Thought I would wrap up a couple items that I have been meaning to get to—in particular the council’s management of the Fire District. They have recently crowed about their improved fire rating (OMG, I am so ….happy….sniff…touching). If Leland would not have gone on a blitzkrieg of land taking, they would not have had to bolster the fire department of course.
In the Fire Manual, it states that fire districts must be no more than 6 miles apart—mind you this is for the district inside a town. There WAS a time when Leland was out of compliance with all this—before station 51 was built/made fully operational.
The G.S. states that no fire station can be more than 10 miles apart. See that here.
Oh it is not necessarily their dumb management per se, but their dumb ambitions.
What am I talking about? Let’s go to the record.
On 18 March 2024, there was a long conversation about, what else, fire trucks. The amount of time these people spend talking about fire trucks is rather odd. At any rate, if you look at the minutes (posted below👇) you will find that Sluggo really loves her some Chinese CCP battery powered vehicles:
Councilmember Carter said one resident mentioned electric vehicles. Mr. Hollis replied that we can discuss this under Old and New Business.
You will note right after that soi boi McHugh asks about a fire fee versus a tax. My prediction is that the town council will lust for a tax (on us of course) so they can get more of our property in their hands. Beware of this. When McHugh talks about educating the public, he means, lie to the public so we can convince them to give us more money.
Notice, however, Sluggo is already preparing the innocent voters for a complete change over to a technology that is useless. Hollis smacked her down (likely not intentionally):
Councilmember Carter said that Council has received emails about the Town looking into electric vehicles for its fleet. I am personally interested, but professionally I am aware that the upfront costs are a huge investment. Mr. Hollis replied that electric vehicle technology is still in its early stages. The cost for a fire engine is $1.2 million and the cost for an electric fire engine is approximately $2 million. The batteries must be changed every five years and they cost approximately $250 thousand or more. The charging stations would also be an investment in the electrical infrastructure. Electric vehicles are not the vehicle of choice during emergency situations. For example, electric vehicles cannot perform rescue missions by driving through flood waters during a hurricane.
I can hardly contain my laughter. Sluggo wants electric vehicles for the town fleet, including our fire trucks. But everyone knows that electric vehicles cannot operate in water. Moron does not even capture the level of dumb Sluggo uncontrollably displays.
The intellectually challenged follows to McHugh:
Councilmember McHugh said maybe the Town can participate by testing vehicles. Mr. Hollis replied if the Town was going to look at electric vehicles staff would recommend use of EV for fleet vehicles but not off-road vehicles.
Now, just to be clear here, McHugh and Sluggo want to spend a shit ton of our money, on an experiment to buy electric vehicles, to “test” whether they are reliable?
Dear dumbass council morons, they are not reliable.
Hollis did say something correct about the ability of performance. For a town that is so worried to the point of fear porning us about our homes burning down, if they had their way they would buy electric fire trucks so…our homes will burn down in a storm. The dumb is very very strong in this council.
But let’s just remind ourselves of a few things. This has already been tried. When was that? The 1920s.
Before the combustion engine easily carried the day, Ford along with his good friend Edison, experimented with electric vehicles. There was an entire network on New York City for the plan and a booklet was published:
Here is the map of charging stations:
So why did it fail? No, it was not because of the batteries being made of lead—Cobalt has not saved the battery powered vehicle.
First, they had then as they have now, no longevity. They are not reliable because they have to be charged, often, to run. Hollis is more/less correct about the cost associated with maintaining an EV.
Second, they are heavy then; they are heavy now. In other words, weight = poor performance. It also means wrecking our roads. Want shittier roads? Add more EV vehicles to the road and watch them crumble.
Third, EVs combust spontaneously in ways that combustion cannot, and does not. The stories are so numerous, I cannot link them all, but even ships bring over these hideous cars are combusting on the ocean and of course dropping them in the ocean (good for fish!).
Fourth, As I have noted at Chronicles, EV’s burn at 3000 degrees. This is hotter than the combustion engine, which is 900. Why does this matter? Well because, at 3000 degrees, that fire can melt…wait for it…CEMENT. Your garage will love you for that. Imagine being in a parking garage—wait that has already happened and the garage collapsed. Also, even submerged under water, the fire continues. In other words, it cannot be put out. Imagine a new Leland fire station going up in flames, and a fire dept unable to put it out. Sounds fabulous no?
The recall effort is still gathering steam. After an action plea from BG4L, the bill still sits in committee. Apparently they have been inundated with concerned citizen comments. This is a good thing. Bankrupt Bozeman is probably sooooo mad. Tough crap.
BG4L shared this:
Now I do not know about you, but this is outrageous. The council has not really explained truthfully all their increases.
BG4L has made a note for us, that there is a new meeting to vote on their irresponsible budget:
Council meeting: Thursday May 16 at 6:00 PM at Town Hall
Your attendance is urgently needed!
The Council is poised to approve the proposed budget with its 17% tax increase. This 17% increase comes on top of a 30% increase last year.
Town of Leland has increased its operating budget by 52.5% in the last TWO YEARS. A big part of that is debt which has increased by 172.1% in two years.
The group also asks reasonable questions:
A 17% tax increase is not so bad, right?
A few months ago, the Town of Leland proposed a 70% tax increase. After much public backlash, TOL "listened" to the public's concerns and lowered the increase to 17%.
Not so bad, right?
Hold on a minute!
With the property revaluation last year, TOL received a roughly 30% property tax increase. If the proposed 17% increase passes at this Thursday's Council Meeting, that will mean a 47% tax increase in just two years!
Can you afford that? Did your income increase 47% over the last two years?
Let's look at a breakdown of expenses over the last two years.
The Council and staff have tried to focus on increase in fire and police. After all, we don't want the fire truck to break down on the way to your house, do we? Those two departments have increased 34.5% and 34.0% respectively in two years.
But look at the three BIG ONES.
1. Debt increased 172.1% over the last two years (think $20 million loan for Town Hall expansion.)
2. IT increased 165.1% over the last two years.
3. Transfer to Capital Improvement Projects increased 102.3% over the last two years. (Town Hall expansion or what?)
If we look at the total increase in expenses, TOL has increased its operating budget by 52.5% in JUST TWO YEARS!
Where are we going with this?
Ever heard of the Rule of 72?
Finance people are familiar with this. It's a formula used to determine the number of years it takes for an investment to double itself.
Using the Rule of 72, if the Town of Leland continues to increase its operating expenses at the same rate as the last two years, the Operating Budget will DOUBLE in JUST THREE YEARS!
How long can we sustain this?
How many people will lose their homes over this?
How will struggling families feed their children?
What will ultimately happen to home values when taxes become so high no one wants to move here?
Everyone should know by now that the council does not want to deliberate and reason with the voters. They want to dictate.
But show up to this meeting, and give the representatives in Raleigh more reason to smack them down by giving the voters the authority to recall their sleezy asses.
This is a time for choosing.
Sadly, the legislative session has ended, and Representative Iler did not call for a vote on his recall bill in committee. Why?