AIKEN’S 175TH ANNIVERSARY - One of this year’s City Council’s goals is to start the planning for the city’s 175th anniversary which is in December, 2010. The celebration would start in the beginning of 2010 and during the first quarter we would concentrate on our history, horses, health, and high society. In the spring, our concentration would shift to the arts, education, and entertainment. During the summer our business technology and innovation would be highlighted and in the fall we would look at the city’s future as we move towards our 200th anniversary. Our grand finale would conclude on December 19, 2010, the 175th anniversary of Aiken.
RAISED MEDIAN AT WALGREENS – One of the primary reasons, I voted against the new Walgreens on Richland Avenue (which was approved by the Council) is my concern about traffic. At the time of the vote, Council was told that South Carolina Department of Transportation would not approve a raised median which meant that vehicles traveling east on Richland might try to turn left into Walgreens or might try to turn left onto Richland after leaving Walgreens. These kinds of turns would occur too close to the intersection of Richland Avenue and University Parkway. We are now told that SCDOT will permit a raised median which means that there will be a right-in, right-out entry and exit.
STATUS OF DOG PARK – Per the recommendation of City Council, Parks, Recreation, and Tourism staff has met several times with the SPCA President, Barbara Nelson, Recreation Committee Chairman Susan Haslup, and veterinarian Dr. Tray Wofford to discuss the future dog park. The SPCA has recently purchased ten acres of land which adjoins Willow Run Business Park and will build their new facility off of Willow Run Road. They intend to break ground in mid 2009 and have designed a dog park for this location. Based on the fact that the dog park can be started this fall, the committee feels this is the best location. The dog park is over two acres in size and divided for small and large dogs. The city will utilize the budgeted $32,000 for the construction of the dog park. The group has also reviewed rules and regulations from other cities and has determined what the policies will be. These will be posted on signs as you enter.
NON-PARTISAN ELECTIONS – Many of you may be aware that the City has received a letter from the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division stating that we can conduct our election on September 9, 2008. This special referendum will be to determine whether the City of Aiken’s future elections will continue as partisan or become non-partisan.
AIRPORT IMPROVEMENTS – The City of Aiken recently received a $178,053 grant from South Carolina Division of Aeronautics. This along with the $931,000 already received from the federal government will leave local funding at $178,053 to complete work on the Instrument Landing System (ILS). This is the last major improvement and follows past funding for the new terminal, runway expansion and overlay, new fencing, lighting, and drainage. Aiken Airport should help attract the kinds of businesses which will create jobs and further the development of the North side area of the City.
MUNICIPAL CUP PRESENTATION – At the Municipal Association of South Carolina Annual Conference held a few weeks ago in Charleston, the City of Aiken received the Municipal Cup Award for innovation in training our Public Safety Officers as First Responders allowing them to administer life saving care. At Monday’s Council Meeting, Mayor Fred Cavanaugh, who recently completed a year as the President of the Municipal Association, will present the Municipal Cup to our Director of Public Safety, Pete Frommer.
YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP – Also at Monday’s meeting, we will recognize the City of Aiken’s 12 & Under All-Star team which recently won the South Carolina State Championship. They now advance to the Cal Ripken Regional Championship in Mathews, NC.
DOWNTOWN PARKING REVISIONS – The Parking Committee is recommending two changes to the Downtown Parking rules. The first is to allow all-day parking in the median on Richland Avenue, between Laurens and Newberry. This should remove some of the parked cars from Newberry Street and open up additional spaces. The second suggestion is to consider requesting the highway department to allow angle parking in the eastbound direction of Park Avenue from Laurens to Chesterfield. This would require changing the road from two lanes to one lane with the angle parking being on the median side only. This would create approximately 20 additional spaces and allow city employees and others to use this area. If you have issues with the downtown parking rules, now is the time to let the Council know your views.
REPLACEMENT OF FOUNTAIN ON NEWBERRY STREET – We will also discuss replacement of the fountain on Newberry Street. Staff will present several options for consideration. If you have ideas, please let me know.
