Latest News – 3-28-2025
We asked for, and have received, several FOIA requests for information, We have data now on the Francisco School acquisition, plus several other items that we are gleaning through. We have attorneys looking into these and will post additional information as it clears for publication. We have also FOIA’ed the bond issue, asking for all bonds that the commissioners have leveraged on our county. I am awaiting those as well.
Stokes County Commissioners meeting – 3-24-2025
So, we attended the last meeting, and read the commissioners the following text, trying to find out if they have leveraged our land as part of the collateral on the bonds they have taken out. We will post videos either later today or tomorrow, seems the IT department had issues with the live stream, and no youtube video is available. None of them even commented on my request.
“Good afternoon.
I would like to know how many bonds have been taken out on Stokes County by the Commissioners, and what collateral was used to secure these. That includes when these bonds will come due, and what was agreed to as the conditions and payback for these.
This information should be posted on the Stokes County website, and then every time any additional bonds are secured.
I ask, because we have seen an unprecedented increase in our tax valuation, which has occurred in other jurisdictions across the US, and the amount of our tax increase, around 40%, has been the EXACT amount that is the basis for other jurisdictions raising additional money based on these new valuations of tax base, which has been proven in other places as the foundation of these bonds.
Please have this information posted on the Stokes Website, in good faith, by your next scheduled meeting, this information should be already readily available for use, and adding to the website is just a matter of publishing this data.
This request is being recorded, you should be able to play it back if there is any questions on it.
One additional comment. Using “your time” after public comments to comment on social media posts when the posting party can’t respond to it is childish. If you wish to actually engage in public debate with your citizens, I suggest you get an account, and respond there.
Thank you.”
During the “rebuttal” part where the commissioners “have their say” on what they feel needs to be said, Rick spent ~15 minutes complaining about this website!! We’ve hit a nerve, it seems. To quote Mr Burns,
Rick, maybe spending time actually interacting with the citizens of Stokes, might be a good idea, instead of using time during your “allotted” time to air your grievances where no one can interact with you, but you would then have to actually debate real topics, which it seems you don’t wish to do.
