It has been over a month since Helene, and less than a week remains until the most significant election of our times.
If our area recovers from Helene, it will take a long time. This affects everyone. Even if you have no damage, you will still be paying higher homeowners insurance, and because of this, your property values have sunk. There is also an excellent chance French Broad EMC will hike electric rates to pay for the mess in Yancey County, Marshall, and Hot Springs.
There have to be changes in the way these properties are built back. I know this will anger many of you, but I still can’t understand why long-residing residents were unprepared. The areas that were hit the hardest had the most geological infrastructure issues. These low valleys had steep fractured slopes with metamorphic rock branches and streams.
Our area received copious rainfall before Helene, and most of these branches and rivers were in the flood stage when Helene hit them. There was already flash flooding. Some of these people who were killed were told to leave, like Tipton in the Rollins area. Their family blamed the emergency personnel because they couldn’t save him. Seriously? I hope these comments were made from an emotional moment because they are ridiculous.
The debris field threshold for our area can be reached at five inches in 24 hours. Yet a great deal of these victims stayed in their homes on the edge of the river. We know this because many of them filmed it.
Independent weather people forecasted this event two weeks before it happened. WLOS and Accuweather didn’t catch up until days before. But they warned of catastrophic flooding and wind when the light finally clicked on.
Every area hit the hardest was a valley with a steep incline with rivers and water branches throughout or on a flood plain. Below is an excellent video of why this happened, filmed by Geologist Phillip Prince, and I encourage you to follow him.
Helene has impacted Appalachian life in extreme ways for the foreseeable future. In addition to catastrophic flooding, deadly landsliding occurred in numerous areas. The Garren Creek community of Buncombe County, North Carolina, may have been the area most severely affected by landslides. Huge debris flows claimed many lives in this area, and while the story has appeared on national news outlets, it has not received the attention that more populated areas have. This video talks about the disastrous debris flows in this area and how debris flows work in general. The video contains information for first responders about the risks of working in a debris flow area following the first pulse, as well as for mountain residents who may live in areas that could be hit by debris flows.
Geo Models- Phillip Prince
Why do those of you who profess the malarky of “Climate Change” live in areas with rising water dangers? All of the places that were hit were in these areas, full of residents who are left-of-center in their thought processes.
Pull up a topo map and see the water branches in your areas. Watch the video above; it shows what happened. These mountains don’t look the way they do because they are pristine. While beautiful, they are fractured, and people keep building on the ridges and banks of rivers and streams. The first thing you need to understand when you move into this area is to ensure you have a four-wheel drive, good brakes, and an understanding of the weather, and that does not mean the local weather clowns. You also must prepare, which means keeping supplies on hand.
What is evident in this whole catastrophic event is how feckless our county- state governments are in planning for their infrastructure.
Asheville still does not have sufficient clean water. The town leaders of Asheville and Buncombe County chose to instead put in cyclist trails and homeless encampments along with funding free needles for the druggies of their area. They put all their eggs into one basket, “Tourism.”
When tourism fails the budget expendictures fail, where do the counties and cities get their money to run their inflated budgets for 2024?
It will be from all of us who pay taxes…
It is the same in Madison County; we have some of the worst elected County officials on record. Honestly, folks, these guys are of a lower standard than the last three commissioners who were beaten in 2022.
Have you noticed no tax bills went out before this Tuesday’s election in Madison County? The law requires that tax bills be sent out in September, regardless of whether there is a pathetic reevaluation. I still have not received my informal appeal notice of decision from the Madison County Tax office.
I taped my two-hour “Let’s Make a Deal” conversation and have heard from people who say that what they decided in these informal appeals is not what they received in the mail from Diana Norton’s tax office. These assessors did not use comps; they used a market evaluation at 100%; the last Madison County revaluation used a 65% evaluation.
Our property values have gone down because of the Helene storm but our taxes under Republican leadership are going up. If the county commissioners genuinely cared about the citizens of Madison, they would use their time to find a way to postpone this reevaluation for eight years instead of four. It is Matt Wechtel, Michael Garrison, the tax office, and the failure of leadership that we are here today.
