Only burn your tires at night

We've really turned into a police state, if all we are worried about is burning a tire.

I thought I'd never say this, but I agree with a Public Defender.

Athens New Story here

Sheriff Pat Kelly hired a felon as an "Environmental Officer".

The need for an "environmental officer" is dubious anyway. That's what the OEPA and Mike Cooper at the Athens County Health Department's job is already.

So, 2 issues:

1. Our top law enforcement officer should not be hiring felons, no matter if it's a law enforcement job or not. There are many law abiding folks that don't have felonies that could use a job.
2. It certainly looks like this fellow was impersonating an officer. When will he be charged with that crime? He's wearing a shirt that says "Deputy Jay Barrett". He signs official paperwork "Deputy Jay Barrett". Yet he is not a police officer. Looks like an open and shut case. That is, if someone chooses to enforce the law.
3. Don't we have more important things to worry about than a private citizen burning a tire on his own private property?

Looks like a position that is funded via some grant. We really get ourselves into dumb positions by agreeing to take grant money.

Our Sheriff needs to worry about real crimes in this county, like theft and robbery, rather than someone using a tire to burn brush with.

Athens County Sheriff Office move

A few comments on this Athens News story and this Athens News story:

1. We currently have new property between Canaanville and Athens that is owned by the county. The County Engineer is using part of it. Why not move the Sheriff's office there?
2. Hockingport and Torch are currently the farthest away from our Sheriff's office. Now we want to move our Sheriff's office even further away, to The Plains? Why, when we could move the Sheriff's office to a more central locale that is already owned by the county?
3. I'm disappointed in Mark Sullivan suggesting a temporary sales tax increase. Right now, when people need to keep their money the most.
   
4. Don't ever trust the government when they want to "temporarily" raise the sales tax. If the county is anything like the state government, when it's time for the "temporary" sales tax to end, they'll just cut it in half and tell you that you just got a tax cut.
5. I'm glad Lenny is against a sales tax. However, what does he think issuing a bond does? It's borrowing money and then we have to repay it. The payments with interest take money away from other priorities. Sometimes, the shortages caused by having to repay bonds are excuses to raise taxes. Which, if we were not repaying our bonds, we'd have the money to begin with. Here's an idea, if we see a cost / need coming in the future, why don't we start setting aside money now to pay for this future need. Instead of running to lenders every time we "need" something.
   
6. Larry Payne gets it. Now is not the time to raise taxes. The only thing I'd add is, there is never a good time or reason to raise taxes. the less government we have, the better we are. One way to force less government is not feeding it.