Comments by Gary Ceres | Eastern North Carolina Now

God Bless the fallen.

Commented: Friday, May 23rd, 2025 @ 9:22 pm By: Gary Ceres

I distinctly remember Mr Richardson claiming the school could be saved for $35,000 which we all know is a untrue. Sorry dont trust any numbers that he now throws out here.

Commented: Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 @ 10:15 pm By: Gary Ceres

David, I also want to agree with you on one point I've mentioned numerous times in the past few years. We need to have a full-time grant writer. The amount of savings potential that such a position could have for the county is invaluable but I would wager it could be staggering for the investment. If we cut the number of programs that are designed solely for social activism (and yes I think those programs and corresponding staff exist in every county) we could create and maintain a grant writer position again with no additional expenditure by the county.

Commented: Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 @ 1:35 am By: Gary Ceres

David, thank you for taking the time for a thorough and reasoned response based on data. Really no disagreement at all on the major points ... especially the culture issues but I would only add that the same leftist ideology is likely to occur in small schools as on large schools if the political and social climate of an area is conducive to such ideology. As far as large schools versus small schools, I think again what truly matters is teacher to student ratios. I was fortune enough growing up where our classroom size was small enough that the student per teacher ratio was small.

Whether Mr. Cheese man is effective, efficient or ideologically driven is a totally separate issue and one we may even ultimately agree upon. It is the fiscal aspect of building this school now and getting the bang for our buck so to speak that is important. Right now we get a school with 52 million dollars built for an investment of 10,500,000 dollars (the school district saved up 250,000 already for the land and is borrowing the other 250,000 from the county to be paid back using a portion of their sales tax revenue so the county cost is actually 10 million). So investing 10.5 million for a 52 million dollar building is a conservative project. Waiting years to construct another school means due to inflation, no grant, rising demand, etc the county would be looking at spending signifantly more money which would put pressure on the county budget and likely lead to bonds being issued, taxes increased or both.

We can definitely come to different conclusions on this but there is a conservative case for building this school which I just laid out. But again, I appreciate the dialogue and the well-thought out response. On the cultural issues let's all stay vigilant.

Commented: Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 @ 1:08 am By: Gary Ceres

This is about the working and middle classes rebelling against entrenched elites. Let's hope that Reform continues to grow in strength because a strong UK is definitely to the benefit of the US.

Commented: Monday, April 21st, 2025 @ 3:21 pm By: Gary Ceres

Every single day of the Trump Presidency so far is outpacing my expectations! Couldn't be happier with the job he's doing!

Commented: Monday, April 21st, 2025 @ 3:01 pm By: Gary Ceres

And the larger issue here is not the size of schools but the teacher to student ratios. When you keep classroom sizes to between 10 teachers per student to 18 teachers per student then class performance is shown to increase in the vast majority of studies. This is irrespective of the size of the school. It's the teacher to student ratios that matter.

Commented: Monday, April 21st, 2025 @ 2:38 pm By: Gary Ceres

We could start with an audit of the Housing Authority.

Commented: Monday, April 21st, 2025 @ 1:46 pm By: Gary Ceres

I pay rent sir which is directly affected by property taxes. We need to pass property tax limitation legislation which limits how high a single parcel can be increased in property tax between assessments. Those on fixed incomes cannot afford massive property tax increases which are inevitable if down the line the county will be paying 10s of millions more for needed school construction in coming years because right now 42 million is coming from the Education lottery grants and considering this is the first ever allocation for Beaufort County it is not in our favor to get another grant anytime soon. We also need to make sure multiple parcel owners and business owners have some stability in the projections for property taxes and without property tax limitation you cannot serve the interests of renters, fixed income individuals, multiple land owners and business developers. It's great to advocate conservatism ... its another thing to actually accomplish conservatism. You don't do that by demonizing allies.

I graduated from Frank J Dugan Elementary School in Marlboro, New Jersey.

Commented: Monday, April 21st, 2025 @ 1:21 pm By: Gary Ceres

Not everyone that disagrees is a liberal. If now I'm considered to be a liberal ... the guy who is routinely pilliared as a right-wing psycho by leftist stooges because I believe the new school is way more fiscally conservative than waiting years to construct another school at 10s of millions more in taxpayers money years from now;then something is wrong with this publication. Stop attacking Republicans. Go after the leftists with a radical trans/gender identity ideology, out-of-control Marxism and identity politics. You continue to alienate allies such as myself by demonizing any deviation in thought.

Commented: Monday, April 21st, 2025 @ 11:19 am By: Gary Ceres

Diane was one of the finest human beings I ever had the pleasure of meeting. Sweet, fiercely passionate about what she believed in, kind, and as smart as a person can get. I admired her greatly and was fortunate enough to know her and visit with her on occasion when our paths crossed. Her passing was extremely distressing to learn about. My prayers go out to her family and I know she is looking down on them from above.

Commented: Thursday, April 3rd, 2025 @ 7:29 pm By: Gary Ceres

I followed up numerous times and even contacted the State Auditor.

Commented: Monday, March 31st, 2025 @ 12:59 pm By: Gary Ceres

Washingtonian:

Over 2 years of non-compliance from the Housing Authority. They have not turned over a single reciept that was requested.

Commented: Monday, March 31st, 2025 @ 12:58 pm By: Gary Ceres

I like this idea. Would also like to see tax abatements on new housing construction to encourage lower cost of living.

Commented: Saturday, March 22nd, 2025 @ 10:34 pm By: Gary Ceres

Murphy wrote the original Medicaid Expansion while in the NC House called Carolina Care which he denied was Medicaid Expansion but of course was. He's also supported Certificate of Need laws which more than any other government interference on the books have closed rural hospitals.

Commented: Friday, April 12th, 2024 @ 10:38 pm By: Gary Ceres

My favorite still is one no one is mentioning ... Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Commented: Friday, March 29th, 2024 @ 10:18 pm By: Gary Ceres

Biggest story of the past four decades that the mainstream media hates to cover. The GOP is the natural home to people that immigrated here to escape sociakism and for social conservatives.

Commented: Tuesday, March 26th, 2024 @ 10:54 pm By: Gary Ceres