What is to become of the albatross at the new park?
Our veterans deserve a whole lot better than what we are doing to them at the "Big Park."
Almost everything concerning the new park including and especially the name - the Oconee Community Complex - has been an utter fiasco for our proud county. Why wallow in such mediocity when we have done well in the past and can do it again in the future?
I took my son to the John T. Brannen building of the Herman C. Michael park and looked at the photo of recreation direction John Gentry shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice and wondered what he would think of all the malfeasance and hand-washing over this corrupt series of blunders.
Our local leadership fails us now more than ever, when we need someone to accept responsibility over the mistakes and to correct them, not give some namby-pamby excuses about how there is no connection between the committee and the government. Fine, great, get on with the more important details.
One, the design sucks and should be scrapped. Jerry Chappelle has better plans already offered and I am sure he could find a copy at Happy Valley Pottery or Georgia Originals or the Haygood House.
Two, the location should be moved. I would like to nominate the side of Heritage Park facing where the new truck stop wants to be, not where the old Central School House will eventually be relocated.
Three, the Veterans Memorial Committee never registered as a proper 501 (c)3, and thus having misrepresented itself, renders all agreements null and void.
Four, someone with courage on the BOC needs to figure out and publically declare where the replacement 29K came from (perhaps this is most unrealistic expectation of them all). I understand that the BOC is not directly involved, only a member on that board and the county attorney.
Five, the county attorney needs to explain himself a little better when it comes to the obvious conflict of interests handing checks over to the bank.
Really, it is just a matter of where that money came from is the heart of the matter. A recent former member of the BOC told me of some improprieties about how the propoerty was acquired and developed before the BOC had voted to do so. Another interested individual offered to give $10,000 toward the building of an aquatics center, only if it were the first thing built. Admittedly that is about 1 or 2% of what a half way decent facility would cost to build or operate, but the fact that it was dismissed summarily without the slightest consideration shows how truly pathetic the local government is and has been. We could have very easily had the facility built and running by now (see the Georgia Aquarium down the road some 60+ miles.) We would not need something as grand as the Gabrielson Natatorium at the Ramsey Centeron UGA's campus, but a place where rehabilitating Iraqi war veterans and seniors could recreate would have been a much better tribute to those who would give their life four our country instead of a bunch of black shiny granite near some ball fields.
Six, Ivey needs to provide a full accounting of where the spent money went and where the replacement money came from. If he fails, he goes to jail.
The latest discussion on the lack of information at the BOC
Almost everything concerning the new park including and especially the name - the Oconee Community Complex - has been an utter fiasco for our proud county. Why wallow in such mediocity when we have done well in the past and can do it again in the future?
I took my son to the John T. Brannen building of the Herman C. Michael park and looked at the photo of recreation direction John Gentry shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice and wondered what he would think of all the malfeasance and hand-washing over this corrupt series of blunders.
Our local leadership fails us now more than ever, when we need someone to accept responsibility over the mistakes and to correct them, not give some namby-pamby excuses about how there is no connection between the committee and the government. Fine, great, get on with the more important details.
One, the design sucks and should be scrapped. Jerry Chappelle has better plans already offered and I am sure he could find a copy at Happy Valley Pottery or Georgia Originals or the Haygood House.
Two, the location should be moved. I would like to nominate the side of Heritage Park facing where the new truck stop wants to be, not where the old Central School House will eventually be relocated.
Three, the Veterans Memorial Committee never registered as a proper 501 (c)3, and thus having misrepresented itself, renders all agreements null and void.
Four, someone with courage on the BOC needs to figure out and publically declare where the replacement 29K came from (perhaps this is most unrealistic expectation of them all). I understand that the BOC is not directly involved, only a member on that board and the county attorney.
Five, the county attorney needs to explain himself a little better when it comes to the obvious conflict of interests handing checks over to the bank.
Really, it is just a matter of where that money came from is the heart of the matter. A recent former member of the BOC told me of some improprieties about how the propoerty was acquired and developed before the BOC had voted to do so. Another interested individual offered to give $10,000 toward the building of an aquatics center, only if it were the first thing built. Admittedly that is about 1 or 2% of what a half way decent facility would cost to build or operate, but the fact that it was dismissed summarily without the slightest consideration shows how truly pathetic the local government is and has been. We could have very easily had the facility built and running by now (see the Georgia Aquarium down the road some 60+ miles.) We would not need something as grand as the Gabrielson Natatorium at the Ramsey Centeron UGA's campus, but a place where rehabilitating Iraqi war veterans and seniors could recreate would have been a much better tribute to those who would give their life four our country instead of a bunch of black shiny granite near some ball fields.
Six, Ivey needs to provide a full accounting of where the spent money went and where the replacement money came from. If he fails, he goes to jail.
The latest discussion on the lack of information at the BOC
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