BCC 2035 Growth plan gets thumbs up, suggest bypassing County Commission for approval and changes

BCC 2035 Growth plan gets thumbs up, suggest bypassing County Commission for approval and changes

Bradley County planning meeting:
February 11, 2014
Tuesday, 6 pm
Bradley County Courthouse

2/12/14
0917

Tuesday evening the Bradley County Planning Commission voted to move forward with the BCC 2035 Growth Plan with one NO vote coming from member Mike Graves.

The wildly unpopular plan that has met much County disapproval over the last 2 years was approved regardless of the people’s voice.

In fact, approximately one year ago at a 3 day Charette the plan per community survey was knocked down with a 73 percent unfavorable ruling. 

The results were so bad that an Independent team using video cameras had to compile the results for public consumption because Mr Dale did not want to publish the terrible results. 

Greg Dale of McBride Dale and Clarion, at the Charette, was quoted as saying in all his years he has never seen one community come together and voice this much opposition over a growth plan.

The evening meeting at the Bradley County Courthouse was a relatively short one lasting nearly an hour. Interestingly enough, upon entering the room, before the meeting, I overheard one unknown person say from the front of the room “aaah, get prepared for a long night!” 

I interpreted that statement to mean a local unelected board is going to have to listen to the people that have to pay the bills and maybe answer a few questions and they will not like it. These responses evoked upon entering the room are small victories and confirm my saying “that where the flak is heaviest, the target is confirmed.” It reinforces the reason we do what we do. I wiped the grin off my face in anticipation of what was to come and listened closely.

Indeed, the night was short as the usual drain of business was gotten out of the way, the commission proceeded toward approval.

A few rezoning questions were answered and a few projects approved. The meeting went off without a hitch and we heard from a few residents from the Hopewell/Georgetown area.

The newly appointed County Planner Bentley Thomas  was conducting the meeting and moving right along until……a statement was made that caused many jaws to drop in the room.

Mr Thomas suggested and I’m
paraphrasing (I didn’t bring my recorder) that it be considered in the future, that this body, the Planning Commission become the ultimate decision maker when it comes to implementation and changes made to the BCC Growth Plan, simply bypassing the County Commissioners all together and leave the decision making up to planning commission. You know, bypass the voting body that represents the people of Bradley County and do what you want. 

A lead balloon would have bounced better than that suggestion did. Discussion and the opinions of audience participants after the meeting suggested this man had probably been prompted by “higher powers” to test the waters and see how this approach would fly. Well it didn’t sit well particularly with the citizens in the room.

I quickly texted a few friends in the room to confirm what I just heard was right and indeed I heard correctly. I fully expect to see the local media leave this very important issue out of any future articles, how be it that the circumvention of the citizens and their elected representatives be reported in a liberal media outlet.

What a revelation? What an epic power grab by elitist? An attempt to bypass the people and the duly elected to turn  all the power over to a dictatorial and perhaps unconstitutional order of procedure. Will be interesting to see how the County Commission reacts to this  one.

Planning member Mike Graves answered Commissioner Tom Cryes request for comments from the commission about objections to the plan. Mr Graves voiced that in it’s current form he could not provide a yes vote to move forward and would vote NO. There was little discussion about the specifics of the  issues and he didn’t go into great detail.

Prior to the final vote, small talk took over the tone of the meeting and a general feeling in the air was that very few, if any, had even read the “new and revised ” plan they were getting ready to approve. It was a Nancy Pelosi type moment, “Let’s read it after we approve it, to see what is in it.” 

A few of the Commissioners were approached after the meeting and told BCN that they had looked over it and read the summary of the document. None questioned could provide detail or specifics of the plan. Also, no copy of the plans were available but Mr Thomas offered to email me a link to the plan.

Local activist, County Commissioner Candidate and Tea Party of SETN Dan Rawls approached the bench and asked a few questions before the approval vote was cast.

“Is this plan tied into the 16 County Regional plan” was the first question lobbied toward Mr Thomas and the Commission. 

Mr Thomas replied and said the BCC 2035 plan was tied to the 16 County  Regional Plan but couldnt specify how or in what capacity. He went on to say it was mentioned but could not recall on what page or exactly what it said. Concerns over duplicating our efforts was expressed and why duplicate and spend money we don’t have. 

Mr Rawls also encouraged the Commission to read both plans and familiarize themselves with it before they went much further into the approval process.

Despite objections and the assumed non reading of the plan, the vote was then cast with one NO vote and the approval to move forward on the plan was approved.

Bradley County School board seeks liquor money from the “city with spirit”

Bradley County School board seeks liquor money from the “city with spirit”

1/22/14
0837 am

The City of Cleveland is disputing that the Bradley County School board has a right to revenue raised from liquor sales in Bradley County Tennessee.

Mayor Tom Rowland and the City of Cleveland are clearly living up to their cities new nickname. 

The nickname was recently submitted by it’s citizens and selected by a panel of bureaucrats. 

The aptly named  “City with Spirit” definitely has the spirits (money) and is living up to it’s moniker with no signs of letting her go.

Approximately 720,000 dollars is sitting in the coffers of Cleveland City from the sale of liquor and Bradley County wants half!

According to the Title 57 statute, the two entities should split the revenue 50/50.

Title 57 states that the revenue collected from the liquor by the drink tax in each municipality (county, city, town, etc) must be split 50/50 between the general fund for that local government and the schools that lie within that municipality. Sounds pretty cut and dry to me.

The City of Cleveland, the “city with the spirits” has implied to the County that this money is not theirs and that if you want it you are gonna have to sue to get it.

So this leads to several conclusions with a set of undesirable outcomes. This will undoubtedly cost the taxpayer dearly depending on the duration and depth of litigation, will diminish expected funding of our schools, and one committee after another will be formed to fix the problem with many hours spent resolving this issue instead of focusing on our more serious issues.

Can’t we all just get along? Cant the “City with the spirit money” let go of the spirits just long enough to help the kids? Huh? 

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2014/1/21/267888/Bradley-Commission-Tables-Resolution.aspx

Common Core indoctrination must be stopped by the parents

Only parents can set their children free from Common Core indoctrination

Common Core being initiated is yet another attack on the minds of our children.

Many progressives have realized that control of our future must begin with the indoctrination of our youth today. This is unacceptable.

Steps taken in the last few months and years are putting our children at great risk.

I have already heard from many of our elected leaders and they are telling me there is nothing that can be done, we have received the money and it’s a sealed deal.

It is exactly this excuse that makes my head spin. I happen to believe that we elected these folks to represent the people and change is possible if you pave the way

You are there to enact change and not accept what the federal government says we should do. The states still have sovereign power. 

It is time we quit accepting defeat especially when it’s for the………children!

While the President Barack Obama-led Socialist regime in Washington calls the tune by keeping the bouncing ball over the concept of Government-Fighting-Patriots, the real battle is the one where it gets to take over your children.

With all eyes trained expectantly on the latest Obama executive order; with the definition of one man, one woman marriage being rewritten by the Supreme Court, progressives in office have been working out the details to come up with a way to capture your children.

Millions of parents with school-age children will never know their children have been captured and led away.  The name of the program set up for the kidnap of all time is so innocent sounding: Common Core.  But in typical Marxist fashion, the name can be morphed into a myriad of others when it becomes expedient to keep parents in the dark.

Patriotic warriors like Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and CFP’s Ileana Johnson are shining light into the darkness.  But if the children of the day are ever to be set free, it will take parents opening the steel gates that now confine them. 

Just as the United Nations Agenda 21 now controls every aspect of adult life, Common Core controls the instruction of the school child.

Finding the true intent of Common Core means getting behind the hype of its mask of innocence.
 
Middlemen advocates in the progressive infrastructure are now trying to palm off the universal standards of Common Core as a “state-led” initiative.

