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Willie,
I read in your paper about the land near welcome center on I-85 that some people wanted to maybe have a golf course and cabins and walking trails to draw tourists to Oconee County. What age are they trying to attract? Seems like the time and money would be better spent in something that would attract children of all ages and their parents or even grandparents and would create more jobs, too. Maybe something like a theme park and have skateboarding and a skate park. We already have quite a few golf courses in Oconee County and that is more for men and retirees, not children. Two golf courses are already nearby. Create something the children want to see and visit and the parents will come. Children are constantly complaining about nothing to do and nothing that interests them nearby. I reckon it might even interest Willie. I’m sure he is still a child at heart. I would love to see something for children closer than Atlanta or Charlotte.
Willie says:
A theme or water park has been rumored, but not recently. Developers will invest in whatever they feel will bring them the best return on their money, and they will study the market to figure out what that will be.
Willie,
I want to know why Oconee County is the only county that allows smoking on the state side. Greenville, Anderson and Pickens counties and the state prisons do not allow smoking and they don’t have color TVs. They don’t have all this cable and stuff. Has Oconee jail become a motel for people to live in? I want to know why this is going on.
Willie says:
Prisoner envy? That’s a new one! Prisoners that have been sentenced are allowed to smoke during their time outdoors at the Oconee Detention Center; those who have not yet been sentenced are not allowed to smoke. As for cable TV, there are 2 or 3 TVs per dorm allowed for prisoners who have been sentenced; they bring their own. Prisoners who have not been sentenced do not have TVs. There is a TV in the visitation lobby, which is used mostly be female prisoners during their recreation time. State prisoners are sometimes given a few more privileges because they work in the kitchen, food service, laundry or in building maintenance.
Willie,
All the screaming about zoning and billboards makes me wonder what’s up with those hideous signs on Hwy. 28, by SweeTreats, announcing Branch Road East and West? It’s also where the speed limit changes from 55 to 45.
Willie says:
They are hideous, to be sure, but the signs pointing to East and West Branch Road have nothing to do with SweeTreats or the speed limit.
Willie,
Regarding the recent incident involving Chief Sheriff, all I can say is, "Thank goodness we still have the rule of law in this country or some of the good people of this town would have lynched Chief Sheriff by now." Give me a break. Those miscreants who have been so vocal in their criticism obviously do not know the facts or have chosen to ignore them. The Chief, unfortunately, was experiencing some kind of medical episode that prompted this unfortunate incident and we as responsible citizens need to reserve our judgment and opinion until such time as all of the facts are known. Personally, having known Stanley Sheriff for over 20 years as a friend and fellow law enforcement officer, I am inclined to accept his explanation and prepared to move on and let him get back to doing his job as soon as he is able; which, by all accounts, has been outstanding.
Willie says:
Chief Sheriff has a court date of May 8 for his alleged shoplifting incident in Toccoa. We can hope that the truth will come out, a decision will be made, and life will move on for all concerned following that hearing.
And …
Willie,
Are the citizens of Seneca supposed to believe the “I don’t remember a thing” defense being told by Chief of Police Stanley Sheriff? Talk around town shows that nobody is buying what he is selling!
I think that anyone who gets arrested for shoplifting from this day on by the Seneca Police Department should have a free ride to the hospital to be checked out for memory problems and wait on the test results before taking them to jail! He didn’t seem to have a problem driving over to Toccoa Wal-Mart and asking about returning a camera. The police said he drove back to Seneca. I smell a cover up in town. What does it say about Seneca with a police chief that goes in and takes what he thinks is rightly his without paying for it? I bet Seneca is the talk of the nation now! The person who said it will be swept under the rug and he will go right on doing what he is doing as police chief until something else happens and then it will be blamed on the doctors who said he could return to his job is exactly right. It will be swept under the rug. Watch and see.
Willie says:
Who are you to judge before the facts are presented? While no one was happy to read that our local police chief was charged with shoplifting, we have to wait until all the facts come out before we understand why it may have happened, and what the judge decides. There is a legal system, and the city is waiting for that legal process to occur before any action is taken. That’s the way the system works, and that’s the way you would want it to work if you were in his shoes, so before you judge, get the full story.
Willie,
I’d like to say how wonderful the new West-Oak Middle School is, but there are some problems that need to be addressed. Afternoon car-rider pickups can be a nightmare. Parents have complained to the school administrators, but nothing is done. The parents have found out we actually do better without a teacher directing traffic! It’s clear they don’t want to be there and they have no idea how to direct traffic. So if the resource officer (who is great) cannot do it, just leave us alone.
