Comments by Gene Scarborough | Eastern NC Now

This is NOT just a personal problem!!! Almost every citizen I talk with knows we re being screwed by 30%. If you of the Commission want to be heroes ~~~ do the right thing for all citizens. Otherwise, we consider you as greedy B***rds!

Commented: Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 @ 4:53 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Is ask good questions ~~~ get no answer. This is serious, my brother!!!

Commented: Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 @ 1:35 pm By: Gene Scarborough

You are so totally right, Stan, on taxes going up!!!

I appreciate what the "Gang of 3" is trying to do right now. The "Gang of 4" becomes an "Entertainment Troop of 7", if the meeting Monday Night is any evidence of typical "discussions." None of you guys were smiling and that troubles me.

When chins are set / discussions and decisions made before the meeting starts / it is a waste of time to act like any matter is "being discussed & debated." Let's let the Halls of Congress keep doing that. We can do much better, in my view of loving Beaufort County and living here.

I am sure you have a few creative ideas to save money and accomplish a better prison and Law Enforcement Center before someone gets more badly treated than they already are with the "basement rat hole" we call our jail.

You do realize there are NO sprinklers if the building caught fire / no rapid escape route / prisoners being bitten by Recluse Spiders and having to be tested for TB (when one had it and had a coughing fit down in the hole).

You do realize it is an impossible situation for jailers to walk safely down the narrow center walk with crowded cells on each side and within reach of spit or grabs. I hope we have no female jailers in that place!

How do you advocate replacing a jail that NO AMOUNT OF RENOVATION will bring up to current standards?

A few weeks ago I advocated in an article "Renovation over New." Now that I know more details about the current facility, I am convinced we must find a way to build a new facility at reasonable cost and by vote of the public on the November ballot. The ONLY way to secure a bond at far better rates than you decided to pursue Monday night by the 4/3 vote---on every matter.

You guys could all go out in glory, IF you can solve this problem over fighting it as you have for years of indecision. This is far from a new issue for this County!!!

What do you think is a better solution than the Industrial Park / was Hood right about the cheap steel in the current most expensive plan???

None of this is going to be cheap without a poor long-term result. I hope the opposition advocating for the Industrial Part Solution will tell us how they are going to proceed before a fire or spiders or communicable disease gets us on CNN over "prisoner abuse."

The Hospital situation at Belhaven already has Beaufort County onscreen! I am from Atlanta / I know Ted Turner / I have friends at CNN who would love another "exciting story" about jail abuse. I have a good phone and a few calls from me to them --- or Bill Moyers (another friend) could get things rolling if you guys still want to fight and fuss without doing anything to make prisoners safe --- many of whom are "innocent until proven guilty."

OH---my father knew and worked with Daddy King and others now running the racial fairness advocates. I can make a few calls today, if you guys want. I will give you a little time to get your mess "un-messed."

Commented: Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 @ 9:29 am By: Gene Scarborough

Another comment I have heard as I discuss this: "It they lower the value, they will up the 'charge per $1,000' and your tax bill will be the same."

I---and many others in Beaufort County---are on fixed incomes. I almost lost my house to the auction block last year. Twice I have had to borrow money to make the deadline before the Sheriff visited me with a paper.

A caring and compassionate government would join its citizens in the reductions of Recession/Depression. Simply on compassionate ground many Counties around this country (mine in metro Atlanta is one) are taking the 30% reduction where senior adults have no children in the schools Property Taxes pay for.

Mine are grown. One pays Beaufort County taxes, the other is now in Perquimins County. Their children benefit from NC Public Education.

"Where there is a will / there is a way" ~~~ not to pay forced taxes, BUT to make them FAIR!!!!!

Commented: Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 @ 8:33 am By: Gene Scarborough

Would it be wiser to say, "We don't yet know all the hazards of Fracking?"

I lived new the central landfill for Nash County. It is on Duke Road and I lived at 4640. It was slightly north and uphill from that unlined dump made before they knew anything about seepage into ground water. It was a new technology and "they didn't know."