“No they were Gates-led, not state-led, writes Oak Norton at Deseret News.  “The Gates Foundation pumped $20 million into the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State Superintendents Organization to create those standards.

“They did it to fulfill a contractual obligation stemming from Microsoft’s 2004 contract with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to create a global education system. (Italics CFP’s).

“Gates has paid $173 million so far to create and promote Common Core.  The Utah State Office of Education didn’t even know who was on the drafting committee until the standards were written, which happens to be after Utah adopted them.”

Bill and Melinda Gates have three children—and all of yours.

Key to Common Core’s con job is the fallacy that Common Core standards were internationally benchmarked.  They never were.

Lie-laden, too, is the progressive myth that adoption of the K-12 standards is in no way mandatory.

But try getting your children out of Common Core if you happen to live in one of the 45 states where it has already been implemented.

“As part of the 2009 stimulus legislation, the federal government created the so-called Race to the Top (RTT) Fund, $4.35 billion in competitive educational grants.” (Christian Post, Feb. 13, 2013).

Sounds nice but only available to states that adopt Common Core. 

The long trail of the progressives in public education goes all the way from John Dewey, a major representative in progressive education and liberalism, to modern-day activists like Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, now in league with the deep-pocketed UN apostle Bill Gates.

Known as the power behind the Fundamental Transformation of America, Barack Obama had his nose in your children’s school books long before parental suspicion threw light on Common Core.

Back in the mid-90s, Obama invested his experience as an on-the-street community organizer to co-partner with unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

“The Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) was a Chicago public school reform project from 1995 to 2001 that worked with half of Chicago’s public schools and was funded by a $49.2 million, 2-to-1 matching challenge grant over five years from the Annenberg Foundation. The grant was contingent on being matched by $49.2 million in private donations and $49.2 million in public money. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was one of 18 locally designed Annenberg Challenge project sites that received $387 million over five years as part of Walter Annenberg’s gift of $500 million over five years to support public school reform. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge helped create a successor organization, the Chicago Public Education Fund (CPEF), committing $2 million in June 1998 as the first donor to Chicago’s first community foundation for education.

“Barack Obama, elected by the Board of Directors as founding chairman and president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (1995–1999), resigned as chairman and president in September 1999 to run as a candidate in the 2000 Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District of Illinois, and was succeeded by Edward Bottum (1999–2001).” (Wikipedia)

The progressives‘ stranglehold on public education is where it lives, breathes and builds for the future.  Nothing is as vital to them as control of young minds.

Meanwhile, in a world that has gone bottom up, top down and inside out, finding others of like mind is essential to the survival of the American patriot.

If Common Core has its way the day will come when the parents of children indoctrinated by this hideous UN program will face a heartless, impossible to change new enemy: their own children.

Source: http://www.canadafreepress.com
I encourage you to visit this site often and support it by reading it’s many “right on” articles that are extremely relevant to our society today!

Bradley County leaders decision to tax and spend, not sitting well with taxpayers

The Bradley County News room just received an email that I thought would make a very appropriate “Letter to the Editor” type blog to be addressed in this news outlet and shared with our 50,000 plus readers in 106 countries.

The relevance of the letter comes on the heels of a huge regional tax and spend program startup with meetings to be kicked off in the month of March.

The Local Chamber of Commerce and other NGOs will be gambling billions upon billions of your tax dollars on “economic development” for our 3 state, 16 County megaregional “Thrive 2055” growth program.

The enormity of this project will be horrendously expensive and we the taxpayer will get very little benefit and we will see very little oversight by our elected leaders as non governmental organizations run amuck with your hard earned tax dollars.

The biggest message I received from this email was our locally elected representatives are not concerned with reducing our debt, only receiving more grants to spur new spending sprees. That is a fantastic summation of where our leaders are directing us with this regional growth plan.

They all “say or preach” the right thing when the press is around or hog the print to fuss about DC when they are doing the same thing only at the local level and on a smaller scale.

It’s time the citizens and ultimately taxpayers speak up and say enough is enough. We do not like the direction our County is going and we want to preserve our children’s future not gamble it away for the next federal grant that may come our way.

I think it’s high time we take responsibility for our city and county. Act responsible and live within our means for a change, cut our debt instead of mounding it on our children’s backs, robbing them of their own ability to be prosperous.

Letter to the Editor:

Gentlemen,
Let me please begin by recalling some of your quotes that are the basis of this e-mail to you all.
 
Gary Davis quote from TFP article by Paul Leach on Jan. 11 2013:

“These are all very good signs that we are slowly but surely growing our way out of this recession and, at least in Southeast Tennessee, doing our part to generate the revenue we need without raising taxes”
 
Jeff Morelock quote from TFP article by Paul Leach on Dec. 5, 2012:

“Are we going to invest in future industry here and have growth so we don’t have to increase taxes, or are we going to tell industry we’re not interested in you coming here?”
 
J. Adam Lowe from a CDB article 2/22/2013 by David Davis:

He “absolutely despises the conversation about reducing the deficit. I want to eliminate the deficit. I want to reduce the debt”.
He said his parents would pay more in taxes if they knew it would go toward paying foreign debt.
“There is not trust it will go to that”. “Their concern is that it will continue to fund programs…”
 
Each of these articles were about different issues but I found a common thread running through each of them in your quotes. All of you rail against Washington. All of you talk about how federal debt is an issue and all you ascribe to the same basic political and economic philosophies as the solution.
 
We have our own ever increasing debt problem in Bradley County and none of you talk about it (at least publicly as I can tell). It’s always about how bad things are in Washington. As a proportion we are at least as bad as Washington in this county. Is it not hypocrisy on your part to attack Washington when our situation is approaching a mirror image? And unlike Washington, you can’t just print more money until it is as worthless as the the currency became during the days of  the Wiemar Republic just preceding Hitler.
 
Instead of remaining within the bounds of what is expected of your job you take on the task of “economic development” based on the principles of sustainable development, public/private partnerships and now regional growth. We have been at this kind of activity for over 20 years now? How has it worked for us? Have all these PILOT programs, incentives and business “attraction” produced a ballooning budget surplus yet that you have so hoped for? No it hasn’t and it never will. Do you know what else? I cannot find one study, one piece of documentation anywhere that tells us this unholy alliance between big business and bigger government works. I have multiple studies from the right wing (The John Birch Society) all the way to the left wing (The NEA) as well as many other legal and academic studies that show what you are engaging in always fails. I defy you to find me one study that shows the success of government directed economic development. Understand: I want to believe it works. I want to believe that I can turn all of life’s problems over to my government and they will create a “livable community” for me. The evidence does not bare that out.
 
“Whirlpool is still here.” “Look at Volkswagen and Amazon”: is not a study. Sorry. There are always silver shovel ceremonies and short term bubbles of economic growth (makes for great headlines and photo ops) but that bubble always bursts. Then it leads to more economic development which means more debt! You promote these deals, we provide infrastructure and services at no cost to these corporations. They take federal, state and local monies in these programs. The result: either they are long gone by the time it is time for them to begin paying their full tax burden or if they are still here, we are hit up for another PILOT agreement. You are all aware of cities that have gone bankrupt such as Stockton, Cal. The big lie in the media is that it was all about out of control public employee benefits, retirements and the SEIU. I know there is some truth in part. However the real issue in these California cities is their net bonded debt that they could not pay. This debt was created by redevelopment schemes and business attraction programs just like what is being unleashed in our area now. What makes you think you will do better this time? Regionalism? Thrive 2055 will take care of it?  
 
As stated earlier; none of you suggest addressing the spending side of the equation to solve our deficit issues and spending “needs”. All of you agree that your activity will generate growth, that will generate jobs, that will generate revenue. Once again, we have been doing this for a long time, where is the budget surplus? Where is the debt reduction? Why do you still despair over a lack of revenue?

