Monday, February 22, 2010

On the same team?

Here's something we are looking into and wondered what the blog-o-sphere thought:

It seems a group of politicians and/or political hopefuls are meeting/have met to discuss how we should not have any more taxes raised and that Todd County should merge with Christian or Logan counties. Some of the ones running for THE SAME office are even in this loose alliance.

Now, while I applaud any group that meets to discuss such important issues I think there are three big factors concerning what they are discussing....

1. THE GEORGE H. BUSH RULE: A big rule of politics is to never promise you won't raise taxes. It will get you unelected faster than even the dirtiest of scandals because people don't forget.

2. THE JAIL LOOMS: Promising to not raise taxes is fine unless the state comes down and makes you raise taxes because you can't make the debt payment on the jail. That could happen. Heck, it almost happened a couple years ago. A big future concern could be if the governor/general assembly decide to cut down the pay-per-prisoner or if the state stops sending new prisoners our way. We would have to raise taxes or shut the jail down to keep from going completely broke!

3. MERGE WILL MEAN HIGHER TAXES: Sure we would get (a little) better services, but let's be honest, where would Christian County send its resources first? Also, the property tax in Todd County is 9.3 percent. It is nearly 15 in Christian and around 12.5 in Logan. Call me crazy, but I don't think they would let us keep our taxes at 9.3 percent.

Hey, at least they are out there talking about it and that is something. Also, we could cross our fingers and hope any payroll taxes from any new industry will make up the difference and the next fiscal court won't have to raise any taxes.

One thing is for sure, the election season is up and running like a freight train.

Posted by Ryan

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why would anyone running for office even suggest merger with another county? Shouldn't they by trying to prove that they are qualified this county at this time.

Todd Co. has great opportunities in the near future, but we need leaders that are willing to stand up and change the status quo. People respect leaders that will tell them the truth.

We, the voters, should stand up and demand leaders with vision and integery, not the status quo.

7:35 PM, February 23, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It would be the best for todd county-ky in the long run to be broken up and for todd county-ky to return back to christian or logan counties in kentucky.It has been talk about by the kentucky legisature to break-up all the kentucky smaller counties and to create larger counties governments in kentucky.Kentucky has to many small counties that need to create a merger and create a larger number larger counties in kentucky and to do away with the large numbers of smaller counties in the state of kentucky.Anyone can see that kentucky has to many counties for this state.We should have more numbers of large counties in kentucky and to just do away with the smaller counties in the state of kentucky.

2:53 AM, February 24, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If there ever has a merger of todd county-ky most likly most of todd county-ky would go back to being parts of logan county-ky and with a smaller parts of todd county-ky going back to christian county-kentucky.

4:40 PM, February 24, 2010  
Blogger Chasity Manica said...

NO!!!

1:59 PM, March 08, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am a deputy at the Todd County Detention Center and I feel there are some things the voters of Todd County deserve the right to know how Mr. Greg Allen runs his facility. There are some things that are unethical that he is doing with the facility. I personally have seen Mr. Allen give a cell phone to an inmate. There are phones in each cell inmates can use to call home and the jail makes a profit from these phones. If Mr. Allen gives inmates cell phones to use, that means less money for our county and more taxes we have to pay. We had a state inmate that Mr. Allen used to buy personal items for. One day, he had her shipped to another facility. We were notified that Mr. Allen had a personal relationship with this inmate and had decided to end it. That is why he had her shipped to another facility. We had another deputy, caught on camera, bring in some illegal tobacco for the inmates and nothing was ever done to this individual. This deputies' son is now trying to run for jailer. He has also bought cell phones for the inmates and has smuggled them into the facility. Mr. Allen knew about this and nothing was ever done. This deputy is still employed at the detention center. Mr. Allen has illegally fired people that worked in the facility and these people have won their cases with the unemployment office. When they went to Mr. Green about this, the only thing that was said was "Mr. Allen is an elected official and nothing can be done."
Mr. Allen had his daughter employed with the detention center. When a captain wrote her up for doing something she shouldn't, that captain got demoted. I thought nepotism within the facility was illegal.
Instead of Mr. Allen letting inmates do work inside the jail, he has hired outside people to do it which cost more. For example, a company was charging $1800.00 to change the air filters. The inmates could have done it for free. At the present time, he is dating a former inmate that lives with him, Jennifer Blake. This inmate's ex-husband is still incarcerated in our facility. He allows her to go in the back with her ex-husband still living there. He is flaunting her in front of him. A deputy was trying to defend himself with pepper spray. Mr. Allen fired him for defending himself. If we aren't supposed to use the spray, then why waste our time and the counties money to train us. He allows his married chief deputy to have affairs with deputies underneath him. At any other facility, he would have been fired on the spot. One day, we had an inmate escape due to the fact that we were so short handed because of the chief deputy and this other deputy decided to play hooky from work. And nothing was ever done.