It’s a shame that the residents on Simpson Street, next to the new WOMS have had to put posts, stakes, ropes, etc. along their yards to keep parents from parking in the yards in the afternoons! These parents park in empty lots (without permission) because they don’t want to have to wait in line to pick up the kids. The children are walking from the school to the side streets where the parents are waiting. Then the parents seem to be offended when the traffic on the Westminster Hwy. doesn’t stop to let them onto the road. This is dangerous for everyone! I hope someone can put a stop to this.
Willie says:
New barricades will replace the old cones that have been used. Flyers will be passed out in the pick up lines and sent home in backpacks to let parents know of these changes and to remind parents of the safety issues involved. If you have any further ideas to share, Mr. Frady would welcome the opportunity to talk with you at (864) 886-4470.
Willie,
Pendleton Station’s developer has supposedly submitted new plans to Pendleton changing interiors of some buildings. Prohibited fifth and sixth bedrooms are now recreation and great rooms? But a bedroom by another name is still a bedroom and overcrowding is a concern. The mayor’s lips are zipped. Can Willie help?
Willie says:
Your best approach would be to attend the town’s planning commission meetings and hear for yourself what’s going on with the ill-fated Pendleton Station development. It’s complicated and will no doubt take a while longer to sort out, but they are getting closer to resolving the situation.
Willie,
I had to chuckle when I read the headline, “Five suspects in mailbox vandalism dubbed good kids.” Come on, Sergeant Scott Arnold, good kids don’t vandalize their neighbor’s properties. Furthermore, Sergeant, you said, “They just made a mistake.” A mistake is when you put a letter in the mailbox and forget to stamp it, not smashing your neighbor’s mailbox. When are we going to quit making excuses for poor behavior? Had I done that when I was their age, my dad would have spanked me with his belt and thrown me in jail himself.
Willie says:
Being held accountable for your own actions is something that all children should learn, but overprotective parents do their children a real disservice when they make excuses for them. These kids may very well have been good kids, but they made a really bad choice, and now they will pay the consequences for that choice. One wrongdoing doesn’t make a person bad forever.
Willie,
I think Oconee County needs to start the zoning. There’s too much stuff that needs to be cleaned up like the old trailers on Hwy. 59. It’s just an eyesore. It’s a fire hazard and needs to be cleaned up.
Willie says:
Zoning and clean-up are two different things, but both need to be resolved.
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Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Eagle Media. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification.The afternoon traffic picking up kids at schools seems to be a nightmare, according to comments like the one above. Since I don't have kids in school, and don't know the situation first-hand, I have questions, not solutions on this one. Nearly all of my childhood years, I rode a bus to school. It was a great time to visit with friends and enjoy the ride. My parents didn't have to take time from their jobs. The bus dropped me off at the same house my parents would have. Buses were safe, drivers were careful, and I assume they still are. So, my question is why so many parents drive their kids to and from school, if the bus would do it for them, and the kids would most likely have as much fun on the bus as I did as a kid. I would think, at today's $3.39 gas prices, and with a tight economy everywhere, parents would jump at the chance to have safe, efficient, county-provided transportation to and from school (assuming it is). I'm just asking. Why not take the bus if the route goes to the kids' front yard?
I, too, wonder about the large signs for East & West Halfway Branch Rds. It looks like something that should be on an interstate, but I'm glad they lowered the speed limit. Now I just wish everyone would comply with it. There have been serveral wrecks at the intersection and almost every day I hear horns blowing & sliding tires and then the big thud, sometimes, when they can't get slowed up enough to miss the car pulling out, crossing, or trying to turn off Hwy 28. People please SLOW down, follow speed limits, use turn signals along with a little common sense and courtesy.
To the person who is concerned about the junk in peoples yards and old mobile homes that are just a eyesore.Why dont you volunteer your help with these projects if they are bothering you that bad....
Or.............people pulling out of Branch Rds should not pull out in front of traffic! I've never seen an accident there and rarely see anyone pulling out onto 28, guess I don't get out enough.
As far as parents taking their kids to school, buses are not safe like they "used" to be, parents fear for their kids safety. Things are not as they "used" to be, there are many kids who are rotten violent little animals except "your" kid of course.