Your quotes are essentially threats to the people: let us spend this money on economic development or we will raise your taxes. Those are the only options you give. Jeff Morelock, this is especially true of your quote. You clearly give no thought to spending reduction. You want to grow the tax base to match the size of this government that continually increases. How are any of you different than Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama? I can’t tell the difference. These are the ones you probably all criticize and complain about “strings attached” as you continually take money in federal grants and sit back and act appalled at their behavior.
 
Let me make it simple and if you disagree, then at least I said my peace to you.
PILOT programs, TIF and other Tax abatements are wrong for four reasons: 
1. People like free stuff. Whether it is an individual or a corporation. I don’t blame them: they would be stupid for not taking what you are offering because if they don’t, their competition will. Once people or corporations start taking free stuff, they will never stop and demand more free stuff. I asked another county commissioner this  question to his face one time: Where does it end? He shook his head and muttered “I don’t know”. How sad of a response; yet he still votes for all this.

2. Corporations that have tax abatements do not pay for the services they consume. If you want to perform an experiment: let all county residents only pay the school portion of their property taxes for 6 months and see how far you get. And you don’t even have to build us a new fire station or a new road! The NEA study takes my position because they know the safeguards written into the law to protect school taxes does not work.

3. As you start using our tax money as an incentive do you not think other municipalities, regional entities, etc… are doing the same against us? I know in business when someone cuts a price, there is always retaliation against the price cutter. Soon a price war ensues. Gary Davis: I know you understand this: That is why you were caught on a YouTube video at the Walden Club asking our local municipalities to “stop competing with each other, that’s the point”. You said: “We don’t need to compete”. In business, that is a clear violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust act; In government, I guess you can create any sort of Cartel you want. You must be really excited about Thrive 2055. This is a whole new layer of unelected, unaccountable government who make decisions on what businesses will go where and what areas grow. However, this didn’t work in ancient Rome where it was pursued by Emporer Constantine in Constantinople. It did not work in the Soviet Union, and it will not work here. Central planning ALWAYS fails and leaves a trail of debt and poverty. Again, I will share multiple studies if you are interested.

4. NGOs like the Chamber of Commerce and quasi-government organizations like the Industrial Development board shop our tax money to people and corporations. I know these things are not your creation but your quotes and actions show you are more than willing participants. Again, these are unelected organizations and individuals that have no accountability to the people of Bradley County but declare themselves as our “representatives”. There were some very smart people who wrote our various state constitutions who outlawed the very activity the IDB engages in. I know full well these industrial development boards were created to get around state constitutional restraints that forbid municipalites from lending their credit to private comapnies or individuals. Again, many of these things came into being as a result of the New Deal and are not your doing, but they are still wrong. You can choose to not go along with this if you want. 
 
In closing,
We are poor. Let’s start acting like it. Stop complaing about Washington when in truth Washington is your life blood. We rely on federal grant money and you know it as well as I do. Its’ not just funding our local government directly from Washington – you can even look at our local “growth”. For example look at Spring Creek which is being built with HUD 221 backed financing. This is not real, organic economic growth and you know it. These developments are built with non-recourse loans with a lower down payment than any mortgage today. This is a formula for disaster. That’s exactly what caused the housing bubble in the first place! However there is always a recourse – The American taxpayer!!

Show Washington how it’s done. You have your own debt problem to deal with.
J. Adam Lowe: If you are serious about debt, I suggest you offer up a proposal to raise property tax rates in the county with all the proceeds to go to a “lock box” for debt reduction. Think about it – you can be the Ross Perot of Bradley County!! Remember he ran on a platform to tax a gallon of gasoline $.50 that went right to debt reduction? I don’t think you will get that far in your political career by pointing attention to our local debt load but it’s worth a try.

The truth of the matter is that all of you don’t want more revenue for debt reduction: you want more revenue for more spending. My proof is the wheel tax proposal that failed. More money for more borrowing.

Gentlemen, please consider going in a new direction. Consider these words and I am happy to reconsider where I am wrong in my conclusions. Can you say the same about yourselves? I have nothing against any of you personally as I have not met many of you. It’s not any of you as a person that drives me to write this: It is the political and economic philosophies you are following that I find objectionable.
 
P.S.
Let’s start by pulling out of that exit 20 land deal that the city and county paid about $4 millon dollars too much for. I would like a copy of the property assessment for that land by the way. can one of you please scan and send your copy to me?
 
Thank you for your attention,
 
Rob Bower 

Bradley County Wheel Tax dead, attention turns to those who voted for it

It was no surprise to tax paying citizens that a 32 dollar tax didnt pass in Bradley County! The citizens of Bradley County have once again said loudly “WE DO NOT WANT NEW TAXES, PERIOD!” We live in a tough economy yet our elected officials continue to attempt to dip into the pockets of the citizens once again to fix their budget woes.

The 76 percent of Bradley Countians that voted “NO” to a new wheel tax sent a resounding and clear message to it’s elected officials that we don’t want you dipping into our pockets to fix your budget problems. Either step up and fix the problem or get out of the way. We have given you two years plus to fix it and not a solution yet!

We the people can no longer sit by as our school board and the county commission mismanage our budget and overspend just because the available line of credit is there to do so. We are millions in the hole and it is time to call these leaders out who have passively allowed our budget to get a pass just because we have called it balanced. How can you call it balanced with nearly 100 million in debt? Where did that money go? And we have no consistent plan to pay down our debt! Eventually, we run out and we go bankrupt.

Our haphazard, half way, non chalant effort to bring down our debt is lacking a definitive plan and it is way over due. In 2 years, we can start concentrating on getting representatives in our districts that will truly represent the people, not a few special interest groups that makes the politicians feel good. The people far outmeasure them and it’s about time our elected leaders listen to their voice.

The Bradley County School Board presented their wants and the Bradley County Commission voted 11-2-1 for the new tax and its time to expose these tax and spend liberals for what they truly are, liberals in disguise. In some circles these folks are called RINOs, Republicans In Name Only, except for the one known Democrat, he is just voting party line. Again, that’s my opinion!

County Commissioners Ed Elkins and Mel Griffith are the only two not supportive of a wheel tax and have gone on record several times as saying so and voted against this wheel tax.. The remaining 12 and the one that was absent for this important vote must be dealt with and shown that if you choose to tax the citizens, the people will once again vote to speak their mind. The next election will place a target on the remaining commission members and voted out of office and replaced with someone that truly cares about the people of this community!

I am already hearing rumblings that since the wheel tax didn’t pass the school board is going to re present their wants and possibly a showdown over a new property tax increase will be in our future. Who will vote for this? We will see. This can also be put to referendum, just depends where our elected officials alliances are.

We have plenty of time to put together a game plan to oust these progressive liberals, so let’s get busy! We need elected officials in office that represent the people not the few who are influenced by those that whisper in their ears to return favors or maintain a certain pseudo status in town. Those days are fading away! Time for true patriots to direct the tide back in favor of the citizens of Bradley County!

http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/17754656/article-County-approves-wheel-tax-change?instance=latest_articles

Conservation Easements are a trap, think twice, then run!

Property grab any way you look at is still a property grab! Bradley County is being inundated by these conservation easements by many Land Trusts in our area.

Think twice, then run in the other direction when someone dangles the bait out in front of you like a carrot! This is bad mojo and is just another of the attempts by our federal government to take your property and your rights to this property!

When you theoretically sign your property over to this land trust company in perpetuity (forever) your property is essentially of no value to anyone except the true owners of your property, the land trust and the federal government if they decide that property is valuable to them and they want it!