It is a "monitored dump site." I carried my trash to the bins every few days. They had places for used motor oil / batteries / a sign up about removing compressors from refrigerators before putting them in. Some folks took a look over their shoulder indicating something was in that bag not supposed to be there. The Monitor employee could not closely inspect every single item.

They decided to close the old section and put dirt over it ~~~ with gas vents for methane. Now they had to put a water system in because wells around were testing positive for dangerous substances.

The public was being served, but the unknown became a bear in the woods. I'm just not convinced we have a solid case for sucking the last drop of fossil fuel from dirt.

I KNOW FOR SURE solar energy is safe. We now have 2 such arrays on my path from Bayview to Nash County where I still have friends.

Why not simply develop other fuel technologies we KNOW ARE SAFE???

Why the felony offense if anyone in NC divulges the chemicals used in the process?????

It's too late baby when the closed over landfill is polluting the ground water and they "just didn't know" ~~~ or do they know and keep it secret until big bucks are made?????

Love Canal is now uninhabitable, but big money was made disposing dangerous chemicals there which continue to leach into the water!!! I'll be glad to see if I can find some good cheap land for this writer. He can get lots of it at Love Canal. If he really believes big business is watching out for the environment and people, he can live there and monitor their progress!

Commented: Wednesday, August 6th, 2014 @ 8:05 am By: Gene Scarborough

Go get 'um, Hood ~~~ but be willing to have egg-on-face IF we spend a bunch of money and find out a retiring Sheriff is honest and you have besmirched his reputation with this proposal and you could have spent much money for NOTHING!

Commented: Tuesday, August 5th, 2014 @ 2:59 pm By: Gene Scarborough

I have an article of my perceptions I hope will run soon. I arrived late to the meeting. Somebody passed "sour pills" to the Board members during the invocation, I think.

I don't see the present plans anywhere near complete. Councilman Richardson asked a question before the break about the steel being proposed as not a lasting kind of building material. Until issues such as this are resolved, you don't have a plan for anyone to consider, in my view.

Commented: Tuesday, August 5th, 2014 @ 8:55 am By: Gene Scarborough

The McClees Consulting folks have helped me greatly. Before the Beaufort County meeting, I got information critical for us. There was more fire than light at that meeting because the problem was already solved!

At this point NO TOLLS may be added on ferries WITHOUT THE LOCAL BOARDS for given coastal Counties requesting it! End of story for now / Conservatives are like spoiled children~~~after being told NO to the candy at the checkout, they whine and cry until you enforce NO with a swift assault on the rear end to get the message across!!!

Commented: Sunday, August 3rd, 2014 @ 8:55 am By: Gene Scarborough

Actually, we are agreed!!! I see churches of Conservative persuasion coming more together with the purpose of influencing and controlling government.

If you look at the composition of Boards with Liberty University / Pat Robertson's in Chesapeake / etc., you have collusion and political planning of the same kind as the Forefathers wished to leave off the Constitutional scene.

In my view, we are widening the scope of consideration for a good future in America. Those hating the Muslim, Mormon, Catholic, etc. views have no backing from the Constitution~~~if they want to banish them.

Commented: Saturday, August 2nd, 2014 @ 9:33 am By: Gene Scarborough

I like this!!! I like Congressman Jones. I note he is under fire in commercials for "not being conservative enough."

WHAT??????

Commented: Friday, August 1st, 2014 @ 10:06 am By: Gene Scarborough

Saying it does not prove it, Stan ~~~ just print and cite the statute, if you please. Thur far, this discussion is saying, "I don't like him because he doesn't back my particular hate/prejudice."

Commented: Thursday, July 31st, 2014 @ 10:15 pm By: Gene Scarborough

We obviously have a difference of opinion on this one, Stan. On so many other things we see eye-to-eye. I think you will agree with me over the proposed expensive new prison vs. simply renovating the existing one and attached Sheriff's Office.

You have ONLY addressed the color issue and defended Conservatives against being accused of racism. My far more important difference with you is over "not-doing-anything-but-thwart-ism" along with "make-sure-he-fails-ism."