Their failure to plan and then to lie that they were ordered to do a reevaluation in four years instead of eight is simply malfeasance.
Why did the commissioners in this meeting below hire Vincent Valuations?
Vincent Valuations do revaluations. See below. They were hired in Wikes County and 47 other counties in NC.
Why are the taxpayers of Madison county paying twice? You can’t make it up…
These five commissioners, Matt Wechtel, Michael Garrison, Bill Briggs, Alan Wyatt, and Jeremy Hensley, are bleeding the taxpayers while they allow people on Agricultural welfare, like Jeremy Hensley, commissioner, and Kari Ledford, finance administrator, to receive no oversight and no legal audit on their land use deferments.
Don’t forget who is on the list and ask why they are not auditing people like Jackie Ball…Also ask why Citizen Times has not checked out this contract?
The Board of Equalization will not meet after November 22, 2024. You are out of luck after this date. Do you realize that many people in this county still do not understand what their tax bills will be?
These county commissioners are pure evil, manipulating con artists who are using their positions to profit themselves and their furor, Buddy Harwood.
How come Madison County taxpayers pay more to this feckless sheriff’s department than every other sheriff’s office with the same population in WNC?
The sheriff’s office only operates in Mars Hill, and they cover up crimes committed by their friends. Most of the sheriff’s employees we pay with our tax dollars don’t even work for us; they work for the town of Mars Hill.
What does Sheriff Buddy Harwood do for anyone other than Mars Hill and himself?
Did you know we have people in this county who have looted people’s homes, which were destroyed during Hurricane Helene? Harwood’s sheriff department was too busy at the Sex Castle to be bothered to patrol the county after the great flood.
Madison County government is a pathetic joke. They laugh at you because you fall for their counterfeit Christianity and because some of you so freely take their handouts.
Look in your pocket; that red stain is blood money…
Do any of the county government departments function or serve the taxpayers of Madison County?
Norton is still in the tax office, but not for long. As we have learned, her notice has been turned in, and she is leaving, and Jessica West will take her place. Why are these commissioners putting another incompetent, lazy person into this position?
West is the niece of Kathy Proffit, another unqualified woman who ran off Daniel Metcaff and is now in charge of this white elephant called transportation, which we are all paying for in our tax dollars as one of our budget’s highest expenditures. Don’t let them lie to you about what is going on here.
Jessica West was forced out of DSS because she didn’t do her job, which probably means she was lazy. How many employees at Madison County DSS become unemployed or leave? Think about it.
It appears that these employees have lost sight of the concept of civil service, and they only serve themselves their families and their friends.
Are you catching on, folks? This is why Madison County is such a mess. You don’t nourish cancer; you destroy it and keep it from coming back.
I am not voting for Wechtel or Garrison; I am voting for the two women because at least there is a tiny possibility there will be someone in there who can raise questions about what these conniving narcissistic men are doing.
Rod Honeycutt, county manager, has turned out to be one of the biggest disasters this county has ever hired. He has been working with Dogwood Trust and United Way to turn Madison County into a Land of Community Organizers.
Barack Obama would be proud.
I have been warning you about these non-profit organizations. In two short years, Rod Homer Honeycutt turned Madison County into a pathetic feeding ground ripe for these vultures to descend upon.
Did we not hire these new commissioners to be watchful of our conservative values and not grow government, which the last bunch did on steroids?
Honeycutt has built a government using grant money, which has increased Madison County’s dependency. This guy is just like his father, Homer Honeycutt; he was a disaster for the town of Woodfin when he was mayor, costing this city millions of dollars because of his incompetence.
The fruit does not fall far from the tree…Below recently put out by Dogwood Trust
Folks, did you notice that all these Community centers were out snooping around your properties after the flooding? Under the auspices of checking on the community? Were they canvassing or casing our properties?
Let me share my incident with you. Understand that Spring Creek did not receive the damage as other areas in WNC. We had only two days of electrical outages. The DOT was out immediately repairing the roads, so there was no need for this fake homage from the Spring Creek Community Center.
Two people representing Spring Creek Community Center came onto my property late afternoon. They crawled over my surveilled locked gate, which had prominent NO TRESPASSING signs in clear view, claiming they were checking on us.