You can’t even water your lawn without their ok or plant flowers or ride your jeep around on the property! Your adjoining neighbor could actually violate the terms of your conservation agreement and you would be held liable! You still pay all the bills such as property taxes, upkeep and repair but you are no longer the owner. You have become a serf on your own property and are now going to be there forever for generations to come. You have just passed slavery to every generation in your future. They will tell you it still belongs to you and that you still have all the rights, well that is not completely true!

Yes, you can tweak the contract and say for example, I want to put a flower garden down by the lake and this info will get passed to the powers that be and if you are lucky you may get to do that. But the property is no longer yours. You are now indebted for the rest of your life to the land trust and the federal government. Not and enviable position to be in.

So What Is Left Of Your
Property Rights?

Conservation Easements Are a Trap

Activities on or use of the property not
consistent with the purpose of the easement are
prohibited under a conservation easement
agreement. The following are some examples of
prohibited activities:

.
1. No soil, trash, liquid or solid waste,
hazardous materials, or pollutants defined by
federal or state law shall be dumped or placed
on the property;
.
2. Activities or uses that will be detrimental
to drainage, flood control, water conservation,
erosion control, soil conservation, or fish and
wildlife habitat conservation;
.
3. Activities or uses detrimental to the
structural integrity or physical appearance of
any portions of the property having historical,
archaeological or cultural significance;
.
4. Planting of invasive exotic plants listed by
the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, and the
grantor shall control invasive exotic plants
on the property; (Forever at the owner’s or
their heir’s expense regardless of cause or
situation.)
.
5. Commercial or industrial activity, or
ingress or egress across or upon the property in
conjunction with any commercial or industrial
activity, except as may be required for the
exercise of the grantor’s reserved rights;
.
6. New construction or placing of buildings,
mobile homes, signs, billboards or other
structures on the property;
.
7. Creation of new roads or jeep trails;
.
8. No more intense agricultural use of the
property than currently exists on the property, if
any, and no conversion of non-agricultural areas
to agricultural use;
.
9. Activities that adversely impact threatened
or endangered species;
.
10. Any subdivision of the land.”3
(All of the above-as interpreted by the
easement holder or anyone, or any group who
purchases said easement in the future.)

1. The right to observe, maintain,
photograph, fish, hunt, introduce and stock
native fish or wildlife on the property, to use
the property for non-commercial hiking,
camping, and horseback riding, in compliance
with federal, state and local laws concerning
such activities;
2. The right to conduct prescribed burning on
the property, provided that the grantor obtain
and comply with the appropriate
authorization from the regulatory agency
having jurisdiction over this activity;
3. The right to harvest timber or other forest
products in accordance with an approved
forest management plan;
4. The right to mortgage the property;
(Common sense dictates that a parcel of land
with clouded property rights is worthless.)
5. The right to use, maintain, repair, and
reconstruct, but not relocate or enlarge, all
existing structures, fences, roads, ponds,
drainage ditches and other facilities on the
property.
As you can see, the terms of these
easements are intentionally written in a very
vague way, subject to interpretation by the
easement holder or the courts.
But the responsibility and expense to maintain
the property as the easement holder demands is
very specific and is “forever.”

The land owners and their heirs, become
mere surfs, slaves to their own property and
subject to the wishes of the easement holder-
they are caught in the Conservation Easement
Trap.

Don’t Let This Happen To YOU!

1. http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/wq/lpn/uniform.htm
2. Old Lyme, Connecticut http://www.oldlymect.
gov/Pages/OldLymeCT_BComm/Easement%20Monitoring-OL.pdf
3. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FR149
Presented by the Alliance for Citizens Rights
http://www.alabamapropertyrights.org -www.keepourrights.org

As you read this, hundreds of
well meaning land owners are losing
their homes, their land, and their
children’s inheritance because they
fell for the false promises made to
them by government agencies and
environmental groups. Thousands
more face a similar fate!

Most of these endangered
property owners believed that they
were preserving their land for future
generations. Some believed it was a
way to help their children survive in
the farming or ranching business by
getting badly needed operating cash
in these troubled times.

All loved their land and their
way of life and dreamed of saving
them both from destruction. But now
their land and their dreams are
being brutally taken from them.

They are caught in the
“Conservation Easement
Trap.”

Those who believe that they will be
allowed to continue living on the land or
get a tax write-off or a “tax credit” (which
they can sell to others to generate cash)
are easy targets for this massive, well
planned land grab scheme. This scheme is
designed to steal the rights to your land,
deprive you of its use, and eventually
transfer title to either a government agency
or an environmental group.

As an example: In Colorado right now
hundreds of land owners who used an
easement plan sanctioned by both the
state and Federal governments, are being
threatened with losing everything they own.

You see, once the state of Colorado
realized how much revenue they would
lose because of these land trusts, they
found a way to back out of the deal. When
Colorado backed out, this gave the IRS an
excuse to disallow all tax deductions given
to land owners and also disallow all tax
credits sold on these easements.

The taxes, penalties, and fines
accessed by the IRS amount to more than
the present value of the land. Plus,
individuals who bought “tax credits” from
the land owners are suing to recover their
losses.

With title to the land so clouded, no
individual will buy it, no bank will loan on it,
and it has no economic value to anyone
except the government or the
environmental group who hold the
easement. The IRS will either take the land
or sell it at auction to satisfy the tax debt.

By law, the title holder CANNOT have a
conservation easement on his own land.
Therefore, should the easement holder
also gain title to the land-the easement
automatically goes away!

In the end, the land owners will have lost
everything and the easement holder will
have gained clear, un-encumbered title to
this very valuable property.

The Uniform Conservation Act was created
in 1981 and recommended for use by all states
by the National Conference of Commissioners
on Uniform State Laws.

A conservation easement is an encumbrance sometimes including a transfer of usage rights (easement) — which creates a legally
enforceable land preservation agreement
between a landowner and a government agency
(municipality, county, state, federal) or a
qualified land protection organization (often
called a “land trust”), for the purposes of
conservation. It restricts real estate
development, commercial and industrial uses,
and certain other activities on a property to a
mutually agreed upon level. The property
remains the private property of the landowner.
The decision to place a conservation
easement on a property is strictly a voluntary
one where the easement is sold or donated. The
restrictions of the easement, once set in place,
“run with the land” and are binding on all future
owners of the property (in other words, the
restrictions are perpetual). The restrictions are
spelled out in a legal document that is recorded
in the local land records and the easement
becomes a part of the chain of title for the
property. Thus, a potential buyer of the
property would limit his offer to the value of the
few remaining property rights.

Violations

The following is common policy for
governments (local & state) that enacted the
model Conservation Easement Act:

“An easement violation may be
discovered through a visit or by
casual observation or reported by a
third party. The violation may have
been caused by the property owner, an
adjacent property owner or a third
party trespasser.”

(Consider carefully the last sentence – an
action by a neighbor or a trespasser could be
declared a “violation” with you as the
responsible party.)
Serious violations, the policy concludes,
prohibit construction or subdivision, (dividing
your property i.e. to give a lot to a child)
excavation, and timbering without an approved
forest management plan. All of the forgoing
“require a swift and definitive response.”
Rights Granted to the Grantee (easement
holder) MAY include but is not limited to the
following”
“1.The right to preserve and protect the
conservation values of the property;
2. The right to enter the property at reasonable
times in order to monitor compliance with the
agreement;
3. The right to prevent any activity on or use of
the property that is not consistent with the
purpose or provisions of the easement and to
require the restoration of areas or features of
the property that may be damaged by
inconsistent activity or use at the grantor’s
(owner’s) cost;
4.The right of first refusal to purchase the
property in fee if the grantor proposes to sell
the property to a third party other than a lineal
descendant, and the right to purchase the
property from the estate or trust of the grantor
(void if easement is a charitable donation for no
consideration);
5. The right to be indemnified by grantor for
any and all liability, loss, damage, expense,
judgment or claim arising out of any
negligence, willful action or activity resulting
from the grantor’s use of the property or use of
the property by the grantor’s agents, guests,
lessees, or invitees.”3 (The easement holder has
no liability, it all falls on the property owner.) 

