Comments | Eastern NC Now

Befuddled: You're asking some great questions. I'm having a hard time putting this together also. The Superintendent started the grant process in 2023. By November 2023 it was on the agenda to move forward, and the board voted to present the proposal to the County Commission. That proposal breezed through 8 to 1 with Mr. Hickman voting against it. The County Commission knocked it through with a familiar 5 to 2 cram. At that time, it was assumed that BCS owned all the land.

By the December 18, 2024 School Board Emergency Closed Session meeting, the Board came back into open session whereupon chairman Allen made a motion seconded by Mr. Shreve to authorize the attorney to enter negotiations with the City of Washington for a Temporary Construction Easement including provisions about the 4 acres owned by the City of Washington. This included the proposals for trading Kugler Field, or trading P.S. Jones Park for the 4 acres. So, the shakedown was begun sometime before this.

There was another School Board Emergency Closed Session on January 10, 2025. Coming back into open session Chairman Allen made a motion seconded by Mr. Shreve to offer the City of Washington two options. Option 1. Purchase the 4 acres for $500,000. Option 2. Offer P.S. Jones Memorial Park to the City of Washington as a land swap. The Board offer provided for letting the County Commissioners choose.

From my conversations with a Board member, there seemed to be several meetings during this time with certain members of each board that were supposedly reporting back to the other members. From the School Board end, I seriously doubt if anyone really knows other than the Chairman and the Superintendent. It's probably a similar situation on the other boards too. It's all kind of murky with no clear trail. During this end of proceedings, the major players seem to be the Superintendent, the School Board Chairman, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, the County Manager and I'm really not clear about who was leading the shakedown from the City of Washington.

I've put all this together by referring to my own notes, checking the minutes, and conversations I've had with a School Board member (one I can trust). If anyone has it more clear than I do, I welcome the input. There really should be more light on all of this. They owe it to the public. But I suppose that would be too embarrassing.

Commented: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 @ 9:43 pm By: Van Zant

Hood: I was most confused as to why the School Administration, in tandem with the Center-Left /Left Coalition of the Beaufort County Commission, thought it wise to waste 1/2 million of the public's money for land that could have been purchased by a mere trade of 4 acres for City of Washington land of 4 acres county land.

Of course, if the school administration had been rudimentary wise enough to order a title search for that land they did not own, none of this would have been an issue.

Concerned Taxpayer: Ditto. Especially the scene of Toto as hero.

The administration of our public schools is a clustered mess, to state it in the kindest of terms.

Commented: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 @ 7:16 pm By: Stan Deatherage

The Big Cheese would not negotiate with the City to get the land. He did not want the land. If he did not get the land, the shop and service complex area would be used for the stormwater pond. He wanted a new shop and service area at a cost of at least 5 million dollars.

This all looks funny and confusing because the Big Cheese wanted it to be odd and confusing.

Commented: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 @ 5:09 pm By: Hood Richardson

VZ:
Do you hav a timeline & a Who's Who, of what went down th moment
after th staff at the BoardofEducation were told:"Hey u dont own th 9acs that is in your NewSchool BuildingPlan."

Did Cheeseman go to th SchoolBoard members & ask what should we do abt this? Or did he skip them & go straight to th CityManager, skipping th CityCouncil as well? Then did th CityManager&Cheeseman contact the CountyManager & discuss what to do, skipping th CountyCommissioners at this time too?

When Cheeseman was meeting w th CityManager,& asked What is th land worth in $$, did he say $1million? And then did Cheeseman say What abt 1/2 of it?
Then did th CityManagr independently,& exclusive of the CityCouncil quote to Cheeseman $500,000, to which Cheeseman sd, Okay if I can get th 4 Useful Idiots to say yes? And then, w nothin more than these
3 bureaucrats agreeing,did Cheeseman go to th CommissionerMeeting & say, Well th CityManager says $500,000, to which th 4 sd, "Tell me NO more, LET's DO THIS ASAP."

Commented: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 @ 1:36 pm By: Befuddled

Stan: It is difficult to argue against your hypothesis, because it is happening in real time. School consolidation is a movement on overdrive in Beaufort County, and it is one more blow to Aurora and the entire southeastern section of Beaufort County. This part of the county is in crisis and is receiving little help from Beaufort County leadership.

Beaufort County government is a difficult nut to crack. The County Commission is being run by the Center-Left/Left Coalition by a very narrow margin. The School Board is almost entirely made up of Republicans. The Washington City Council is entirely dominated by Democrats. Don't be fooled. The reality in all of this is a bureaucratic uni-party that is actually running the county. Those elected representatives that do not bow to the bureaucratic uni-party monster have a tough task. Stan, you've been dealing with this a long time.

Primaries and elections are the only way to fix this. Hood is right about election mistakes. We need to be less concerned with party labels and all the other ways that are used to divide us. We need to be way more concerned with strength of character and actual representation of the people's interests.

Commented: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 @ 9:10 am By: Van Zant

Zohran Mamdani is a man of great honesty. He is telling all, or has told everyone already who told everyone who would listen, exactly who he is, and what to expect from him once elected.

Commented: Saturday, July 5th, 2025 @ 4:54 am By: Stan Deatherage

Van Zant: The only thing a voting system can partially fix is to set a better environment to restrict corruption.

Corruption from the special interest camps; corruption from sects of most unknowledgeable voters; corruption in bureaucrats, who do not know their place, and summarily manhandle weak politicians. With better elected politicians, probably smarter in scope, they could dispense of most of these forms of corruption; the easiest of which is to fire the bureaucrats, for such cause as this, who do not know their place in a governing hierarchy.

Commented: Friday, July 4th, 2025 @ 7:58 pm By: Stan Deatherage

Stan: Could be. I'm no fan of district elections either. But I wonder if a voting system can fix character issues.

Befuddled: Concerning the new school building project, all but one school board member rushed into that as hard as they could, eager to spend that "free" money.

Commented: Friday, July 4th, 2025 @ 6:55 pm By: Van Zant

Smart, complex men, like our Founders, are often wise to reconcile simple solutions.

Commented: Friday, July 4th, 2025 @ 5:14 pm By: Stan Deatherage

Befuddled: Nothing politically pisses me off more than stupid politicians.

What well meaning, serious politicians do as a service to their constituents is ... well, it ain't "rocket science."

However, it does appear to be so for the politicians you speak of, those who are intellectually ill equipped to do a simple job that they did sign up for, and were elected to perform.

Commented: Friday, July 4th, 2025 @ 4:59 pm By: Stan Deatherage

Illegal alien freeloaders are sucking welfare dry in Europe as well. In Germany, for example, 63% of all welfare paid out now goes to illegal aliens. Sweden is paying illegal aliens over 10,000 dollars to go home since Swedish taxpayers save a heck of a lot more than that on welfare.

Commented: Friday, July 4th, 2025 @ 1:18 pm By: John Steed