Posted by Dick Dewar
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Thomas Sowell on Obama and McCain
This has been around for a while but came as an email today and is still worthwhile.I do not agree with Dr. Sowell's assessment of John McCain but I certainly agree with his bottom line.We must elect John McCain.
June 05, 2008
Obama and McCain and Iran
By Thomas Sowell
Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober-- if not grim-- assessment of where we are.
Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When election day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.
This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world-- Iran-- is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.
The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran's nuclear bomb will be the terrorists' nuclear bomb-- and they can make 9/11 look like child's play.
All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand-- however outrageous those demands might be-- or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.
All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.
Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us.
They have already telegraphed their punches with their sadistic beheadings of innocent civilians, and with the popularity of videotapes of those beheadings in the Middle East.
They have already telegraphed their intention to dictate to us with such things as Osama bin Laden's threats to target those places in America that did not vote the way he prescribed in the 2004 elections. He could not back up those threats then but he may be able to in a very few years.
The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s-- and our "leaders" and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the "leaders" and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.
We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.
What does this have to do with today's presidential candidates? It has everything to do with them.
One of these candidates will determine what we are going to do to stop Iran from going nuclear-- or whether we are going to do anything other than talk, as Western leaders talked in the 1930s.
There is one big difference between now and the 1930s. Although the West's lack of military preparedness and its political irresolution led to three solid years of devastating losses to Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, nevertheless when all the West's industrial and military forces were finally mobilized, the democracies were able to turn the tide and win decisively.
But you cannot lose a nuclear war for three years and then come back. You cannot even sustain the will to resist for three years when you are first broken down morally by threats and then devastated by nuclear bombs.
Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes President of the United States next January.
At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for some third party candidate to show our displeasure-- at the cost of putting someone in the White House who is not up to the job.
Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.
On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.
Copyright 2008, Creators Syndicate Inc.
June 05, 2008
Obama and McCain and Iran
By Thomas Sowell
Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober-- if not grim-- assessment of where we are.
Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When election day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.
This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world-- Iran-- is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.
The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran's nuclear bomb will be the terrorists' nuclear bomb-- and they can make 9/11 look like child's play.
All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand-- however outrageous those demands might be-- or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.
All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.
Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us.
They have already telegraphed their punches with their sadistic beheadings of innocent civilians, and with the popularity of videotapes of those beheadings in the Middle East.
They have already telegraphed their intention to dictate to us with such things as Osama bin Laden's threats to target those places in America that did not vote the way he prescribed in the 2004 elections. He could not back up those threats then but he may be able to in a very few years.
The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s-- and our "leaders" and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the "leaders" and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.
We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.
What does this have to do with today's presidential candidates? It has everything to do with them.
One of these candidates will determine what we are going to do to stop Iran from going nuclear-- or whether we are going to do anything other than talk, as Western leaders talked in the 1930s.
There is one big difference between now and the 1930s. Although the West's lack of military preparedness and its political irresolution led to three solid years of devastating losses to Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, nevertheless when all the West's industrial and military forces were finally mobilized, the democracies were able to turn the tide and win decisively.
But you cannot lose a nuclear war for three years and then come back. You cannot even sustain the will to resist for three years when you are first broken down morally by threats and then devastated by nuclear bombs.
Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes President of the United States next January.
At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for some third party candidate to show our displeasure-- at the cost of putting someone in the White House who is not up to the job.
Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.
On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.
Copyright 2008, Creators Syndicate Inc.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Drill by Larry Kudlow
Larry Kudlow
Drill, Drill, Drill Is Working
Thursday, August 7, 2008 5:45 PM
By: Larry Kudlow
As Sen. John McCain and the GOP leadership nationalize the drill, drill, drill message, the Republican Party might conceivably be riding a summer political rally. The question of offshore drilling, along with expanded domestic energy production, has suddenly become the biggest political and economic wedge issue of this election. Is there a Republican tsunami in the making?
According to the major polls, McCain has overcome a big deficit to pull even with Barack Obama. Meanwhile, according to a Rasmussen survey, Democratic Party identification has slumped.
