My position paper on the proposed tax increase in Crestwood!

For some time now I, and my fellow bloggers have had a lot to say reference the proposed tax increase of $.35 cents per $100.00 of assessed value.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking at this City as if it were a business that I was running, and the BOA was my Board of Directors (the Mayor being the COO.) I will admit I have zero experience running a City, but I do run a business that grossed 2.4 Million last year with a very good gross margin.

So what say you? Well I will be glad to tell you my friends. In my opinion before we go to the Citizens (bank) for more operating capitol I believe we have many other avenues that must be explored first. Like what you say? Well please allow me to list them for you.

1. City animal control, this costs us well over $70 thousand per year! Give it to County.

2. Police Dept., Way too many command staff, traffic officers, and detectives. Do not
hire new officers until the budget is balanced.

3. At current gasoline prices no more "take home cars" for anyone, park police
vehicles for 15 min. (rotating) per hour in a neighborhood.

4. Privatise the Sappington House (this cost us a fortune every year.)

5. Privatize White cliff Aquatic center (bring in a company to run it for profit.)

6. Hold off on any unneeded repairs until budget improves.

These are just some of the ideas to cut the outgoing funds, small maybe but needed. Now a look at the balance sheet, I am told we have $4 million in the bank, and we pulled in $1 million more in the first quarter (between all three funds) than last year, so where is the problem so far (other than TIF, TDD, CID's we gave away for?)

Our problem is that the Crestwood Courts are not going to start renovation until next spring and we will face a shortfall there, so cuts will be the order of the day (not tax increases.)

Bottom line to this rant is I am firmly against any sort of TAX Increase until, and unless someone shows me where we have cut expenses, and we will not survive unless we have an increase!

I challenge the BOA to get moving on these cuts sooner rather than later, and if they do not feel they can do it, well save the $10,000 it will cost to put in on the ballot because I believe it will fail miserably.

UPDATE: Please click on the header for a story from the Post Dispatch reference a "TAX HOLIDAY," (of all things!) This takes the cake as far as I am concerned!

Tom Ford

NO. 506

For Memorial day: "WHAT IS A VET?"

by Marine Corp chaplain,
Father Denis Edward O'Brian


Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged

scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them,

a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps

another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of

adversity.



Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe

wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking. What is a

vet?



A vet is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating

two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out

of fuel.



A vet is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose

overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic

scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th Parallel.



A vet is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing

every night for two solid years in Da Nang.



A vet is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't

come back at all.



A vet is the drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved

countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account punks and gang members into

marines, airmen, sailors, soldiers and coast guardsmen, and teaching them to

watch each other's backs.



A vet is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals

with a prosthetic hand.



A vet is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass

him by.


A vet is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose

presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory

of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the

battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.



A vet is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and

aggravating slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes

all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares

come.


A vet is an ordinary and yet extraordinary human being, a person who offered

some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who

sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.



A vet is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is

nothing more that the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest,

greatest nation ever known.



So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean

over and say, "Thank You." That's all most people need, and in most cases it

will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.



Again, two little words that mean a lot to any Veteran -- "THANK YOU."

Tom Ford

NO.504

Memorial day, 2008!

Please click on the header for a Memorial Day Card from the Crestwood Independent and his family.

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.

No rumor of the foe's advance
Now swells upon the wind;
Nor troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind;
No vision of the morrow's strife
The warrior's dream alarms;
No braying horn nor screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.

Their shriveled swords are red with rust,
Their plumed heads are bowed,
Their haughty banner, trailed in dust,
Is now their martial shroud.
And plenteous funeral tears have washed
The red stains from each brow,
And the proud forms, by battle gashed
Are free from anguish now.

The neighing troop, the flashing blade,
The bugle's stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade,
The din and shout, are past;
Nor wars wild note nor glory's peal
Shall thrill with fierce delight
Those breasts that nevermore may feel
The rapture of the fight.

Like the fierce northern hurricane
That sweeps the great plateau,
Flushed with the triumph yet to gain,
Came down the serried foe,
Who heard the thunder of the fray
Break o'er the field beneath,
Knew well the watchword of that day
Was "Victory or death!"

