To submit your opinion email holly@wtoe.com

I grew up in Spruce Pine for 17 years and had a movie theater, bowling , the drive in to eat, talk to friends rtc. I come home and am always disturbed there is nothing for teenagers to do or feel Spruce Pine went backward instead of forward. I loved my years in Spruce Pine but feel there needs to have more things to do for the local people and teenagers without costing an arm and leg. I see where there is a meeting tonight and hope ny in-put matters. I am not the only one that feels this way because we have a family reunion every August and we laugh that we had more things to do them yhan now. The older I get the more I want to come back, I do miss the mountains. Please give the young people to do other than get into trouble, and the older to be proud of where we grew up. Yhank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Peggy Pittman Aniello

Dear Editor,

I played sports in little league, middle school and high school. I am applauded at the “supporters” or “fans” of our beloved Mountaineers. I have coached little league for 5 years, so I have some understanding of what Coach Barnett and his staff are going through. The game of football is played with HEART. Some games I think our Mountaineers don’t have the heart or effort. I was told one time, by a coach “I can put you in the right place to make a play, but it’s up to you to make the play”. I know how frustrating it is to see a player with all the ability and he does nothing with it, we see it a lot on Friday nights. I find humor in the fact that when the team is winning it is the players that are winning and the coaching staff didn’t have anything to do with it and when they are losing it’s ALWAYS the coaches.

            I hear all the yelling in the stands and read all the rants in the paper and it is comical how much you people don’t know about football. It has recently been brought to my attention that football is an individual sport. There are 11 players, however if each player does his job to the best of his ability and with HEART then all 11 will be successful. If one player slacks off for one play, then all 11 are not as strong. It’s like the old saying “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. I have watched several practices at the high school this year and the coaches are doing all they can to prepare these young men for Friday night. All the Coach Barnett headhunters need to back off and let him work. I talked to a senior, who has played all 4 years. Guess what? He has had 4 different position coaches over his 4 years. Changing coaches is not the answer to the problem. Football starts when the last game is played, not on August 1^st. The kids need to be in the weight room, doing conditioning, etc. to prepare themselves for the following season, not hanging out at the pool or what ever they do during the summer. The mind set of this community is horrible. I had a parent ask my daughter why she played YBOA basketball. She told him to make herself better. He told her it was a waste of time. Then when my daughter’s middle school team beat his daughter’s middle school team, he complained about us running the score up. No, we prepared during the off season.

            This is not only for football, but all sports. There are clinics or camps for our athletes to attend during the off season. So, stop complaining and help the athletes, help themselves.

            Coach Barnett and staff, I think you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work.

                                                   Local Sports Fan

I am writing in response to the Mitchell News-Journal (9-16-2009) report of Senator Joe Sam Queen’s vote to shift housing and medical costs of certain state prisoners to county budgets and its local impact throughout Haywood, Madison, Yancey, Mitchell, Avery and McDowell Counties of Western North Carolina. Mr. Queen is quoted… "It was necessary to ask the counties to pick up some other costs, including local jail costs, to preserve the Medicaid swap," First of all, Mr. Queen and the N.C. Senate never ask counties to pick up the two costs, they just did it. Don’t be deceived, county jail reimbursements and inmate medical costs were NOT in the original 2007 Medicaid agreement. I have learned over the years of his weak attempts to justify his vote and would like to set the record straight. In 2007, legislative members in a bi-partisan way agreed to relieve all 100 counties of the federal and state Medicaid program where local county tax revenues paid a portion of Medicaid expenses. This would average between 4.5 and 5.5% of the total Medicaid payment. Over a three-year period counties and the North Carolina General Assembly agreed there would be an exchange of existing local sales tax received for local Medicaid costs to counties. The original agreement in the first year also had the General Assembly withholding roughly 50 percent of the Public School Building Capital Fund (ADM Fund) for 2007-08 only. Guess what, they went back on that promise this session and now have taken all of the ADM funding for two additional years. Mr. Queen voted to take the school construction money and against an amendment brought to the Senate floor to keep it as originally agreed. Counties that trusted the General Assembly on their word went out and built new schools or additions, only to see their funding stream eliminated. Those counties and local school boards are now scrambling to find ways to meet their debt payments, through property tax increases, reduction in services or both.

Another significant issue in this cost shift scheme is the unknown medical costs incurred during the inmate incarceration period to be paid by counties. What I also find interesting of Mr. Queen’s additional comments are; “We just didn't have the money," Queen said. "Other priorities, like education, were more important. Education was a priority to keep our state moving so that we would have the workforce to grow out of this recession." School systems across the state have already sent back over 320 million dollars to the state only weeks after the state budget was approved. The Community College and UNC system are doing the same. If that is not enough, Queen and his liberal spending majority passed another tax increase; a one billion dollar sales tax increase each of us help pay at the check-out counter. Ask your Sheriff and county commissioners if they are happy about this sweet deal for the state. Continued mismanagement, broken promises, and additional taxes with more government intrusion into our lives: Had enough? Senator Queen hasn’t.