Source of info: Bear Witness Central, visit the blog site, very interesting and informative!

Rio Principles lead way to implementation of SD 21 in U.S.

Much like the Rio Principles their predecessor the Stockholm Principles of 1972 are attempting to define Sustainability in the United States and lead the way to implementation of Agenda 21 or SD 21(Sustainable Development for the 21st Century) as it has been called since planning has started for the RIO SUMMITT!

The United Nations seem to be updating their “game plan” in preparation for the backlash by our own government against Agenda 21 in the United States!

In the US we have many new legislative bills and resolutions being passed quickly through the House and Senate in the last few months! Those bills have also been met with great resistance, most recently from Chattanoogas Mayor Ron Littlefield regarding ousting ICLEI and protecting our property rights. One would question his alliance while battling to save our region.

In Bradley County our Mayors Rowland and Davis signed on with Chattanooga to have ICLEI come into our County and take the reigns while pushing a 3 state, 16 county regional growth plan down our throats without one vote cast for it’s approval and without consent of our governing body, the City or County Commission/Council. Turns out their motivator was to blindly accept federal grant money for our sovereignty! Heck, our County Mayor Davis was even offered and accepted a Chairman post on the Non Governmental Organization (NGO) that will be running the show!

The Southeast Tennessee Economic Development Council under the tutelage of Mrs Beth Jones along with Mr Gary Davis, with the financial backing of the Benwood Foundation (Coca Cola Bottling connection) has been given the dutiful task of implementing Agenda/SD 21 into our area!

HJR 587, proposed by our very own Tennessee State Representative Kevin Brooks is one of many moving forward or awaiting sponsors! The passage recently of HJR 587 sends a strong message to our mayors and locally elected representatives that we will no longer cooperate with ICLEI, EPA, HUD, DOT and the United Nations to push Agenda 21 into our area and change our county and city drastically! No longer can we put our citizens at risk by giving our consent to a foreign entity! Let me remind anyone within ear shod of this message, this is unconstitutional and if the Constitution survives this presidency you will be held accountable for your actions!

The United Nations is having a tough time understanding why Americans are not lapping at their feet begging for more forced environmental regulations! They do not understand what it means to be free and have free choice with complete sovereignty! Nothing in this country will ever be 100 percent implemented because we like our rights, among those property rights and the sovereignty that goes with it!

Our Mayors have turned a blind eye to the needs of it’s citizens in exchange for federal dollars! In today’s economy that is such a sad statement and begs me to ask, “where are your alliances?”

Look at these Rio Principles, if the United Nations has their way they will use these principles to gently change and direct your lives! This is no longer a conspiracy!

The United Nations is coming at us full throttle ahead regardless of what we are doing to try and stop them! This tells me one thing! They are pretty confident they will make this work in the US and the world and they may know something I don’t! I can gaurantee the local minions are getting their marching orders from ICLEI or the UN to move this forward regardless of the repercussions! The move us on and will accelerated after the RIO EARTH SUMMIT IN JUNE! It is up to us to stop it!

The environment is rich and we have a fake president that is doing whatever is within his power to ruin and bring the US to it’s knees! This is no longer a joke or a conspiracy! The United Nations is positioning itself to be a world leader and if we continue to allow them we will be a socialist country within the next 4 years! Gauranteed, and I will add we will probably have our last predidential election as a free nation this upcoming election.

Take these principles and study them, look deeply into their meaning and think why in the world would any entity adopt such principles? To control the governments of the world and position the UNITED NATIONS to be the leader in a New World Order! It’s been in the works for a long time! The timing is right!

Principle 1. The role of humans.

Human beings are at the centre of concern for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.

Principle 2. State sovereignty

States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

Principle 3. The Right to development

The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.

Principle 4. Environmental Protection in the Development Process

In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

Principle 5. Eradication of Poverty

All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world.

Principle 6. Priority for the Least Developed

The special situation and needs of developing countries, particularly the least developed and those most environmentally vulnerable, shall be given special priority. International actions in the field of environment and development should also address the interests and needs of all countries.

Principle 7. State Cooperation to Protect Ecosystem

States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystem. In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command.

Principle 8. Reduction of Unsustainable Patterns of Production and Consumption

To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.

Principle 9. Capacity Building for Sustainable Development

States should cooperate to strengthen endogenous capacity-building for sustainable development by improving scientific understanding through exchanges of scientific and technological knowledge, and by enhancing the development, adaptation, diffusion and transfer of technologies, including new and innovative technologies.

Principle 10. Public participation

Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.

Principle 11. National Environmental Legislation

States shall enact effective environmental legislation. Environmental standards, management objectives and priorities should reflect the environmental and developmental context to which they apply. Standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and of unwarranted economic and social cost to other countries, in particular developing countries.

Principle 12. Supportive and Open International Economic System

States should cooperate to promote a supportive and open international economic system that would lead to economic growth and sustainable development in all countries, to better address the problems of environmental degradation. Trade policy measures for environmental purposes should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade. Unilateral actions to deal with environmental challenges outside the jurisdiction of the importing country should be avoided. Environmental measures addressing transboundary or global environmental problems should, as far as possible, be based on an international consensus.

Principle 13. Compensation for Victims of Pollution and other Environmental Damage

States shall develop national law regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage. States shall also cooperate in an expeditious and more determined manner to develop further international law regarding liability and compensation for adverse effects of environmental damage caused by activities within their jurisdiction or control to areas beyond their jurisdiction.

Principle 14. State Cooperation to Prevent environmental dumping

States should effectively cooperate to discourage or prevent the relocation and transfer to other States of any activities and substances that cause severe environmental degradation or are found to be harmful to human health.

Principle 15. Precautionary principle

In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

Principle 16. Internalization of Environmental Costs

National authorities should endeavour to promote the internalization of environmental costs and the use of economic instruments, taking into account the approach that the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of pollution, with due regard to the public interest and without distorting international trade and investment.

Principle 17. Environmental Impact Assessments

Environmental impact assessment, as a national instrument, shall be undertaken for proposed activities that are likely to have a significant adverse impact on the environment and are subject to a decision of a competent national authority.

Principle 18. Notification of Natural Disaster

States shall immediately notify other States of any natural disasters or other emergencies that are likely to produce sudden harmful effects on the environment of those States. Every effort shall be made by the international community to help States so afflicted.

Principle 19. Prior and Timely Notification

States shall provide prior and timely notification and relevant information to potentially affected States on activities that may have a significant adverse transboundary environmental effect and shall consult with those States at an early stage and in good faith.

Principle 20. Women have a Vital Role

Women have a vital role in environmental management and development. Their full participation is therefore essential to achieve sustainable development.

Principle 21. Youth Mobilization

The creativity, ideals and courage of the youth of the world should be mobilized to forge a global partnership in order to achieve sustainable development and ensure a better future for all.

Principle 22. Indigenous Peoples have a Vital Role

Indigenous people and their communities and other local communities have a vital role in environmental management and development because of their knowledge and traditional practices. States should recognize and duly support their identity, culture and interests and enable their effective participation in the achievement of sustainable development.

Principle 23. People under Oppression

The environment and natural resources of people under oppression, domination and occupation shall be protected.

Principle 24. Warfare

Warfare is inherently destructive of sustainable development. States shall therefore respect international law providing protection for the environment in times of armed conflict and cooperate in its further development, as necessary.

Principle 25. Peace, Development and Environmental Protection

Peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.