If you're right, Sparrow, and too many of those (in your words) "rotton violent little animals" are riding buses, parents need to put whatever pressure is necessary on the authorities to solve the problem. Period!! If that means expelling the trouble makers, so be it. If riding the bus today is that bad, more parents need to be at least as concerned about eliminating the behavior problems as they are about the amount of newspaper coverage their kids' middle school team gets, or complaining about coaches and referees in ball games. Priorities, parents??? Well???
"more parents need to be at least as concerned about eliminating the behavior problems as they are about the amount of newspaper coverage their kids' middle school team gets, or complaining about coaches and referees in ball games. Priorities, parents??? Well???"
Therein lies the problem.
It's easier to just remove yourself from the problem than try to solve it, that way you don't have to involve yourself in anything outside of your own blissful, self centered little world.
Absolutely right, Sparrow! If bus drivers need to be required to turn in the names of trouble makers, and administrators are held accountable for action or inaction in dealing with them, heads should roll if the problem isn't corrected. Parents need to demand that, be involved in the solution, and not raise the white flag as they surrender the buses to the unruly. If that meens visits to school administrators, whatever, it can be solved. Of course, for many parents, those meetings or PTA meetings would have to be scheduled for nights when "American Idol" and "Survivor" aren't on, and there aren't any NBA playoff games on television. As I said above, priorities.
"So, my question is why so many parents drive their kids to and from school"
Some families have two working parents. The bus won't drop my children off where I work. I have to leave work, pick them up, then bring them back to work for a couple hours till work ends. If the bus would drop them off at work, that would be great. Until then, I must pick them up.
It would probably be nearly impossible for a person to be both a bus driver and observer/disciplinarian/enforcer or whatever on a packed school bus. If you're busy watching the kids, you aren't paying attention to your driving, and if you're paying attention to your driving, you can't devote a lot of attention to the kids.
Unfortunately, the school district's resources are limited, so there's no chance of paid personnel being placed on buses to keep order. And I defy you to find volunteers to do that job - unless the district guaranteed they'd be protected and defended when the parents protest that their kids weren't doing anything wrong!
"rotten violent little animals"? WWJS?
(What would Jesus say?)
Good behavior starts at home and has nothing to do with money but somehow money always seems to become the issue.
The school district has a legal responsibility to make sure our children are safe from the time they leave for school on the bus until the time they are dropped off at home by the bus regardless of money.
You must be related to the cop that thinks the kids who destroyed mailboxes are good kids. The kids who shoot their classmates are "good" kids too. If I had referred to those kids or teenage gang members as "rotten violent little animals" would you have commented on it?
I look back and think. All this crap that people wants to find someone or something to blame everything on needs to stop! Just simply blame the person who did it! STOP blaming the family, the parents, the environment, the friends, a sickness, drugs, society whatever. That is what is WRONG with this world today. Nobody knows how to stand up on their on two feet and say" Yes, I did it. I screwed up. I had bad judgement. I was stupid." Whatever, just have the #@#&* to stand up and admit it, accept the responsibility for what he/she may have done wrong.
I was raised by good church-going parents who took me and went to church. I made good grades in school. I graduated college, married, had two beautiful children. La-te-da the story goes. But also, I screwed up, got involved with drugs. I ended up in federal prison for a few months, enough to screw up my life and my family's life. Yes, I'm going to tell you I'm a good person,too. Ask anyone who knows me from here to the five neighboring states. I admitted what I did and paid for it willingly.
Sparrow,I do agree with "rotten violent little animals". It may have just come out alittle strong. But, you had the right idea. Some of these kids have had little or no discipline. Some parents are to blame. Then there are those kids that no matter what they will buck the system and refuse authority.
I have not seen any cones at W-O Middle school! Whoever Mr. Frady is, he might want to visit the school sometime and see the mess for himself.
As for riding the bus, the last time gas prices made a large jump in price, the school district refused to take any new bus riders, since it wasn't in their budget.
The problem isn't with the parents who are picking up their children the correct way, but the ones who aren't! They are dangerous! One drove over the new sidewalk onto the road in front of me last week. Thankfully I have good brakes.
hey floridaboy, sounds to me your kids have to have 24 7 supervision, why's that they spoiled brats or just weren't raised right, both my parents worked and I rode the bus to school every day until I got my drivers license in high school, my children did the same
FYI-Mr. Frady is at JMB. He is not involved in the westminster school. Wrong person.
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