MINUTES OF CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS

15 MARCH 2011

 

 

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC

Meeting called to order at 6:05 PM by President BOB CAVANAUGH

Pledge of Allegiance led by LUKE KUKULINSKE

Invocation by DEBBIE RUCKER

No. in attendance – 29

 

Short discussion on the Japanese tragedy, earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown problems.

 

WAYNE WILLIS brought us up to date on the status of the board game he invented. He has engaged Matt McCastle (?), to develop and manufacture the software. He plans that by the last of June to have available a Power Point Presentation to show to the TEA Party attendees. We have told him we will place it in our web site sales catalog (and possibly other TEA Party web sites) and will, as agreed upon, receive 10% of the profits of items sold.

 

WAYNE apologized for missing the last couple of meetings. He has been in Florida, attending a Cooperative Power Company meeting where they discussed opposition to Senate Bill 3 (a bill forcing power companies to buy credits from wind power conglomerates. He said wind mills in the Pamlico would increase cost by 25 cents per kilowatt and with financial conditions as they are now, that is a big impact on the people.

 

KEN LANG, a nuclear chemist, said a lot of people think wind power is the way to go, while others think nuclear. A lot are anti drilling. However, after the problem in Japan many are very afraid of nuclear power now. He feels there is a lot of misinformation from the associated press (including Fox) being disseminated that is misleading the public. As for Japan, we will not actually know what the outcome will be there for many years to come. Nuclear power plants are built to withstand wind (like hurricanes), not earthquake tsunamis. California has had many small earthquakes but it has been a couple of hundred years since a truly big one. They are definitely due one.

 

KEN asked if everyone had read his letter to the editor last Friday about the school and budgets. He said Tabby Nance had called him and discussed the situation and what he thought needed to be done to bring our grade up from the “D” reported by the John Locke Society. She called back today and told him she had talked with Dan(?) at the Society and our system is not acceptable for NC Transparency (school grades, county statistics, lack of info availability on funding, and etc.) By this afternoon the Board of Education had provided enough information for her to get our rating raised to a B+ but she was still working on getting an A. He recommended that we all check out nctransparency.com (I hope I got this right, if not please forgive me) and keep up with how we are being rated. The state has pushed 8 million dollars down to the county to absorb, which the county is trying to get stopped. Insurance of 1 ½ million dollars on each school bus is mandated by the state but no insurance company has been found to take the responsibility of this covering. Comment was made that if the school buses belong to the state and are insured by them, then, why are we having to pay even more in insurance. No one could answer.

 

BOB introduced our evening’s guest speaker – LOCKWOOD PHILLIPS who had been invited to speak to us by KEN LANG.

 

Lockwood said he is disturbed by the media bias against the TEA parties. They have maligned the party ever since it’s beginning. When you watch the main stream media and what has been going on in Wisconsin, with the rowdy crowds and their destruction of their capital building; where are all the reporters and their disapproval of this disgusting display of violence? They are taking up for them and saying they are in the right which is in complete opposition to the comments made about the TEA party. When the TEA parties held their rally in Washington, we left the city cleaner than when we arrived. It did not take thousands to repair any damage from our being there. You did not hear any fowl language, inappropriate action, or see any violence. The TEA Parties are to be congratulated for being a better type of people; while still just as impassioned and intense.

 

He said he had talked to Ty Ruddy, from Jacksonville, who is greatly disturbed about the increased sales tax which has just layered another tax on top of the already tax base. While we have been hoping for change, it appears things are still like ice cream…..be it chocolate or strawberry, it is still ice cream…. or, be it Democrats or Republicans, it is still politics.

 

As Pogo, from the comics, used to say “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us!” We have done a very poor job educating the public. An example is the Coastal Resources on terminal groins. All sorts of restrictions are being thrown in the way. In discussing the cost of the groins, we find that many are taking the amount of money appropriated for dredging the port and referring to it as maintenance for the groins. It is being said that it will cost over 5 million dollars a year to maintain the groins. HOWARD GARNER said he is a native of Carteret County and remembers when the groins (or jetties as they were called then) were built at Fort Macon and he does not remember ever seeing or hearing of any maintenance being conducted on them. Others are afraid of the groins; saying about 240 homes are in danger. They believe the groins will cause the beaches to wash away faster and they say they have to have the spoils from dredging the port to replenish the beaches. Lockwood said he and probably one other person knows where the jetties are on Shackleford Banks. They have collected so much sand they are completely covered. He feels the same situation will occur on Atlantic Beach rebuilding the island naturally (with the jetties) and not having to pay to have sand pumped onto the beaches. While using our tax dollars to pay to replenish the beaches, the owners of those multi-million dollar homes begin to believe the beaches belong to them. We need to educate the politicians and the public that all those people walking on the beach are not home owners. The beaches belong to the public. They are ours. CLAYTON GILLIKIN said these beach front owners remind him of an old Indian who grew up down east. Every time a storm came up, he would say ‘dumb white people’. When asked why he would say such a thing, he said ‘how many teepees have you seen floating on the ocean’.