What right did they think they had to trespass onto private property illegally? Why not call? The phones were working? Oh no, they had to be out there projecting their greatness.
Suzanne Lane posted this on Facebook, posting her pathetic personal grandiose of her and her husband. Not to mention the intrusion onto our private property to fulfill it, or was this for some other reason? Why post a map on FB?
Suzanne and Kurtis, according to their tax records, mailing address is Avery, California it shows rural vacant so they don’t even live here see below:
They are lucky they didn’t run into me when they were trespassing.
I sent the Spring Creek Community Center an email when this happened. Do you think they apologized for it? No, they believe they are entitled to do this. They are from California, that hellhole. They are from an area that has ruined itself and are now here to do the same.
They wouldn’t even answer my question about their authority to do this. I warned them I would get a warrant next time and litigate against the non-profit Spring Creek Community Center.
Our county gives our tax dollars to this farce. Honeycutt authorized this. He has no authority to order trespass on anyone’s property in Madison County. But that is what a megalomaniac former military do, especially those while in service: “gear was in the rear.”
Folks, you can be sued if these lawbreakers fall or get hurt trespassing onto your property. Chew on that!
I don’t interact with the Marxist mess over there at this so-called community center, and I didn’t move here to be bothered by people who don’t have jobs and are simply trying to be intrusive.
Why are Californians taking over community centers in Madison County, and why are these commissioners allowing it?
Barack Obama would be proud!
Besides,this below is helping out with the community center delivering hay. Do you think I want this creature or anyone associated with her anywhere near my property? Do you?
Watch out for the Non-profits folks. These commissioners are connected to United Way. Michael Garrison, vice chair of Madison County commissioners’ brother Steve Garrison, has been involved in a scandal in Rutherfordton County.
The allegations are as follows: In 2012, Steve Garrison, employed as county manager, left Madison and took a job with Buncombe.
Suddenly, in 2014, Garrison left Buncombe’s job and started as county manager in Rutherford. Here’s where something happens that must have been planned for some time. That is, Garrison, Porter, and several of the usual suspects (Deby Claret, Mike Hagar, the sheriff, da, etc) make an unprecedented move to oust Vaya (the then-LME for Rutherford) out of nowhere. They are successful, and Holden simultaneously becomes the partner representative for Rutherford. From that day, they have gotten grants for projects that have never been done, and they frequently refer to themselves as “a group of public officials” making major financial decisions. Still, they will not identify all the officials or what they’re doing.
Until November 2022, former Sheriff Chris Francis was on all the boards and involved with all the vanishing grants. Francis refused to provide any information about the millions in substance abuse and mental health services allegedly being provided at the jail. When Sheriff Aaron Ellenburg took over, he immediately requested the same information and confirmed what many of us had long suspected.
Additionally, Ellenburg realized that Garrison and the county commissioners were taking drug seizure proceeds and using them for purposes that are not permitted under equitable sharing with federal agencies.
When Steve Garrison was County manager for Madison County, I caught him doing the same thing, misallocating grant funds that were being funneled to the Madison County Sheriff Department.
Garrison and his cronies refused to provide any financial documentation to identify the amount of funds communing in, being used, remaining available, or how they had been used. Story below remember the fruit doesn’t fall from the tree…
Rod Honeycutt, county manager, sits with two walkie-talkies in a video below to help make him look important- staged folks.
Wechtel and Garrison have aged and project that they don’t have the first clue as to what they are doing. Do you feel confident with these men in office?
Have you noticed Spring Creek? There are no Wechtel or Garrison signs out in our area. The ladies running have several signs. Are they just this arrogant to think they have it in the bag?
In this video, they announce the donation setup. Do you think it is wise for any donations to go through the unqualified Finance officer, Kary Ledford?
They state they will take anything and everything. What do you bet these donations ended up in Harwood’s basement? They are taking advantage of everyone’s emotions. Madison County wasn’t even hit as hard as other counties. You never give power to someone like Honeycutt.