Andy Webb
Marion

Here is a question for Mitchell County Government, on what do you base the new tax increases on real property in Mitchell County? There is little to no industry in the county and as far as anyone can determine there is no plans for industry to come to our county in the foreseeable future. It is obvious that people from Florida and other states are more than willing to come to our area and buy properties for the back taxes. Is this the future of Mitchell County? The people who were born and raised here and made this county what it is today can no longer afford to live here. Our county has a rich, varied and interesting history which means absolutely nothing to the real estate brokers who are more than willing to sell it off to whomever so long as they are able to grow their accounts which they will take with them when they leave our area to go back to wherever they came from.

Is it not time for the citizens of our county to remove the elected officials who make these decisions without concern for anyone except themselves and their well being? When election time comes around again, remember the tax statement on your personal property, remember the last time you went Bakersville to do business with a county office and there was no one to help you because they were strolling on the creek walk or at Spruce Pine shopping. Check the yearly salaries of our elected officials, compare them to your yearly income and note the vast difference of dollar amounts. Is it not time for the citizens of Mitchell county to make a difference in our county government?

It was horrifying and very sad to hear of the recent Mitchell County animal abuse case involving animals left in a closed shed to die a slow and painful death. . Please help your local animal shelters and spay and neuter your animals so they don't end up in the hands of monsters like these. These are God's creatures, not put here to be abandoned, abused and neglected.

I am writing in response to N.C. Senator Joe Sam Queen’s position about wind mill farms in western North Carolina, specifically in Mitchell County. Where are we headed as a nation and state when elected officials aggressively and with fervor exaggerate the facts to justify their position and vote? Mr. Queen, a self-proclaimed progressive Democrat does not want alternative energy in the 47th district he serves.

Private investment, alternative energy production, job creation in construction, trucking, technical assistance, and engineering both in the near and long term could occur if wind mills become a reality. Such projects would create local prosperity and would be a good investment to sustain a low tax rate for the county. The senator’s position against wind mills just does not add up. Mr. Queen says this single proposed site “will scar our mountain tops and ridges.” The secluded, currently industrial site is western North Carolina’s best scientifically assessed location for wind production, say the experts. Mr. Queen is on record stating he will not compromise, as early as next year, the approval of a demonstration project at this location or any other for that matter. He goes on to say that the North Carolina coast and mid America are his choices for alternative wind energy. At stake in this issue are private property rights, locally elected officials’ ability to make economic development decisions and their right to create local jobs in an economy where natural resources are plentiful. It is a fact that people travel to wind mill locations as a hobby which creates an additional tourism opportunity. No one wants wind mill farms throughout the western North Carolina Mountain tops as Mr. Queen suggests will happen if he does not stop them. This is simply an attempt to scare people to justify his vote. A vote that does not serve the 175,000 people Senator Queen was elected to represent. We The People should not be struck down by a state bureaucrat when it comes to improving our local economy. The best decisions are made when the voice of truth without exaggeration is presented. Mr. Queen cannot blame this issue or vote on the previous administration, or will he? Time will tell.


 

From WKYK a news report

"Mitchell Schools-Random Drug Testing Policy : The testing is not for the entire student body but only those willingly volunteer to join a club, ball team, band etc. "

This is great example of doublespeak. Check this out...By signing up to join a club, play a sport, or join the band, one gives up ones right to the fourth amendment to the Constitution, that is the right to privacy and security against unreasonable searches and seizures; the need to produce a search warrant if there is reasonable cause.

This says in effect that if one wants to participate in any school activity, then one must submit without due process (reasonable cause/a search warrant) to a drug test. If one does not desire to consent to a "random" drug test (without due process), then the implication is that one cannot participate in any school activity (only those who willingly volunteer to join a club, ball team, band, etc.) This is communism. This is the new world order...lets pretend you have a choice. There is no choice here. If you want to participate in an activity, the choice is to agree to a drug test or not participate. This is the same as mandatory community service which is forced servitude and is called volunteerism. When one is forced to "volunteer" to do community service...it is compulsory, and therefore it is not voluntary at all. We just smile and call it volunteering!

We have at least two forced components in our school systems now. To graduate one has to complete so many hours of (forced/compulsory) community service-again forced service to the community, and it must be politically correct (like "volunteering" at the animal shelter). Our government wants us to agree that we are donating our personal free time to the community, when it is actually forced on us as service. And second, since we are now "willingly volunteering" to join a club, play a sport, or join the band, then we are
"willingly agreeing" to submit to the unlawful search (for drugs) without due process(reasonable cause to suspect drug use and a warrant signed by a judge), and seizure (of the blood/urine required to test for drug use even without reasonable cause). This has a twofold purpose. One, it sets us up to accept anything that our government tells us is required, even though it steals our constitutional rights. Secondly, it prepares us to not resist anything that the government tells us to do by taking away privileges if we refuse to give up our rights.
The next mandatory thing that is coming is the mandatory immunizations for the swine flu in order to attend school. This immunization has not been thoroughly tested and has caused many deaths and bad side effects, yet they are still mandating it to many groups of people, primarily the most vulnerable...young children and the elderly.
This is scary. Very scary.