Surely you suffer and empathize after you battles locally with the "Gang of 4" as you called them over and over. Simply throwing barbs at one another is a failure in light of the Founding Dream of Democracy expressing different sides of any issue being explored ~~~ and then some kind of helpful compromise being reached for the better good of all concerned!

Again, with all due respect, my friend.

Commented: Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 @ 9:59 pm By: Gene Scarborough

I have not forgotten the first 2, but from day 1 he was hated for the color of his skin. Thereafter, the conscious intent to thwart has been obvious to me. It did not matter if any proposals might help the problems of constituents. It was more important to see to it that the President failed.

It reminds me of Jimmy Carter taking office as a D.C. outsider with only State government experience. At every turn they were hell bent on both sides of the aisle to make sure he failed.

"How could such a clean-cut and honest man get to be President when we have schemed and feathered our nests for years with the rich and powerful to make sure we get the seat!!!" It is hard to deal with people jealous that a simple and clean campaign caught attention and votes over the scheming and bribery of normal politics!!!

You have been in politics, Stan, and should know better from practical experience, my brother.

Commented: Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 @ 10:04 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Again, your survey tells what you only want to get. Please consider modifying it as I suggested some days ago.

The President only has 2 more years in office. The 6 he has done could not be described as 6 years having a cooperative and helping Congress. It is one thing to balk like a mule / it is another to be dumb as one with no real programs offered to get us out of this blankety-blank Recession turned Depression.

That is the real issue and Congress is promoting purposeful failure to "prove" a Democrat is dark-skinned and unwanted. What will they say if the next Presidential candidate is a woman????

Just saying . . . "with all due respect" . . .

Commented: Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 @ 10:31 am By: Gene Scarborough

Thanks for all the comments thus far. I am doing some study on the origins and meaning of the Luke passage. It is more than strange when compared to Jesus stopping Peter from cutting off the soldier's ear and then healing it.

The other thing to consider is Jesus advocating forgiving enemies and loving them. How does this puzzle fit in. Jesus did with a whip what some folks might do with a gun if money changers are in the church and it has become another big business of sorts...

Keep up the good thinking and Bible reading, my friends.

Commented: Monday, July 28th, 2014 @ 1:52 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Here it is, Sunday evening, almost 9. I guess the folks with pistols holstered are still at Evening Worship!

Commented: Sunday, July 27th, 2014 @ 8:52 pm By: Gene Scarborough

I see much "subtle put-down" in this article. To call the Liberal side of the political equation "castrati" is simply, "They have their gonads removed and carry them in a pouch over their shoulder or around their neck and speak in squeaky voices."

This kind of finger-pointing does NOTHING to resolve the great divide now keeping NC from being the balanced and thinking state is was known to be in years past. The actions of Republican leadership in the majority in recent years has meant: Mental Patients flushed into communities / Teachers without pay raises or sufficient funds to have a progressive classroom / an attempt to impose tolls on Ferries (Bayview/Aurora is within my eyesight) / lower taxes on the rich and corps to the point we can't balance a budget / etc.

I am an Independent voter by trade. I registered Democrat just to get a shot at the primary election. I am a small businessman suffering from the lack of money to do tree work in Beaufort County / suffering from the Recession (now going long enough to qualify as Depression) with economists predicting another bust of the bubble on Wall Street / with a BC property tax inflated by 30% of real value~~~along with all other residents.

The wealth of Big Oil has my diesel fuel costing 20% more than gas from a product coming off the refinery 20% before it and for that much less cost to the refiner. Every farmer, trucker, heavy equipment operator is having to pass the excess cost to their customers so you pay more for groceries to cover just that one aspect of GREED.

I won't mention ash dumps polluting our rivers and streams / crazy regulation of our Pamlico Sound Fishery / many other "stupid things" in my view being done from Raleigh.

Quit pretending and fighting. Put aside the issues of Party lines. For God's sake, start helping rather than hurting our good State and this good country with hate and non-thinking obsessive attempts to "win."

Commented: Friday, July 25th, 2014 @ 10:07 am By: Gene Scarborough