One of the colonels’ first acts was to show how remarkable Madison County Hospitality is. If not from here, you couldn’t get gas or enter the precious Ingles. Madison County’s message is, ” Please take your business elsewhere; you are not welcome here.
Will this be Madison County’s motto for economic development?
Those who called into the area radio shows operating in Asheville brought these incidents to the forefront. One person called in and stated he was checking on his mother and went to Ingles to get gas for his trip home. They told him to leave because he had TN tags. He watched as these Ingles employees let their friends get gas but denied him.
I didn’t believe this at first, even out of these ghouls, but here is what they had up at the time. They have since removed it. I wonder why.
Is this illegal?
It is a good thing the people of Madison were not treated like this by other counties in WNC.
Over the years, this county would be in better shape if these county managers had focused on infrastructure instead of paying Harwood and his cronies in graft. Look at the idiots on the Economic Development Committee. What have they ever done?
They are Land of Sky Liberal nuts -TOURISM. Placed there by Wechtel and Garrison…
What happens when tourism doesn’t sustain a county or city and the sales tax revenue, which has been projected but not collected as revenues, is gone? What happens with the projected expenditures? Well, do you think they stop spending? Nope!
Who wants to go to Asheville anyway, especially to eat? They have a new bacteria outbreak among workers. How are these counties going to meet their budgets? You can’t even get FedEx and UPS to deliver on time. Now, why is that?
It is called handing out free money to workers in the area who have decided to take the free check instead of working. FedEx and UPS rely on contractors to supplement their businesses. They are not showing up for work because they can get the free check until December 25, 2024, without any questions asked. Thank Roy Cooper for that debacle; he did the same crap during the Covid Hoax.
Free money to those who would rather mooch than work. These companies are open; some employees know how to work the system, and they are causing problems.
If you rely on Amazon, you know they redirect packages to USPS, which works. My Post office is delivering on time, and I appreciate their effort because the hub was flooded. The DOT has been doing a marvelous job in securing and opening roads. French Broad linemen are working without any days off. They have done a great job, but the areas they have to manage are a wilderness mess. We are lucky to have such nice weather, but more storms may impact the mountains. Prepare this time. If you have things you want to be shipped, order them now. It may take weeks to receive them.
Do not forget those who have lost their homes; they will need help for many months. Instead of giving to others outside our state for Christmas, find one of these families you can help. Those of you who have taken free stuff when you didn’t need it deserve Karma’s reckoning.
We have a lot to worry about in our area, but nothing can compare to what Israel is doing to its neighbors and what they are doing to America.
God, please save us from these cowards and their fake religion…
Below is Rudy Guiliani -America’s Mayor, just like Sean Hannity and Fox News, claiming two-year-old children should be killed
After leaving office as Mayor of NYC in December 2001, Rudy Giuliani opened a law/consultancy firm and was immediately hired by Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin, and paid millions of dollars by the Sackler family to shield Purdue from federal regulations.
Specifically, Giuliani described his mission as “…the job of convincing public officials that they could trust Purdue because they could trust him.” Imagine bleating about fake toddler terrorists after you became a millionaire helping actual narco-terrorists kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Here is what these monsters have in mind to be killed, and add the Southern Biggots of the evangelical Billy Graham church wing who have profited well off this carnage.
Folks, AIPAC pays them to parrot the propaganda of Israel.
The little girl below will never know herself as a wife, or mother. Someone’s sister and daughter, her last moments in the fetal position, the only thing she knew to do as Israel bombed her home.
This is who Rudy Guilliani and Republican Christian organizations want destroyed. Why?
https://twitter.com/Daniel7Prinsloo/status/1850171900133015904
The King James version of the Bible was altered by those who created Israel and its deception. It is the truth, folks and it is time you wake up…
Millions of Christians were fooled with the ‘Scofield Reference Bible’ to become Christian Zionists. The scam: “For a nation to commit the sin of anti-semitism brings inevitable judgment.”
- . AIPAC (Israeli lobby) donates to both parties, all sides, ensuring that regardless of whom wins in Congress, Senate, and President, Israel will be a priority. This is well-documented and not a conspiracy.
- AIPAC and other Israeli-friendly parties have donated hundreds of millions to Trump.
