the SCT at grade, then the PDOT has to go over it, or under it. Hence, when Cleburne Parkway is completed connecting West Hiram Bypass from 92 to 278, they will have to go over or under the trail. I have met some of the Path Foundation people on the trai

And you don't want to see more side spurs connecting places like Dallas ???? The only negative comments about the trail are concerning the rather desolate stretches along the apartments, etc. between the Chamber and the Hiram Trailheads. If we had more people getting on going East at the Dallas Trailhead it would not be so desolate there. We generally ride from Rambo's West, where it is totally desolate, but as there are no houses along there, we don't see the riff-raff either. It is a tourist draw, and could even bring alot more if there were more spur trails to places like Da

Many times we have ridden to Rockmart, eaten an early dinner at Frankie's Italian Place 50 yards from the trail head, and then ridden back home. There is a mural of the Silver Comet in Frankie's all the way down the wall separating the dining rooms with hundreds and hundreds of names on it from virtually every state in the USA and most of Europe and elsewhere. Just because you don't ride or walk the trail don't sell it short for those who do. We have had threads on here before about more people using the trail locally for transportation......you know, no gas, no cars. There are seve

The more people who come to Paulding from outside areas to use the SCT, the more money they leave behind at restaurants, stores, gas stations, etc. And, with Picket's Mill about shut down, the SCT is about the only tourist place we have left. Go and check out the license plates at the trailhead parking lots and you will be very surprised how few are local. I have ridden on the trail with people from all over. Downtown Rockmart gets a reasonable amount of retail business from their trailhead which is right on the trail, next to the river in downtown. For Dallas, and Hiram, the trail b

This has been in the works for awhile now, hence Boykin putting the neon Baby Jesus there while buying the land for a downtown Dallas, trailhead. And it will be nice, and convenient to be able to ride into downtown Dallas. Of course, the trailhead is within the NO BICYCLES ALLOWED zone of downtown Dallas and the police will ticket you for riding but hey, another revenue stream, right ? It will put several people to work. In essence it will be a wide paved sidewalk from 278 up across the RR tracks and up to main street/confederate ave. And then those who build the trailhead it se

It is where Boykin puts the Neon nativity scene each Christmas. Maybe they can put the neon figures in the Nativity Scene on Bikes now THAT would be most appropriate, don't 'ya know.

Ours went down. Of when I saw the personnel from the assessors office I pointed out how the county sat by and let the developer simply take an 1/8th of an acre of our front year and asked they take that into consideration on the assessment. Also, the new houses in Palisades are now selling for $30,000 less than when they started building them 2 years ago.

That Richardson ain't kin to anyone. He is one and the same. And I might add, when confronted with the Outside Professional Services dollar amounts in the Paulding County Budget for Legal Assistance, we could have several top notch lawyers, paralegals, and assistants who had no potential conflict of interests by representing the developers they are making legal decisions at the zoning hearings on behalf of, while sitting as county attorney.

Thank you SG! Also though, you should keep in the back of your mind the previous county attorney, Lani Skipper of Talley, Richardson & Cable approved all of the zoning matters which instigated out suits. And her husband, the previous director of the office of community development is who refused to enforce the special and standard zoning stipulations which also led to the filing of our suits. Oh, and the REALLY cute part is Lani Skipper was the registered agent at the time of the zonings, and when the suits were filed, for the developer, Contour Development, Inc. & Mickey Wom

I agree with you SG. But I can't help but remember King Shearin's smug smartass attitude with Todd Pownall at the BOC meeting last summer with he was asked about Pat Crook's email informing the commissioners of what they had to do in order to legally raise the bond payment for the 2008 tax bills to cover the first year on the new courthouse/administrative palace. And he sat there saying "What bond payment ?....We don't need to raise the bond payment." And then questioning Tabitha Pollard about it. He knew then he was cutting the legs out from under whomever got elected and I have to

Taking away the EMT subsidy is fine and good......until you need and ambulance quickly. Kind of like the fire and sheriff's department.

I like this one. I am a technical consultant. A lesson on how consultants can make a difference in an organization: Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, 'Steve's Place,' and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, 'Why the spoon?' 'Well, 'he explained, 'the

It is going to get tough to cut much more from the budget and maintain semi-services. BOE is going to get what they say they have to have. There may be some furlough days, and some of the services may have to go. Drop all the sports and extracuricular activities ??? Face it, judicial, law enforcement, jail, fire department, Water & Sewer, and ambulance/emergency room cannot be cut any further. Most are not up to snuff as it is [i.e. Fire Department], and the courts are back-logged for months and months. [Can you say the stinky ponds and fields will be extra STINKY this fall ?]

And we are still incredulous the BOC has spend $750,000 of taxpayer money to protect county employees who made mistakes and a developer. When they had millions extra I guess they could justify their actions. But with a $4+Million shortfall it seems silly to keep spending money to keep us from getting our day in court. Justice....You get as much as you can afford to buy.

We have paid plenty sir. Not as much as the county [$749,215.54 as of January 31, 2009] but well over $150,000. The ironic part is we would have settled with the county for far less than what they have paid. And we have offered to go into mediation to settle out of court now, and they refused. We were informed the BOC could not reach a concensus. The BOC apparently wants to keep fighting us to protect the various county offices that screwed up as well as the developers. I guess they just don't know how to say "We are sorry we screwed up".

Here we are dealing with 2 completely separate entities. The Board of Education will simply tell the BOC and the tax commissioner what they require. The millage rate will then be raised accordingly. I am afraid they are going to hit us harder this year to make up for what they should have raised it last year. Our old King Jerry and his Merrymen were real big on "SEMANTICS". They would tell you how they never raised out taxes [increase the bond rate or the county M&O] and instead let the assessors bump up the home value 10% to 20%, hence causing an increase in what the homeowner would

If Milton were to nip, bite, snap at, or in any manner show a threat to me or mine, then Milton would be used for Shark bait at my house. Those big 'Ol eats on Milton would look cute all perked up when that shark starts tailing them with that big 'Ol fin slicing throught the water.

Rene Barberi Sparkling Rose'. It is a very nice hot weather dry rose' with a nice fizz. Lower on the alcohol level [9% I think] you can drink it all afternoon and still walk and talk. But it is getting impossible to find.