While Republicans on the House floor shouted "vote, vote, vote" and "lower gas prices," the Democratic majority turned off the lights, cameras and microphones. Determined Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell offered unanimous-consent requests to vote on lifting the ban on deep-water exploration, and the Democrats objected. When McConnell asked Democrats if they'd overturn the ban at $4.50 a gallon, they replied, "No." When he raised the price to $5, $7 and $10, they cried, "No," "no" and "no."
Copy and paste the following link to MoneyNews.com for the rest of this excellent article by Larry Kudlow:
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/larry_kudlow/kudlow_drill_is_working/2008/08/07/120057.html?s=al&promo_code=6788-1
Drill, Drill, Drill Is Working
Thursday, August 7, 2008 5:45 PM
By: Larry Kudlow
As Sen. John McCain and the GOP leadership nationalize the drill, drill, drill message, the Republican Party might conceivably be riding a summer political rally. The question of offshore drilling, along with expanded domestic energy production, has suddenly become the biggest political and economic wedge issue of this election. Is there a Republican tsunami in the making?
According to the major polls, McCain has overcome a big deficit to pull even with Barack Obama. Meanwhile, according to a Rasmussen survey, Democratic Party identification has slumped.
While Republicans on the House floor shouted "vote, vote, vote" and "lower gas prices," the Democratic majority turned off the lights, cameras and microphones. Determined Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell offered unanimous-consent requests to vote on lifting the ban on deep-water exploration, and the Democrats objected. When McConnell asked Democrats if they'd overturn the ban at $4.50 a gallon, they replied, "No." When he raised the price to $5, $7 and $10, they cried, "No," "no" and "no."
Copy and paste the following link to MoneyNews.com for the rest of this excellent article by Larry Kudlow:
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/larry_kudlow/kudlow_drill_is_working/2008/08/07/120057.html?s=al&promo_code=6788-1
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Senator George David Aiken
I am not from Vermont but I have long admired George David Aiken.The observation he made that appears on the right side of this page has stayed with me for many years.The following comes from a Vermont website.
"When George Aiken died in 1984, he was remembered as a man of integrity and simplicity whose voice of common sense was heard throughout the world. In the U.S. Senate, where he served for 34 years, he fought countless battles for rural America. He was the prime architect of the food stamp program; he was responsible for U.S. participation in the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway and he could take credit for much of the farm legislation on the books today, covering such areas as rural electrification, flood control and crop insurance.
By the time Aiken retired from the Senate in 1975 he had acquired the status of a Vermont institution. In his last re-election bid, in 1968, the Republican reported spending $17.09, mostly for postage to thank people for circulating his nominating petitions, "which I didn't ask them to do," he said.
He had come a long way in nearly half a century of public service. In the 1930s he was the radical outsider whom the chairman of the state Republican Party criticized as "that Communist." Countless battles pitted Aiken against the Republican establishment. Every step of the way, people recognized the battles for what they were: struggles for Vermont. Aiken was the champion of the common man. The old guard knew it and feared him; Vermonters knew it and loved him.
By fighting that fight and winning Aiken did more to shape Vermont in the 20th century than any other single person. Today's Vermont stands as a legacy to Aiken and the fights he fought.
The banks, the railroads, the marble companies and the granite companies lost their monopoly on Vermont government when Aiken became governor. The forgotten farmer, Vermont's silent and suffering majority, was dealt a new hand as Aiken gave rural residents the will and the way to survive. Farmers banded together to market their goods, and formed electric and insurance cooperatives, all of which gave them new clout and new hope. "On farm after farm, whether the owner had been ready to give up, he received renewed hope, faith and income, after he obtained electricity," Aiken recalled decades after the cooperatives he helped create brought power to the rural reaches of the state.
Aiken was so unassuming and so easy-going that it hard to imagine he accomplished all he did. His success stemmed in part from timing: Vermont's farmers were ready to rebel. However, the key to victory was Aiken: his style, his integrity, his cunning and his unwavering belief in the principle of fairness."
