Latest News – 5-28-2025
Stokes County Commissioners Meeting – 5-27-25
A friendly note to the animal lovers crowd, from the webmaster Glenn Knox
I’ve been in the dog industry, both domestically and commercially for almost 41 years. I have seen kennels that were places you could eat dinner at. And others that I worked to get shut down by USDA. I know the USDA and AWA guidelines for proper kennel sizes and operation almost from off the top of my head. As I get back into this, my memory will improve. We sold out in 2007, but before that I ran USABreeders.com, and acted as a speaker and USDA liaison for 21 years before that. These 2 standards, USDA and the Animal Welfare Act, should be used as the basis for all enacted ordinances in our county. Period. But in each municipality, there are crowds that demand MORE than these standards. “THEY ARE NOT ENOUGH!!!”
Yes, they are. They are the framework that all ordinances in the USA are to develop ordinances, plus animal husbandry common sense.
This is the part that always amused me. “These animals are living in horrible conditions!!” What you always fail to see is, if a breeder kept their animals in “horrible conditions”, they would not be able to reproduce or maintain any resulting offspring. BUT. That’s how the breeder survives, so keeping the animals in the best situation should be their ultimate goal. I’ve seen this, literally thousands of times, throughout the entire midwest.
I believe your intentions are to try to ultimately control the animal ordinances and compliance authority. Stokes County is a very rural county that has many animals, farm and domestic. The standards you are pushing for, like kennel size, are unrealistic. Your own shelter would be out of compliance. Once ordinances are in place, even you will be subject to them. How many of you crate your animals during the day when you are at work? Yep, every one is a violation. How would you like Tommy and crew beating down your door to free your animal from that horrible crate? Don’t shake your head, that’s what you are pushing for. That will be the result. Look past your emotions and see the real world.
The Stokes GOP fund raiser was a HUGE success!! All sold out PLUS some!! Last Count – 215 sold!!!
So, did all republicans in Stokes take part? Well, no, The 3 amigos (Rick, Brad, and Keith) have not really participated, Brad Chandler actually bought a pork, but Rick and Keith could not be bothered. Is their “idea” to start another GOP entity here in Stokes? Why raise their own money last go round? Well, it would have been tough to get $13K out of ours to run their campaigns, and I actually feel sorry for them if they try that again, because here at realstokescounty, we will be publishing exactly what they do and when. Gents, it may be time to bury that hatchet and come on board with us, but that is as likely as the moon deorbiting and crashing into the Earth.
Who is Andy Nilsson? 5-4-2025
We met Andy Nilsson this past weekend, and what a great guy he is!! We fully endorse him!! Here is a video of some of his stances on issues.
Still looking at the 3 amigos – and will be until they are out of office
We are still investigating Commissioner Morris and his involvement in his influence of county affairs according to his own personal agenda.
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.
