Tag: Jan Gardner

Every day people. Sometimes twice a day. Billy’s horrible political instincts+ a complete lack of logic= endless writing opportunities. We’ve already had one today! Well, we can’t let this new issue go without comment.  If you follow our most idiotic council member on his Facebook page you may have noticed this:

Sigh. We’ve seen a variation of this going around the Facebook world for about a week now. We’ve been waiting for actual journalists to step up and investigate this story and oh did they ever.

(Side note: In addition to the Frederick News Post, don’t forget about Katherine Heerbrandt’s new website for all of your actual investigative journalism needs.)

In today’s FNP there is a story explaining both the county and the landowner’s (who just happens to be Billy’s uncle) side of the story. The widening of Ijamsville Road has been a years long project. According to the article,  in closed session, the BOCC voted to give Billy’s uncle $14, 230 ,which after a bunch of amenities were added on, got inflated to $109,233. The first issue here is that Billy claims he recused himself from the discussion of the property improvements, but maybe he sorta kinda came back in when the actual vote took place:

Minutes from the Jan. 24, 2013, meeting show that the improvements were passed by a 5-0 vote among the five-member board.

Why would you step out during the discussion and then come back to vote? Did not one person think that may not be a smart thing to do? Anyway…so a new form of government comes into being. Jan looks at this and thinks perhaps it’s way too much money to spend:

After Gardner was elected, county staff recommended in the Dec. 15, 2014, memo that the county go back to offering the property owners the original compensation amount of $14,230, or move forward with the project without using the property.

This past spring, the family told the county that they would not accept the lower offer on the easement, according to county documents.

The county ultimately decided to redesign the project to take property from the other side of the road and avoid involving the Olden property, Gardner said.

Obtaining an easement across the street cost about $44,000, which Gardner said saved more than $60,000 over the county commissioners’ plan.

“The prior administration was willing to add amenities to a property and pay well over the value of the property that was needed,” Gardner wrote in response to questions about the project. “This sets a poor precedent and could result in other property owners asking for similar improvements and payment well above property value. This could add significant cost to a project.”

So the landowner would not accept the original amount offered to him so the county said alrighty then we’ll just use the other side of the street. So how does that make the county land thieves? How is deciding not to pay someone over $100,000 a crime against nature itself? We are growing oh so very tired of Billy’s overreactions and tantrums that we seriously don’t know if we can make it through the next two years. It is so awful to have to listen to him drone on about things he knows nothing about, spew insults at Bud during council meetings and basically make us all look like a bunch of buffoons for electing him to an at-large council office.  And we really feel for the workers who are going to have to put up with this:

Olden said the project was an attempt by the county to crush the little guy and do whatever it wants.

He plans to sit outside the house to block any work on the property without his permission.

“I’m going to sit my big, fat ass on my property, and I ain’t moving,” Olden said.

In two years time, we have to make sure that the swamp we drain is the one that Billy stands upon.