 

Lockwood said when the Town Creek Marina in Beaufort wanted to dredge out the channel (which had been kept dredged for years with the spoils being placed on a nearby spoils bank) they were told by the Corps of Engineers that they could not use that bank (which had been established by the Corps). All of a sudden it was no longer a spoils bank, but now was wet lands. They said they had checked and found sand, sea oats, and other type marsh land items, buried beneath the dumped spoils, so they refused to let the marina use the spoils bank. We have to stop this invasion in our rights. We need to tell the politicians they need to stop running for office, do what they were elected to do, and let them know how these things affect us the voters. We are tired of their lies. They are so used to just throwing money at situations that they have lost touch with reality.

 

Gas tax is supposed to be used just for the roads, but our politicians have been borrowing from the fund and not paying it back. Now we don’t have the money to pay the North Carolina tax payers who are due a refund; and they want to borrow funds from other accounts, to make these payments, just as they have raided the transportation account. If so, then next thing we know that/those account(s) will be in trouble due to funds not being repaid. Such borrowing has put us into the situation of the state pushing costs down to the counties. The counties are broke also. We need to inform the county commissioners to go back to Gov. Perdue and let her know some of these debts belong to the state and are their responsibilities; and the counties are not going to be pushed around any more.

 

In 2009 each person in Morehead City (including children) owed $2,185.00.

Charlotte/Mecklenburg residents owed approximately $2,325.00 to $2,330. That is only approximately $200.00 more than Morehead City. Stop and think of the difference in number of residents in each town. However, on the other hand, according to HOWARD, those living outside the town of Newport are being forced to pay more for fire protection than those in town. We, who live in the country, are having to foot the bill for those living in town.

 

Towns are net providers (not getting back as much as giving). We are going to have to become fee based communities. In order to keep the beaches clean, provide life guards, etc., we will have to charge fees for their use. Possibly the locals will be accessed to buy a sticker for maybe $1.00, while those from upstate, when they vacation here, might pay $10.00 for a pass. We can no longer sit with our hands out for the government to take care of us. We have to take care of our own.

 

It is our responsibility to take care of the issues. We have handed the keys to our education over to the Federal Government. A lot of our colleges are producing the next generation of widget manufacturers. They are not teaching critical thinking. Examples: our space program came from German citizens. They found they could come here and be rewarded for their ideas. Have we forgotten that this is what helps make America great? If we study the new innovations developed, we will find most of them were designed by foreigners. Technology is a great example.

 

We need less government not more. If we don’t have the money, then why are we wasting our time. We are just creating more entitlements. We need fiscal accountability. We are the voice of the silent majority. Don’t back down. Continue your letters to the editor; make those phone calls to your representatives; challenge them; use the League of Municipalities to your advantage. We cannot trust our politicians so we will have to make sure they uphold their promises.

 

HOWARD said we had learned at the meeting we attended last Friday night in Greenville, (speakers Joe and Henri McCleese) on becoming a lobbyist. (No it is not a dirty word.)

Joe said making a big show on Monday with a large crowd rallying for a certain cause, will attract attention on Monday, but by Tuesday, no one even remembers. However, if we have a couple of representative there every day, they soon recognize our name tags and are daily made aware that we are watching them.

 

Lockwood said we have to start at the local level (towns, county). Here in Carteret it averages out to about 6,000 residents per mayor. We need to get their attention. Tell them ‘if you want my money, you have to show me what you are going to do with it’. If we don’t do something we are headed for a train wreck. We have to hold them accountable.

 

TOM AUSTIN asked Lockwood if we could get the County Commissioners’ meeting agenda published in the paper earlier. We do not have time to familiarize ourselves with what is to take place in the short amount of time now given. Lockwood agreed it should be published earlier and would look into it and see if we can get it in the paper earlier.

 

Lockwood left us with the admonishment ‘Now is our opportunity to get things done. Don’t waste it.’

 

Items scheduled for tonight’s meeting that did not get covered, will be taken up at our next meeting on March 21, 2011.

 

Meeting adjourned.

 

Minutes submitted by Secretary PEGGY GARNER.