Principle 26. Resolution of Environmental Disputes

States shall resolve all their environmental disputes peacefully and by appropriate means in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

Principle 27. Cooperation between State and People

States and people shall cooperate in good faith and in a spirit of partnership in the fulfilment of the principles embodied in this Declaration and in the further development of international law in the field of sustainable development.

Community gives growth plan thumbs down, police called, tyranny reigns in Bradley County!

As I stood watching the endless line of bureaucrats file into the Cleveland Bradley Public Library with the familiar easel, rolled up maps, worn out suits and clip boards listening to the steady beat of size 12 leather hills tapping the library granite corridor floor like a desperate prisoner chiseling his way out of prison! Perhaps this was none of the above and it was simply the melodious thump of a well orchestrated drum line! I couldn’t help but sense a sinister coup was in full operation mode while unknowingly the ill-informed citizen lurks outside, quietly foiling their lonely existence. We were about to see the covert operation unfold right before our eyes. I was there and no one invited me!

I soon realized that the fate of our county was being handed to these bureaucrats of a greater scheme! One thing that was overwhelmingly missing from that long line of mostly self-appointed dignitaries was that there were only a few, if any “regular, Joe Schmo citizens” filing into the room!

They all say “well, I am a citizen too!”, “right?” Of course you are, but a citizen that has either been appointed to a board, a commission, a review panel or a growth panel yielding influence or persuasion about a multi billion dollar project no longer qualifies you as a “regular citizen” that is not connected to the steam roller that is running over the people and taking away their rights! Sorry, but that is how we roll! If you are on one of the many numerous boards or commissions that yield the opinion or vote, your presence in the room no longer qualified you as an unbiased citizen. I saw 3 and I was 1!

If not for a very alert informant, we could have missed this potential consensus party! Had the two other citizens not been informed when we were this would have been one big communal love fest orgy of planners and bureaucrats yielding their proverbial wands to each other for the ultimate compliment and certain approval!

Can you imagine how one-sided this meeting could have gone and been accepted if those darn citizens hadn’t gotten in the way and raised legitimate questions about property rights and our sovereignty? Whew!

I was a little hurt that I didn’t get a formal invite or email notification about this party! But hey, I’ve been left off invitation lists before! There was this one time while in DC Ronald Reagan left me off the guest list, never mind! Wasted trip, another blog! But you get the drift!

I am now the red-haired step child of the local leftist Socialistic, Democratic planning movement! You know, that guy with no date to the prom, sorta shy and not quite cute enough to score the prom queen, ok, lets save that for another blog too! I have been saying that alot lately! Maybe, I am under the spell of the planners in BC! Oh well, save that one………..for another…… Oh you know……..blog!

I guess when you invite a regular concerned citizen, you might get a few questions asked and God forbid that happen when consensus is trying to be obtained! How better to gain consensus than to make sure no citizens were at this perceived public meeting! Silly me! Maybe my expectations were too high! I consider myself a pretty alert and informed kinda guy! I was left out of the plans! I was left out! Wait! Dejavu! Prom all ov er again! You know that potential night with high expectations that is one unanswered proposal from wearing a tux, a bow tie and a silly grin with deteriorating lamb skin rotting away inside his wallet! They disguised this one well! They hid this one well!

They were almost successful pulling this meeting off without one uninvolved citizen that wouldn’t benefit from the implementation of this growth plan!

I strolled in behind the only other two citizens Karen and Dan and we sat among the modest crowd of Bradley County “Elite!” You know those people that only their momma could love! That was a joke! I can hear now ” and that Blogger called me ugly too!”

Meeting the other two citizens in the room was brief and we went to meeting the other “decision makers!” Lets see to look around the room. There is Commissioners Mel, Woods, Caywood, Rominger, Greg Dale and his associates, Mayor of Charleston, the usual group of Chamber of Commerce rulers, planners galore, old, young, past and present and in between, various suits with Clarion clipboards, Emily, chairmen of the planning commission, wives and girlfriends of those people, oh yeah and don’t forget the old grey haired lady on the front row that has the police on speed dial who happens to be on one of the planning commissions! (that’s another story for another blog) but you see the plan!

Notify every one but the people that will be affected by the plan who will ultimately be footing the bill with their hard earned tax dollars were in the room or so it seemed!

0915 approached and the crowd of 40 to 50 fully involved citizens filed to their seats! The intros were short and the slides were popping!

After a brief introduction by Greg Dale of consultants McBride Dale and Clarion he handed it off to his able bodied comrade, Emily!

The very first slide, reportedly, a compilation of the top desires of the different breakout tables from the last meeting on January 30th! You know, those things that concerned citizens would like to hear more about! Property rights, impending plan costs, not implementing the growth plan, new taxes! Those things that concerns the everyday struggling citizen!

Transportation!

Transportation?

Not having to drive your car everywhere, getting a bicycle and riding everywhere! More Greenways! Putting all of our house on a pin head and have your bank, grocery store dry cleaners and everything at the bottom of your high rise so we can cut down on Green house gases, electric outlets for electric car? Does this sound like something brought up by the concerned citizens of Bradley County! Give me a break!!! This is from a planners playbook and a cookie cutter recipe that is shown by our consultants all over the United States! There was no “new slide” made up for just Bradley County! I would bet and I bet there are slide presentations out there with the exact same things on it from the exact same consultant!

Infrastructure?

Sewers?

Quality of life?

The list went on and on! The crowd was complicit and the speaker lulling us into a deep sleep of acceptance, the planners drool was now pasted onto my shirt. The subliminal messages were streaming from the speaker system, the fresh scent of brewing coffee now lingered over the doughnuts in the back of the room. A complete whitewash, a steady current of blah blah blah was now all I could hear and the crowd of dignitaries were proud of the work their consultants had done on compiling the data!

What about property rights? Sleepy heads and partially confused men turned to me as if I had just awakened them! What about our property rights? A huge component was missing on your compiled data? Tables 7, 8 and 9 were all very concerned about property rights and not a single mention of it on your slides? Eminent domain, tearing down buildings, new land use regulations, building codes, cost, new taxes, decreasing urban sprawl, firing the consultants, devising our own plan, promoting the free market. Those are the things we were concerned about and none of them got in the board! Why not?

Mr Dale speaks up and gently nudges the speaker back as she is more or less yelling and very confrontational at this point!

Property rights! We are concerned about property rights. We will be putting together more data with that information in it! I essence, he told me these were manufactured cookie cutter slides and we didn’t put them on a new slide because frankly we only want to show you what we want you to see and take your half million or more fee to blow smoke right up your behinds!

Every slide was presented as if it was the first time the room had heard it! The speaker became more and more agitated ad the presentation went on and the questions kept pouring in!

At one point, Mr Dale, said to the 3 citizens in the room “are you going to let this meeting go on or are you going to keep asking questions?” The immediate response was “uh NO, we have questions!” Commissioner Caywood, much like Commissioner Woods in the last meeting chimed in against the people asking legitimate questions, he pipes in and says and I paraphrase “I came here to learn about this, I have a family, a business and I’m giving of my time to be here so citizens with legit questions, shut the heck up!” he went on to sat “Majority rules in America, in a democracy!” Let me correct you here Mr Caywood, Majority does rule in a democracy, but we are a Republic and every vote counts! We are not yet a colony once again under the rule of kings, close but not yet! Commissioner Woods, was silent this round of tyranny and attempts at squashing our first amendment rights! Somebody must have read her the constitution, you know the part where we can challenge our government to make sure they don’t get too big for their britches! Restraint is a good fit Commissioner, shows maturity!

The spirited banter intensified and just as our founding fathers began to smile, just like clock work, the partially blonde/grey haired old lady, just as the last time steps out into the hallway and fires up her cell phone and calls for police backup because the three unwelcome guests were “gettin rowdy!” The full court press to squelch the voice of the people was on and the “people were bobbing and weaving to counter the proverbial punch of a government run amuck!

