ashe

I would like to know how much this "facelift" cost. Anyone have any info?

Anybody that has known Sam Yearick from his younger days knows he can't stand things not to look good. He's all about appearances. Is this in the best interest of tax payers? I say it's a waste.

Talk about a waste of money. The county "environmental services" building upgrade.

It has two huge signs on it - if they were on a private business - they both would be in violation of the town sign ordinance. Can you take your trash there? If that what they are "advertising"? Nope

Do they offer advise there or are they open to the public? Nope

But, if you have a county trash truck - you can get your oil changed in the building. It would have been money better spent to sell the property and move the facility to the landfill. But, the people that work there don't want to be at "the dump"

Stupid move. Stupid people. Stupid county government.

And this is surprising in what way?

Did anyone watch today's meeting where the manager sat there like a bump on a log and didn't offer one iota of advice, direction or information to the board? What's up with that?

There's also an article in the mountain times on the new building behind NAPA.

http://ashemountaintimes.co...2fc39.html

In this dog eat dog world of today, helping your neighbor is forbidden!!

Shucks, While I think it's wonderful for any service to be provided to the elderly or those who can't care for themselves, it needs to be done by community or civic groups or individuals. It needs to be done fairly to all. If it's government taxpayer money being spent to do it, it must be available to all citizens equally. I encourage anyone to help their neighbor, and there is a lot of that in this little community. There are church groups that have teams to help others in their community. It just doesn't need to be done with tax dollars for a select few. This little county is a wonderful place to be but we need to stay away from the good ole boy system. Our manager only speaks that language. We have taken 3 steps back with him at the helm. It's only going to get worse. By the time these bright bulbs we have in office realize that, he will have ruined Ashe County financially and destroyed our integrity. We were much better off with our last two managers.

I have lived in metropolitan areas - trust me this is much better.

City, While I concede that sometimes it is in the public interest to perform such services, particularly for senior citizens who are not capable of performing them themselves and are living on a meager income, I'm not a big fan of performing ones that can incur liability. If the gutters had been in disrepair and fallen off, for example, who would have had to pick up the tab? I'm certain there is more information to this story than meets the eye, but if the information is accurate, it appears that the act of goodwill did not serve its intended purpose.

If Yearick had a private landowner's personal property removed from an area that the landowner believed to be his, I foresee another lawsuit that could have been avoided by using a little common sense and diplomacy.

Not even the county manager wants to live in this hellhole.

It's obvious that he is Judy PP's hand picked puppet. He strokes the ego of Roark. All of that is expected. Not sure what is being promised to Rose and Bruno to make them follow so blindly. It doesn't say much for their intelligence level.

Now if you want someone who knows how to redecorate and waste taxpayer money on foolishness like making sure lamp posts match colors with railing, Sam's your man. Just pick up your phone and call ole Dewey Sturgill to paint your gray posts black. Charge it to the tax payers and move on to your next pet peeve. He is so obsessed with the little things and feeling powerful that he doesn't see who the real people of Ashe County are. He has no idea what the needs of Ashe County are.

In one word.....inept.

Price was a commissioner. And he proved to be nuttier than squirrel ******

What about the old Ashe county manger Gerald Price? What do you know about him?

Concerned - lots of "illegal" things are done, however what matters is how the community and the board feels about the public work on private property. A trade of sorts to prevent litigation is not a always a bad thing. I once trade a bunch of azaleas after laying a water line in someone's backyard because the line at the street was over 13 feet deep. .

I have been sent to clean out two "old lady cat houses". One was the wife of a former mayor, the other was to save a historic structure. In both cases old women called the board members, who called the manager, who told us to get our butts out there and scrub those places. Both times the local newspaper caught us there and asked point blank what we were doing.

When the ladies church group of the local First Baptist Church want something done and they are not asking for cash, it tends to get done in smaller localities.

In general you should only go on private property for public benefit. Abating a nuisance is a public benefit. Making up for costing a property owner something in another location is a public benefit. Preventing water damage to property on the tax books has value, just as the prevention of the same building from burning.

I stayed out of trouble by keeping good records and making sure that what was questionable had some kernel of a public good and did not violate local standards. It's like having Public works cut the grass behind an old, respected lady's house when she is too old and too poor to do so. The woman's welfare has value to the public so they support the effort.

How does something like this spiral out of control. If he is illegally parked, make him move using the County Attorney, Sherriff or by a Board declaration. Unlike a Town Manager, the County Manager does not supervise the police power of the County. He can't give direct orders to the Sherriff, Tax Collector, or Building Inspectors as the first two answer to the Board and the third to the State. Also, he's not been here long enough to know the truth

So you are saying that the county manager had employees cleaning out gutters for a private property owner?

Is that legal? Seems like a misuse of government staff/funds to me - it's certainly not how I want to see my tax dollars used......

I don't know anything about the other stuff. David was telling a few people what happened to him last week.

57 I have heard the same about the county employees cleaning the gutters and also using a county owned piece of equipment to do the cleaning.

Is the privately owned dumpster still being emptied by a county garbage truck?

Just ask the new owner of the NAPA building (D Ashley) what he thinks about him. Yearick had Ashley's trackhoe moved last week because he says the county owns the property the trackhoe was on, not Ashley.(Yearick tried to suck up before that over the issue by having county employees clean out the gutters on the old NAPA building). Ashley is taking him to court over it.

Concur. He is a moronic buffoon.

Sounds about right in line with what I have heard and seen.

Who is the county manager you ask? Well let's just go over a few basic details. His name is Sam Yearick. Although he is originally from Helton, he spent 20 years or so in Raleigh as an income tax auditor, 4 years or so for Caldwell County in the finance department and a few years running a business that was largely unsuccessful before landing back in good ole Ashe County (thanks to Judy PP). During his weekly jaunts to Ashe, he lives with his mother in Helton before driving back down to his primary residence in Caldwell where his wife lives and runs a successful business (oh and throw in the occasional jaunt the week to attend Caldwell Community College Board of Trustees meetings).
Now for the meat and potatoes of who he is - he is the handpicked lackey of Judy PP to carry out her dirty work. If you look closely you can follow the puppet strings from PP to Sam the man to Roark the Dork. Collectively they are running this county into the ground. Where once county representatives were liked and respected across the state, they are now the laughing stock to be avoided. One only has to listen to the