"When George Aiken died in 1984, he was remembered as a man of integrity and simplicity whose voice of common sense was heard throughout the world. In the U.S. Senate, where he served for 34 years, he fought countless battles for rural America. He was the prime architect of the food stamp program; he was responsible for U.S. participation in the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway and he could take credit for much of the farm legislation on the books today, covering such areas as rural electrification, flood control and crop insurance.
By the time Aiken retired from the Senate in 1975 he had acquired the status of a Vermont institution. In his last re-election bid, in 1968, the Republican reported spending $17.09, mostly for postage to thank people for circulating his nominating petitions, "which I didn't ask them to do," he said.
He had come a long way in nearly half a century of public service. In the 1930s he was the radical outsider whom the chairman of the state Republican Party criticized as "that Communist." Countless battles pitted Aiken against the Republican establishment. Every step of the way, people recognized the battles for what they were: struggles for Vermont. Aiken was the champion of the common man. The old guard knew it and feared him; Vermonters knew it and loved him.
By fighting that fight and winning Aiken did more to shape Vermont in the 20th century than any other single person. Today's Vermont stands as a legacy to Aiken and the fights he fought.
The banks, the railroads, the marble companies and the granite companies lost their monopoly on Vermont government when Aiken became governor. The forgotten farmer, Vermont's silent and suffering majority, was dealt a new hand as Aiken gave rural residents the will and the way to survive. Farmers banded together to market their goods, and formed electric and insurance cooperatives, all of which gave them new clout and new hope. "On farm after farm, whether the owner had been ready to give up, he received renewed hope, faith and income, after he obtained electricity," Aiken recalled decades after the cooperatives he helped create brought power to the rural reaches of the state.
Aiken was so unassuming and so easy-going that it hard to imagine he accomplished all he did. His success stemmed in part from timing: Vermont's farmers were ready to rebel. However, the key to victory was Aiken: his style, his integrity, his cunning and his unwavering belief in the principle of fairness."
GVW Financial Supporters Remain Secret
As reported in the Aiken Standard today the Lower Savannah Council of Governments has refused to honor Senator Ryberg's freedom of information request for the names of the individuals who contributed to the GVW Incorporation campaign. This is unfortunate. When citizens are asked to vote on such an important issue they should have access to all the facts before they make a decision. Charles Hilton who is Chairman of the GVW incorporation committee expressed his frustration that Senator Ryberg who is "from another area" is criticizing people for having a choice. It should be noted that Mr. Hilton actually lives in another area that will not be incorporated as do three other members of the six person committee. There are many rumors going around concerning the Incorporation issue and a little bit of sunshine would certainly help.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Non-Partisan Elections for Aiken
CITY OF AIKEN REFERENDUM-The City of Aiken referendum to determine whether Aiken’s citizens want to switch to non-partisan elections for City Council members will be held on September 9, 2008. All regular polling places will be open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. I am opposed to the change but voted for the referendum in order to give citizens the option. Please go to the polls and make your wishes known.
The proponent’s arguments for change are:
1. Aiken is one of the few municipalities in South Carolina that still holds partisan elections for city elections.
2. More qualified candidates will run if they do not have to affiliate with a political primary.
3. Party primary filing fees are too high.
4. City business is by its very nature non-partisan.
The opponents’ arguments against change are:
1. The current system works well especially in recent years when more candidates are entering the primaries.
2. Registered citizens of either party can and do vote in primaries.
3. If candidates have not declared their affiliation voters will not know their leanings on important issues affecting all governmental bodies.
The proponent’s arguments for change are:
1. Aiken is one of the few municipalities in South Carolina that still holds partisan elections for city elections.
2. More qualified candidates will run if they do not have to affiliate with a political primary.
3. Party primary filing fees are too high.
4. City business is by its very nature non-partisan.
The opponents’ arguments against change are:
1. The current system works well especially in recent years when more candidates are entering the primaries.
2. Registered citizens of either party can and do vote in primaries.
3. If candidates have not declared their affiliation voters will not know their leanings on important issues affecting all governmental bodies.
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