Long had the doubtful conflict raged
O'er all that stricken plain,
For never fiercer fight had waged
The vengeful blood of Spain;
And still the storm of battle blew,
Still swelled the gory tide;
Not long, our stout old chieftain knew,
Such odds his strength could bide.

Twas in that hour his stern command
Called to a martyr's grave
The flower of his beloved land,
The nation's flag to save.
By rivers of their father's gore
His first-born laurels grew,
And well he deemed the sons would pour
Their lives for glory too.

For many a mother's breath has swept
O'er Angosturas plain --
And long the pitying sky has wept
Above its moldered slain.
The raven's scream, or eagle's flight,
Or shepherd's pensive lay,
Alone awakes each sullen height
That frowned o'er that dread fray.

Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground
Ye must not slumber there,
Where stranger steps and tongues resound
Along the heedless air.
Your own proud land's heroic soil
Shall be your fitter grave;
She claims from war his richest spoil --
The ashes of her brave.

Thus 'neath their parent turf they rest,
Far from the gory field,
Borne to a Spartan mother's breast
On many a bloody shield;
The sunshine of their native sky
Smiles sadly on them here,
And kindred eyes and hearts watch by
The heroes sepulcher.

Rest on embalmed and sainted dead!
Dear as the blood ye gave;
No impious footstep shall here tread
The herbage of your grave;
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While fame her records keeps,
Or Honor points the hallowed spot
Where Valor proudly sleeps.

Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone
In deathless song shall tell,
When many a vanquished ago has flown,
The story how ye fell;
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight,
Nor Time's remorseless doom,
Shall dim one ray of glory's light
That gilds your deathless tomb.

From CMS Mike Heins, USAF, ret.

Tom Ford

NO. 503

Link to a rather interesting blog, reference the National scene.

I am fully aware that some are put off by the national news and elections, so I am giving you the choice of clicking on the header to read this, or not.

(The comments made in the blog are the sole responsibility of the blog master, and do not necessarily reflect the belief, or opinion of the Crestwood Independent.)

This was sent to me by a friend, and agree or not it does have some interesting points of view. I believe someone here on this blog said it's healthy to see both sides, so here is one of the sides for your enlightenment.

Tom Ford

NO.502

Who has the lowest gasoline prices in our area?

Please click on the header, put in your zip code, and you will find out. Would you believe there can be as much as 5 cents difference.

I posted this a while back but I felt it is more relevant today than before.

Tom Ford

NO. 501

Well folks, I wondered how long Mike Anthony could stay out of Crestwood politics, and now we know!

Mr. Mike Anthony, editor, and erstwhile resident of Jefferson County (not Crestwood,) has once again pontificated on "what's right for Crestwood!"

This guy is the one in the same that promised (in April) "no more slams against the Crestwood leadership!" Well, I guess he forgot that part of his diatribe because here he is in the "paper" low rating Crestwood again!

Mike, find something your qualified to report on and leave us alone, because we are all stocked up with liberals who have no stake in Crestwood, and we sure don't need a person who doesn't live here to tell us what to, or how to do it!

Tom Ford

NO. 500

Traffic light at Big Bend and Holmes Ave. (or who thought this one up?)

Is it me, am I the only one who can't get out of Holmes Ave. onto Big Bend most of the time? If your not living in the lower section of Ward two you probably have no idea what I am talking about, but if you do, you get it completely!

St. Louis County traffic (engineers?) did a study a while back and installed a traffic light on the wrong street (my opinion) thus making it next to impossible to turn left onto Big Bend from Holmes Ave. (or from west bound Big Bend into Holmes Ave.)

This is a very dangerous intersection, and must be straightened out before we start losing some residents to the failure of County Highway Dept. to understand how the flow of traffic really work's!

Please give me your comment's, and rest assured they will be passed on to Mr. Jim Eckrige as well as St. Louis County traffic control.

Tom Ford

NO. 499

OK folks, it's time to question why we pay Wildwood and Jennings over $900,000.00 per year!

I have no idea if most of you are aware of the fact that one of our former Mayors in conjunction with the deceased Buzz Westfall, and some other liberal socialists in the County hatched a plan to send over $900,000.00 to Wildwood and Jennings each year!