Two policemen follow her into the room and she sits beside the familiar man just as before with a Cheshire grin that could have taken on the trophy for her kennel! Success! Escort them out please! They have spoken and we all know commoners don’t dare speak in the presence of royalty! Bow to me young man and your two disobedient and irreverent scribes! Fetch my coat, I must relieve myself of these swine!

The funny thing about calling the police and she soon realized was, they are and have been on the side of the people. This is constitutionally what a sherrif and his deputies are sworn to do

Fortunately, at least most of them are here to serve and protect the peoples rights! They tell me as I sauntered to the back of the room, ” We are not going to arrest anyone that challenges or asks questions of an elected official or appointed board in a public meeting!” They think it is hilarious that our local government wants to squash it’s peoples rights! The Sherrifs in this town have made it no secret that they are here to serve and protect the people, not be a strong arm for the representatives of government or the selfish desires of an old woman! Whatever this woman is trying to do here, this is not Chicago or DC! We are well represented by our law officers and they are watching out for our well being!

Old lady do as you please, it is your right to be tyrannical , but remember in America at least for now, is not against the law! The Constitution still gives me the right to peacefully address my government and hold them accountable for their actions! So lay off the 911 calls for dignity sakes! It makes you look so pretentious and smug!

As I said clearly in the meeting, I respect the uniform and the position, but I do not fear standing up and speaking up in a public meeting!

Public facilities?

Did I go to the same meeting? The meeting I went to was so bombarded with citizen concerns that they hardly had time to discuss any of the plans! Some of my high faluting friends tell me this is what you call a fix! Consensus! Where you stay on course regardless of the questions and concerns, then it looks like everyone is in agreement!

For real? Public facilities, bathrooms and a Tom Rowland Convention Center is the most pressing thing on the table? Really? We are paying these consultants to tell me the same thing they tell every community! In fact when I asked Greg Dale this question he said and again I’m paraphrasing, he said that many communities have the same concerns, thats why all these sound the same from community to community!

We have just called you out on your same old outdated slides and you want me to buy your spill and let you implement a growth plan that will tax me well into the next century and burden my great grand children! Are you kidding me?

The meeting came to a sudden halt and once again we were broken off into 3 groups and discussed bringing everyone into our Urban Growth boundary and decrease sprawl in the rural areas, give everybody a bike and tell them to walk on the greenway under the guidance of the EPA, HUD, UN and the
DOT!

The meeting like the others did not meet consensus or even get close! The meeting from my observation was a failure! We have a plan for growth that is being poorly presented by consultants that are highly overpaid and have a very sinister under belly to them! We have reporters on this issue and we are collaborating some very disturbing trends!

What we have here is big government trying to get bigger! We have our taxes going up as a result! We have a few in government who are overreaching in their powers!

A citizenry that is being bypassed by a group of bureaucrats that feel they know better and are being briskly tugged by the almighty dollar in the form of multiple federal grants!

We are doomed and we have the deck stacked against us! The people’s voice in Bradley County is no longer! The republic and what it stands for is diminishing by the assistane of planners in a very finance rich environment that are using the crutches of government to fulfill their edicts from DC!

It is a sad day for our country! Our representative form of government is the ruling word in our world. The hell with the people! They are just in the way?

Our founding fathers laid out the framework, the people enforce the constitution and government resets it’s own set of rules and yet tyranny prevails!

I’ll save this next thought for another blog!

NFRA condemns A21 and comprehensive plan, Bradley County leaders forge on

The National Federation of Republican Assemblies recently made a statement and offered a supporting resolution regarding Agenda 21, Comprehensive planning and land use regulations stating these plans have no respect for the people’s rights to their own property!

This resolution and statement below did not come from a conservative right wing spokesperson or media outlet! This did not come from Glenn Beck or Alex Jones, it came from the NFRA on the heels of a resolution made by the RNC and a bill proposal by Tennessee State Representatve Kevin Brooks to halt and desist the Agenda 21/ICLEI COmprehensive Planning process.

These resolutions are evidence to me that our elected officials are starting to listen the people they represent and are absorbing the enormity of this sinister and diabolical plan to rid our country of it’s sovereignty, inalienable and property rights!

They have now gone a step further and have taken the initiative to call out the groups that are responsible for implementing these “Comprehensive Plans” using the United Nations Agenda 21 model for “sustainable growth.”

The NGOs, Non Governmental Organizations such as the APA-American Planning Association, the Chamber of Commerce (of which holds the number one Consultative Status with the United Nations) Sierra Club and locally, the Cleveland and Bradley County planning offices, the Industrial Development Board, “the SSD gang” (I warned you of months ago), TACIR and the many other boards not representative of the people of Bradley County!

Our locally elected officials continuing to be complicit with the Comprehensive plan is a failure of our local government to constitutionally operate!

This shameful display of cooperation with a foreign entity to destroy our country borders on illegal and is definitely unconstitutional! This blatant disregard for our sovereignty and our mere survivability should be condemned and these complying officials removed from office by the strength of the ballot box.

As soon as tomorrow our County Planners, Mayors and many elected officials in cooperation with ICLEI, McBride Dale and Clarion are presenting a “Comprehensive Plan” to the public using the United Nations Agenda 21 as a directive tool!

This is no longer our elected officials and planners moving forward without notification and ignorance! This is full cooperation with ICLEI, the UN and NGOs setting out to destroy our country, our property rights and our way of life!

The meeting tomorrow, Monday January 30th, from 7 to 9 pm, at the Five Points museum with planners, elected officials and NGOs will be a direct overt act to circumvent the people of Bradley County and will show direct cooperation with a foreign entity to undermine our constitutional republic.

A reminder to readers our County Commission has not authorized this action and have voted for it not to move forward. County Planner Corey Divel has countered that the County has committed to the funding to assist with implementation. But no vote to go forward! The city council and Mayor Tom Rowland have voted yes on the BCC 2035 Strategic Growth Plan.

It will be interesting to see who will show up at this big “visioning” meeting! Who will remain complicit above all sensible warnings, bill drafts and resolutions? Who will the “useful idiots” be that remain committed to this process?

We can no longer stand back as our elected officials give away our country and our county to an agent of an International entity that does not have our best interest in mind. This direct and deliberate violation of our rights cannot be tolerated and all should be held accountable for their actions.

The NFRA, the RNC and most recently our very own Kevin Brooks have presented resolutions and bills to stop Agenda 21. I believe our leaders are beginning to see the Comprehensive Plan, Agenda 21 process for what it truly is. They are now willing to step up to stop it, we should make sure their resolutions and bill proposals and efforts do not go to waste.

The question still remains why is Bradley County, Tennessee still going forward with this costly and unconstitutional plan? Why are our Mayors and select elected representatives still moving forward when leaders in the nation and many within their own parties are saying halt.

Read below, look closely at it’s content and then tell me we have nothing to worry about! The nation sees it, some of our elected state officials, a few local guys see it, but, why are our planners and mayors still moving forward?

I am afraid it is the lust and lure of the mighty federal tax dollar and the selfish pride of not wanting to admit they were wrong. Then sprinkle into the equation the thought that some may be in deeper than we think and can’t get out even if they wanted. I think now you can begin to see a little more clearly!