- Trump has family, a direct family that is Jewish. Jewish people are passionately loyal to Israel despite being Americans and are very willing to use American lives in service of Israel.
- Netanyahu and Israel support the removal of the Palestinian people and to establish a “greater Israel,” and they are very willing and currently carrying this out with deadly/genocidal force. Of course, American media, both left and right, are deeply controlled by Jewish/Israeli sympathetic supporters, so you do not see the thousands of videos and images of civilians and children killed.
- The 2016 narrative against Trump was that Russia worked to get Trump elected. The current narrative is that Iran wants Trump dead. Common sense dictates that this is nonsense. Iran is a close ally of Russia, very close. Why would Russia be friendly to Trump, but Russia’s allies want to kill Trump? It is straightforward to see that Trump may be compromised and knows that to have a chance to be elected, he must ensure war with Iran. Iran has been a target of Israel for many, many years. I believe Trump knows Iran is not responsible for the assassination attempts, but he also knows who runs American politics.
- Every war in the Middle East that Americans have been sent to fight and die in has been on behalf of Israel. The US has 800 military bases throughout the world. Iran does not.
It is OK to love Trump for who he used to be in 2016 and also recognize that, for whatever reason, that same man does not exist. It is my hope that he will wake up!
From Stuart Murray, an area vet and writer in Madison County
| How did Donald Trump get Projected into your Brain? Did you ever stop to think how the people that are presented to you as “thought leaders”and “experts” and “heroes” got in the spotlight? Why were they chosen and by whom were they chosen? Stuart Murray Oct 22 |
Society has been programmed and conditioned to look for heroes when there is trouble. As children, we had Superman, Batman, The Lone Ranger, James Bond, and countless other heroes that were portrayed as saving the day when villains got the upper hand. Americans love their heroes. They love their heroes to the point that they can totally ignore any evidence that conflicts with their hero worship. Why are all of our political heroes billionaires?
This post deals with the current conservative hero. Just because I provide evidence about one hero, doesn’t mean I support any other candidates. It is my belief that every major political candidate that we are allowed to see is 100% controlled. If they aren’t controlled, then we would not be allowed to see them. The criminocracy controls the media completely, and they decide who and what you are allowed to see. They decide who will win elections, and both candidates belong to them anyway. The candidates will have differences that matter to the people, but they will be the same on issues that are important to the criminocracy. They let you feel like you are free because you can vote, but in reality they control everything and the only thing your vote accomplishes is to make you feel like you have some freedom.
The full story below:
A weekly wrap-up of what is going on geopolitically, below and my picks for Tuesday…
My voting choices are below. Do we have a choice but to vote for Trump? I don’t think we do, but do I have the same respect for him as I did in 2016 and 2020? No. Do I love the GOP? No but I have hope that maybe one day, our elected officials will have the same character as Congressman Thomas Massey of my home state of KY…
I am not voting for Mark Robinson; he is no different from Madison Cawthorn, who is very similar. Both of these unfit candidates don’t pay their bills, don’t show up for work, and have perverted tendencies. I am not voting for the NC governor’s race for those reasons.
I am not voting for Chuck Edwards because he is an inept stooge who wants to turn WNC into a military base and votes along with the RINOS in Congress.
I will not vote for Mark Pless or Ralph Hise because they have done nothing but work to ruin Madison County with their graft goodie handouts to Wechtel and Garrison. Not to mention, I refuse to vote for a guy-( Mark Pless) who looks like he crawls out of a coffin every morning.
I am voting Republican for all other State races and all judges. I am not voting for Wechtel or Garrison. I am voting for Barbara Anne Zimmerman and Judy Major as commissioners.
The final thing I am not voting for on this ballot is this vaguely poorly-written constitutional amendment referendum. States, ” Only a citizen of the US who is 18 years of age & otherwise possessing the qualifications for voting shall be entitled to vote at any election in this state.
Folks, I am not the only one questioning this. Why not say over the age of 18 or 18 and above? This just shows how inept the NCGOP is and why I left the party after 40 active years.
Go vote even if you think your vote does not matter because many have died to give you that right, and if anything else,
you owe them- CH