Another Half Million of Beaufort County Waste | Eastern North Carolina Now

Another Half Million of Beaufort County Waste

BY: HOOD RICHARDSON

The 52-million-dollar cost to consolidate Eastern Elementary School and John Cotton Tayloe Schools into three buildings on the same campus went up another half million dollars during the special called Commissioners meeting on January 14th.  This meeting was called because this paper exposed, in an article called “The Big Lies”, the manipulation the Big Cheese was doing to get the service buildings, maintenance http://supp.cus.ac.in/ facilities and freezer located on Pennsylvania Avenue torn down.  He claimed this was the only place a storm water pond could be located.  I know this is not true.  However, I believe the truth is that he wanted these buildings to be torn down so he could have a showcase campus for the new school.  A photo of a showcase campus will help his resume as he moves up the ladder of (failed education) success.

My estimated cost to destroy the buildings, the electronic infrastructure and replace them at another site is five to seven million dollars.  The Big Cheese is not going to pay this, you, the taxpayers are.

The Big Cheese had been dragging his feet since May of 2024 to make a deal with the City of Washington, the owner of four acres of land that adjoins the new school construction site.  The City of Washington was willing to cooperate and let the School System have the land.  The Big Cheese would not come to terms of any kind with the City of Washington.

Then came the Big Lie.  The Big Cheese along with his sock puppet, Chairman T. W. Allen informed the entire School Board during a meeting in early January that it would be impossible to do a trade with the City of Washington.  The City, and or, county would not deal it was said.  This is a gross lie.

The City of Washington had offered to trade the four acres of land for the School Board’s interest in Kugler Field.  That interest consisted of the Kugler donation of the field to the schools for use as an athletics field.  The school system has not kept the field in good repair and a few years ago indicated that they had little if any use for it.  The City wanted to make repairs and use the field for public events, including sports.  The City was willing to deal with the Kugler heirs in order to obtain the right to make these improvements. That included all the legal work and buy out the heirs if necessary.  The City wanted the vacant land at the abandoned P. S. Jones School should their efforts with the Kugler family fail.

The City of Washington was frustrated in their negotiations.  They tried to invite Fake Frankie Waters and Jerry Langley to be a part of the negotiations.  The City was told that the Board of Commissioners would not get involved in the land negotiations.  This is another lie.  The board of County Commissioners sitting as a board was never informed about the existence of the negotiations and never voted not to be involved.  When I challenged this, I was told by the Manager that the Chairman and Vice-Chairman could represent the Board of Commissioners without a board vote.  This is another lie.

The Chairman of the Board of Commissioners is empowered to conduct meetings and to declare certain emergencies.  That is it.  Other than this, his powers are the same as any other commissioner.  Yes Virginia, there is no King Frankie.

Trading land would have cost Beaufort County and the School System nothing.  Surplus school property would be put to a good public use.  The City would have been able to either improve Kugler Field or the P. S. Jones Park.

The presentation to the County Commissioners during the special called meeting was not what is stated in the second paragraph above.  Commissioners were presented with two options.  One was to trade the P. S. Jones School site vacant land for the four acres with no money changing hands.  The second was to pay the City of Washington one half million dollars for the four acres.  Nothing was mentioned about Kugler field.

This presentation was not prepared by the City of Washington.

Commissioners Tandy Dunn, Stan Deatherage and I voted to swap land for land.  This would have cost the taxpayers nothing.  The two RINO’s and the two Democrats voted to pay the half million dollars.  The two RINO’s being Fake Frankie Waters and Randy Walker.  The Democrats being Jerry Langley and Ed Booth.  

The Big Cheese said the School System would pay half the cost.  The Big Cheese suddenly found a quarter of a million dollars of sales tax money.  Beaufort County will take a quarter of a million dollars out of the fund balance.  Actually, the Beaufort County Taxpayers will pay for all of it because the school will tell us they need (their money back) more money when budget time comes.  The entire $500,000 should have come out of the 52 million appropriated to build the school.  Another taxpayer rip-off.

Another possible violation of the law occurred when the Big Cheese valued the land without any input from a professional appraiser.