12:24 PM, March 13, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is a new lawsuit from an ex-inmate, Mary Ford, of the detention center who is suing Greg Allen and his deputies. She claims they beat her up for her asking for her reading glasses. Chief Wood, Major Christmas, Lt. Goff, and Captain Dunning are named in the lawsuits too. He refuses to give us the training we deserve to handle these inmates. Most of us came off of the streets, not knowing how to defend ourselves. Instead of training us, he ships the ones we can not handle. They might just get on his nerves that day and he decides to ship them. That's why we can't keep our state inmates. Once you start shipping them, the state gets tired of sending you them. The ones that they consider being trouble at that jail, they shipped because they are intimidated and afraid of confrontation. Which means less money we are receiving from the state for housing these inmates. We have not paid for the jail yet, which means higher taxes for voting tax payers to make the payment for the mortgage of the jail. We had a knife missing from the kitchen. Not one time have we gone to look for this knife. That is putting all of us in harms way.
I believe Mr. Allen should have never been put into office. I am not understanding why he was voted in. I have heard rumors of him embezzling from the insurance company he was working for, so why on earth did someone elect him to be over a jail. He has put all of our lives in danger. Some of these deputies have worked her since the jail has been opened without getting a raise and the training that they deserve. If a deputy gets hurt in the jail, we have to pay for their disability, doctors bills, and maybe a lawsuit. In return, that means higher taxes. Please, be aware of who you are voting for on May 18.

12:24 PM, March 13, 2010  
Anonymous Amber D. Wood said...

What I find sad is that anyone would defame another’s character on numerous discussions found within this forum. To do such is in fact a crime and prosecutable. Despite hiding behind “anonymous” headings, IP addresses can be traced and this “anonymous” person may in fact have to provide documentation to back up their claims. Also, whoever is posting such lies must live with their own conscience. There are people’s reputations, employment, and families being affected by the slanderous and defamatory statements on this blog. I understand there is an election coming up but there is no need to post things that are simply not true in an effort to make others look bad and I don’t believe anyone would want to win based upon making the other person look bad.

For some reason, my husband and I are showing up quite frequently in such posts. This is puzzling to me because we reside in Logan County and my husband is an employee of the jail, the same as the other men and women he works beside every day. There is nothing to be gained by someone spreading lies about us other than to personally attack our character.

Though I do not believe in airing my private business, I do believe in protecting both of our personal and professional reputations.

My husband and I were not present the day of the escape but neither were the majority of county employees. That is because the day in question was Memorial Day 2009 which was a non-paid holiday for all non-essential personnel. All administrative personnel (including my husband and I) were off for the holiday, there were no court proceedings that day and the jail was fully staffed. We were not “playing hooky” that day as suggested and I refuse to allow my husband or myself to have blame placed upon us for taking a required day off.

My husband is also not being named in any lawsuit. As his wife, I believe that I would be the first to know if he were. I was employed as a deputy when the inmate in question was incarcerated and there is a lot more to this story that what is posted by the “anonymous” poster. I will not elaborate because this is a pending case but I do have faith that our judicial system will see the truth and judge accordingly.

If this “anonymous” poster were in fact a current employee of the jail, they would certainly know that the jail is running at the highest number of state inmates it ever has-more than many of our surrounding counties. Simply put, this means more revenue for the county from the jail than ever before. They would also know that the jail has received superb reports from the Dept. of Corrections during their past inspections. This is no easy feat and is reserved for only those Correctional facilities that are deemed the best of the best. These are facts, documented facts which can be supported.

I ask that for those reading this blog to please see that someone can slant things in a way that supports their views and hide behind an “anonymous” name. By stating they are “anonymous”, they are not required to provide proof of anything they say. They can paint whatever picture they want the readers to I see.

I would also like to ask whoever is choosing to write such horrendous things about my family and the hardworking people of the jail to either please leave your name and back up your opinion with solid facts or to please stop writing lies. The latter would be the most preferred.

4:45 PM, March 21, 2010  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would find it more interesting for a discussion to begin about merging the county and all local governments. The county has no police force, yet Guthrie has four, Elkton seven, and Trenton one. Combine those forces along and the county instantly has 12 police officers.

8:02 PM, March 31, 2010  

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