Listen to Bruce’s interview about Cleveland on SDPB.
Cleveland Abbott excelled both academically and athletically.Â
Born in the late 1800’s, Cleveland Abbott paved the way and created opportunities for many.
As a young black child, Cleveland didn’t let much of anything get in his way.
I’m not naïve, I can see the writing on the wall. This special election with a small number of precincts will probably only get supporters out to support the bond issue. In other words my opinion is starting to change, they may just have a good chance of getting this bond passed by the 60% + 1 threshold.
But let’s face reality here.
One argument I hear a lot from my friends who support these bonds is that we need to spend MORE on public education. I couldn’t agree more. But where we fail on this bond issue is the incredible waste involved. Basically for every $3 of tax dollars expended, only $2 of it goes towards education. We are borrowing $190 million with $110 million in interest. The $110 doesn’t get spent on education, it goes straight from our wallets in the form of property taxes to bond investors. Not one single penny of it will be spent on education. What makes it even worse is that the bond investors live all over the country and possibly world, so that money won’t even get recirculated in our economy.
So you ask what the solution is? Well, I think we should take out smaller bonds that can be paid off faster using the capital outlay. While our taxes most likely will go up (there is No escaping that fact), this allows MORE money to go towards the actual projects instead of bond interest. It also stretches out the debt and tax increases. This is something Public Works Director Mark Cotter suggested during the task force meetings and was told they couldn’t trust Pierre. A horrible excuse to blow $110 million of tax dollars on bond investors instead of education.
The other sad reality is that this $190 million is only being spent on brick and mortar. There is no long term plan to staff the schools and where that money will come from.
I hope people wake up before September 18 and come out in droves to vote down this incredibly dubious bond proposal that only lines the pockets of banksters and does very little in helping education in our community.
Week three. Long meeting tonight. Gobs of controversial issues.
You thought the people who leave guns in unlocked cars were idiots? Well they had some people top them over the weekend.
There is a reason JazzFest bans dogs/pets. Your dogs don’t want to be there, it’s hot, it makes them nervous and they could hurt someone or another dog. But some people don’t seem to get the message at DTSF festivals. The dogs were on display once again. Several barking at each other, some hiding under picnic tables in fear and some so hot and miserable it was pathetic.
But besides the ignoramus dog owners, there were a couple of guys that decided it was OK to bring their Pythons to Riverfest around thousands of people. When one of the guys walked past me, I just turned to him and said, “You are an idiot.” I guess there would be no other way to describe them.
While I am not scared of pet snakes, many people have extreme phobias, and with all the dogs down there, it was a recipe for disaster.
It was obvious these clems were trying to get attention by dragging their snakes to Riverfest but next time I highly suggest you leave them at the trailer park with your other exotic pets, Keystone beer and X-Box games.
I encourage DTSF to implement a NO pets policy from now on at ALL of their festivals because apparently some people are too stupid to realize you don’t bring snakes to public festivals.
You wonder how some people make it through life.
l3wis 