Yes, I said Wildwood where you can't buy a dog house for less than $250,000.00, and Jennings, where a very large shopping center is about finalized! What? No that's not right Ford, your crazy! Well it is right, you see we had a "point of sale place" (Crestwood Plaza,) and they didn't, and to a liberal, well that can't stand, so our erstwhile Mayor agreed to the Marxist plan!

Now, we are not the only ones suffering this budget drain ala Carl Marx, no not at all. In fact to our West the fine City Of Fenton has the same ridiculous problem thanks to their previous leadership! Mayor Hancock has, for some time now been very vocal on the subject of stopping this foolishness, and I for one applaud him for it!

Now that we know what these people did to us, are we willing to stand for it? I am calling on the Mayor, and the BOA to join forces with Mayor Hancock of Fenton to get up to Jefferson City and stop this tax grab! By the way, please don't tell me the "climate isn't right" for this in Jefferson City because we have a very good Republican majority, and when last I looked, they don't go for this either!

It's now up to us to band together, craft a petition, or do whatever it takes to get this lunacy stopped! "Crestwood taxes for Crestwood!"


Tom Ford

NO. 498

What would an OPEC oil minister say to Congress? (from a retired Marine aviator.)

If you ask me this is no doubt what would be said if we gave these folks the chance to do it. I have no idea why most of the Country can't grasp this, but sadly they can't!

OPEC minister will look the democrat controlled House in the eyes and would state:

" We are at war with you infidels. Have been since the embargo in the 1970s. You are so arrogant you haven't even recognized it. You have more missiles, bombs, and technology; so we are fighting with the best weapon we have and extracting on a net basis about $700 billion/year out of your economy. We will destroy you! Death to the infidels!

While I am here I would like to thank you for the following:

Not developing your 250-300 year supply of oil shale and tarsands. we know if you did this, it would create millions of jobs for US citizens, expand your engineering capabilities, and keep the wealth in the US instead of sending it to us to finance our war against you infidels.

Thanks for limiting defense dept. purchases of oilsands from your neighbors to the north. We love it when you confuse your allies.

Thanks for over regulating every segment of your economy and thus delaying, by decades, the development of alternate fuel technologies.

Thanks for limiting drilling off your coasts, in Alaska, and anywhere there is a bug, bird, fish, or plant that might be inconvenienced. Better that your people suffer! Glad to see our lobbying efforts have been so effective.

Corn based Ethanol. Praise Allah for this sham program! Perhaps you will destroy yourself from the inside with these types of policies. This is a gift from Allah, praise his name! We never would have thought of this one! This is better than when you pay your farmers NOT TO GROW FOOD. Have them use more energy to create less energy, and simultaneously drive food prices through the roof. Thank you US Congress!!!!

And finally, we appreciate you letting us fleece you without end. You will be glad to know we have been accumulating shares in your banks, real estate, and publicly held companies. We also finance a good portion of your debt and now manipulate your markets, currency, and economies to our benefit.

THANK YOU AMERICA!"

Tom Ford

NO. 497

My friends we have a great Mexican holiday upon us!

As most of you know, Monday the 5th of May is Cinco De Mayo. But do you know the reason behind the holiday? Most believe that it celebrates a great victory in Mexican history, but the truth is elsewhere!

In the early 1900's mayonnaise was the most favorite condiment in Mexico, ahead of salsa, and whatever else may have been a close second.

Now, in 1912 the Great new Cunard liner Titanic sailed from England via Ireland to the port of New York City. She was scheduled to go from New York to Mexico City, Mexico with passengers bound for Mexico and the South Americas.

Her cargo manifest showed several items for the United States, as well as 4500 tons of Mayonnaise bound for Mexico City. Now as we all know the Titanic struck an iceberg, and sank on April 12, 1912 at approximately 0142 AM Iceland time carrying many of her passengers and crew, as well as her cargo down with her, A tragic loss indeed!

The news being what it was in those days took until May the 5th, 1912 to arrive in Mexico City wherein a national day of mourning was forever instituted, and the phrase "sinka de mayo" was coined!

And now you know the real story of the holiday!

Tom Ford

The town hall meeting and the tax increase proposal.

Please click on the header for an article that appeared in this weeks edition of the South County Times. I present this to you for your edification and enjoyment minus any remarks from me.

Enjoy!

Tom Ford

NO. 496