NFRA RESOLUTION OPPOSING UNITED NATIONS’ COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE PLANNING
WHEREAS, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies recognizes that the pillars of freedom and liberty are life, liberty and property. As such, we seek to identify those candidates that understand and support these same noble characteristics of our great nation and that it is the combination of these truths that makes America “exceptional”; and
WHEREAS, some little known facts about comprehensive land use planning, known as Agenda 21 include, but are not limited to, the following:
The UN’s Agenda 21 was revealed to the world at the Rio Earth Summit II in 1992;
Agenda 21 was signed into soft law in 1992 and requires only administrative approval and not legislative approval;
The UN’s Agenda 21 was granted administrative approval when President Clinton, through Executive Order, created the first President’s Council on Sustainable Development;
The President’s Council on Sustainable Development created the domestic plan known as “Sustainable America”;
Official non-Government Organizations known as NGOs are certified through the UN based on their compliance and willingness to institute UN created policies like Agenda 21 and the “Wildlands Project”. Examples of NGOs include, but are not limited to: the Sierra Club, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Planning Association, and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability; formally known as the “International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.”;
GATT, NAFTA and other trade agreements also contain components that are derivatives from the economic components of Agenda 21;
Income redistribution as a form of “economic justice” is a tool to be used by Agenda 21;
Agenda 21 is anti-property rights;
The terms “Sustainable Development”, “Smart Growth”, “Comprehensive Land Use Plan”, and “Sustainable Agriculture” are domestic equivalents of Agenda 21; and
The Global Biodiversity Assessment Report identifies private property ownership, single family homes, traditional agriculture, and consumerism as “unsustainable.”; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that we, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), oppose the nondomestic policies of Agenda 21 based on failure to recognize private property rights as one of America’s cornerstones of freedom and liberty; be it further
RESOLVED, that Article one, Section ten of the Constitution prohibits any State or subordinate governmental body from contracting with nondomestic entities such as ICLEI; and be it
RESOLVED, that the NFRA shall not endorse a candidate or elected official including the office of President that refuses to oppose the same.

Annexation: Floating loans, flag lots, expanding UGB, new taxes, just to build an access road in Bradley County

`That government can scarcely be deemed to be free, where the rights of property are left solely dependent upon the will of a legislative body, without any restraint. The fundamental maxims of a free government seem to require; that the rights of personal liberty and private property, should be held sacred.’ _ Justice Story

City Council moving to make the county happy! What in the world is going on in Bradley County! Annex this, don’t annex that! This is already in the Urban Growth Boundary but we will annex it any way! Whirlpool executives “watching the development closely!” Floating short term bonds at 2 to 3 percent interest for 12 to 20 years! Flag lots shooting out from main roads, creating costly and demanding land use regulations on it’s citizens! All of this over an access road to a plant! Good lord people of Bradley County and Cleveland! Can you believe this latest hellabaloo is over a road that gives access to a plant?

One road…..to pay for it we are borrowing our own money, financing it and we have no forseeable way of paying for it! What on Gods green Earth are we going to do when we have a real dilemma like the one coming up at the end of the month when a comprehensive growth plan is put into action! This albatross is going to cost us conservatively 6 to 10 billion and no promises it will stay that low! In fact no one knows what it will cost but one thing I can tell you is not one person has debunked that cost estimate yet!

You are seeing the dilemma we are having with one road thats going to cost the taxpayer about 20 to 30 million, this is one road! We have hundreds to build with a comprehensive plan! This one we are loaning the money out and placed on a payment plan for 12 to 20 years on your dime, this is borrowed money for one road!

Can you imagine the cost load on you the private citizen to pay for this huge comprehensive growth plan? Can you imagine what will happen to our local economy when we keep stacking layers of debt on top of each other? Can you feel the strain on our economy if our city and county mayors and planners have their way!

What we have done is disrupted the open free market! Instead of letting the market take care of itself by demand we have politically selected the businesses we want to survive and have forced an unnatural selection process!

We have decided forcibly who survives and who does not! The end result through this selective narrow process is we have placed the burden of this selection on you the taxpayer instead of letting capitalism run it’s course!

We have squeezed out the “little guy” by charting the course of the free market, which in turn it goes from being free to a being a pawn of local government! This is a disaster waiting to happen, an economy just waiting to hit the iceberg so to speak, much like the Titanic!

Our demise is near! Our Mayors are setting the course! Let their legacy be along with the council and commission they manipulate be the heirs solely responsible for our future collapse! Don’t listen to the premeditated talking points that this is good for our economy! Add it up for your self and you tell me if it is good for the economy! When you do the math, you know this is not better for you! Ask who this is really good for! The answer will not surprise you!

Sure we get a little grant money, guess what happens when the Federal grant money runs out? We are left holding the bag and the bag will be heavy! Proportionately with every new debt that our locally elected representatives place on us the greater the burden on you and your future generations! Our planners and mayors cam not be looking to the future with clear goggles! If they were they would take off in the other direction an run for the hills! The debt load on future citizens will be great and potentially one that will not be able to stand the load! So everytime you hear annexation, comprehensive Growth plan, new roads or schools think about that heavy load they must carry and consider this! Will it be worth it if our future generations cannot afford to live in it!

Council moving to annex property
by By DAVID DAVIS, Managing Editor 5 hrs ago | 285 views | 0  | 1  |  | 
The Cleveland City Council has moved to help break the deadlock between it and the Bradley County Commission over how much each local government will pay for right of way acquisition for road improvements to the new Whirlpool plant on Benton Pike.

The city agreed to annex property along Durkee Road and Benton Pike already in the urban growth boundary in order for the city to share equally with Bradley County.

The Council will also float a short-term bond to pay for the project. The bond could either be variable or fixed rate. Options include a capital outlay note for 12 years for $2 million. It would be at a fixed rate at 2.39 percent. The other two proposals are for variable rate debt for 20 years, and for fixed rate debt set up to be amortized over 20 years, but required to be renewed after five or seven years.

Cleveland City Manager Janice Casteel said she did not recommend the capital outlay note since the county will repay its portion within four years, which would leave the city with the option of doing the same.

The Council is expected to make a decision at its Jan. 23 meeting.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation is funding 100 percent of the construction cost and 50 percent of property acquisition under the State Industrial Access road program. City and county governments must pay the remaining half of right of way acquisition before the state proceeds to widen Benton Pike (between APD 40 and Michigan Avenue Road) to three lanes and to widen the two lanes and shoulders of Durkee Road between Benton Pike and U.S. Highway 64.

Casteel said the annexation plan would affect property along the length of Durkee Road, including flag lots.

According to the financial website Bankrate.com, “Flag lots are so named because of the long, slender strips of land resembling flag poles that extend from the typically rectangular main sections of these lots — or the ‘flags’ — out to the street. Each ‘flag pole’ typically provides just enough frontage for vehicle access and is often shared by several neighbors.”

“[The annexation] actually takes in the boat company as well because it is a flag lot,” Casteel said. “You think of it as being on Highway 64, but technically, it’s a flag lot off of Durkee Road. The reason we’re looking at this so hastily is because if you would like to participate in the funding with Bradley County, then Durkee Road needs to be in the city prior to any commitment to sharing that funding.”

Through annexation, the Council would only pay for areas of the project within the city limits.

Mayor Tom Rowland said Whirlpool corporate officials in Benton Harbor, Mich. are closely watching the progress made toward getting the road built.

“They consider the city and county as the local governmental entity. They don’t look at us as two separate entities,” the mayor said. “They are very concerned and want us to get along with this project.”

The city will provide funds to TDOT in the amount of $1.998 million to purchase additional ROW and pay for additional utility costs. According to TDOT’s estimated costs as of Oct. 4, 2011, subject to the city’s successful annexation of the property and if the County Commission agrees to reimburse the city for its share of the costs, including proportionate fees including accrued interest on the county’s portion. Repayment is to be made within four years from the date funds are transferred to TDOT for the project.

The Bradley County Commission would also be required to amend the Minnis Road sewer agreement for Park View Elementary School. Under the amended agreement made June 24, 2009, the county would forgive the city of any further costs related to that project, which would be about $450,000.

The County Commission will vote on the agreement at a later date.
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