Tax Payers Beware
By Don Wright 

Greenville School Superintendent Fries has used a full page in the newspaper to answer some of our questions about the school bond levy. Pay close attention to his answers. What he doesn’t say is as important as what he says. 

Since most taxpayers can read and most people that have acquired property aren’t stupid I’ll just skip through and make a few comments. 

If the state condemns any school buildings it will be because they were neglected and allowed to deteriorate hoping they will be condemned. 

It’s going to cost three million dollars to get rid of all old schools. We pay fifty-seven percent. Do you have fifty-seven percent of three million on hand to pay for this? If not where are you going to get it? 

Watch how Fries line dances through questions about the roads and sidewalks. Read it closely. 

He never answered our question about changing the location of the school. Nothing about making the Ohio Street property a sports complex. Nothing about the cost saving feasibility of building a box school. Nope. We have to do things like the rest of the county. 

Hallelujah. Finally we did find an answer to our problem. Superintendent Fries brags that working with Garmann and Miller in Van Wert they built a seven – twelve grade school for twenty one million dollars. It came in on time and was under budget. That’s the school we want. Build it for us and we’ll shut up today. Twenty one million is what we think we should be spending. If it can be built in Van Wert why not here. Build the school and I will personally walk up and down Broadway on Saturday afternoon with a sign around my neck that says Don Wright is a dumb trouble making hillbilly. Never again will I question the compensation of a school superintendent. 

Most of what I write is information or complaints that people bring to me. Today is July 1st. It’s my birthday. I’m seventy nine years old. I came to Greenville April 24, 1956. I had $1500.00. In Greenville at that time there was a slew of rich old men. Sometime I want to write an article about them. They saw that I would work and they took me in. At this time I met a man named Bud Brown. He worked at the Advocate. I was complaining about something and he said write a letter to the Editor. I didn’t even know what he was talking about. He explained it to me. Sometime in I think June 1956 I wrote my first letter. Bud Brown loved it. He said he couldn’t put it in as a letter to the Editor but he would run it as an ad and I didn’t have to pay for it. He said kid, you have a talent with words. Always write just the way you talk. Bud Brown started me reading newspapers. 

I came to love Newspapers. I read three a day. The Advocate – Dayton Daily News – USA Today. Once a week I read the Early Bird and the Wolfe County Kentucky News. 

In seventy nine years of living and fifty eight years of reading and observing I’ve learned a few things. Mostly that life isn’t fair. What I write below is my opinion and mine alone.

One of the most important things I’ve learned is that fools and their money will soon be separated. That fools will also separate smart people from their money if you aren’t always vigilant. Here in Greenville at this time we have a bunch of fools using every tactic available to separate us from our money. 

If this levy passes I’ll be 116 years old when it’s paid off. (Didn’t want to have to live that long.) If I don’t make it until I’m 116, my son will have to pay it off by the time he’s 90. If he doesn’t live to 90 years old then my granddaughter will have to pay it off when she is 55 and my Grandson is 53. They could be Grandparents by then. Of course it could get extended and my Great Great Grandchildren would have to pay. Something to think about. I say to every voter in this district, if they don’t change their plans, vote against the levy or we will be the fools that are separated from our money for 37 years. 

A good friend said to me the other day, you don’t care who wins this election it’s the action and the fight you love. For once he was wrong. 

My blood boils when I think about all the ordinary people that get out of bed every morning and go to work to keep this country running. A lot of people work at jobs they hate their entire lives because they have no choice. I see these good peoples money squandered on political correct crap or misguided mistakes made by people that idiots elect. 

I believe that for a person to vote they should have to show a picture I.D. and answer three simple questions. Who is the President of the United States? What is your Governor’s name? What time does the clock on the wall say? Two out of three and you vote. 

Every day here in Darke County the financial life blood is being sucked out of the productive citizens to pay for the worthless lazy-doped up ever increasing population that wouldn’t work in a pie factory as a taster. These people contribute their sperm and we educate their children and feed their worthless donkeys. Tax payers are fed up with constantly being hounded for money for people and projects we don’t believe in. 

We have a chance. It’s called the vote. We can vote no on the taxes that feed the gluttonous beast of Darke County. We can starve them out. Don’t let them have the money to build a court house we don’t need or a school that cost forty five million dollars and take thirty seven years to pay for. It’s easy for them to strut around town and run their mouths about how wonderful everything is but we’re the ones that pay the bills. 

The tax payers of Darke County have been mugged by school builders for millions of unnecessary dollars. They say it’s for the kids. No it’s about old jocks that no one is paying any attention to wanting to relive their lives through their children. If some of these schools had merged, Jr. probably wouldn’t have been good enough to make the team. A frothing at the mouth Arcanum tax payer told me that on a clear day he can see Franklin Monroe School from Arcanum. 

Anyone with an ounce of brains knows we have at least three to many schools in Darke County. Maybe we should just close Greenville school and bus the students to the new schools that have already been built. Cheaper for us and we help out the finances in the other districts. Sorry forgot about the teachers union. 

The above is my birthday present to me. 

Back to reality: Taxpayers we’re at a great disadvantage. The school board is using $25,000.00 of our money against us. Both newspapers are carrying their water. They have a flyer out giving free swimming and hot dogs for votes. With our bloated welfare system I didn’t think anyone would be hungry enough to sell their vote for a hot dog. 

Could you believe that Susan Spille, a representative of the school board would actually brag to a newspaper that she intimidated and harassed a business man until he agreed to vote for the levy? 

Susan I have news for you. Business people will promise you anything to get rid of you. I’d bet a hundred dollars to a donut he lied. Business people are used to making their own decisions. They don’t need you to tell them how to vote. If the levy passes they will raise their prices or delay giving anyone a raise. There is a thing called reality that you people don’t get. 

Jan Teaford another representative of the school board told a newspaper plans have been made to block off 4th Street to Memorial Hall for their victory party. We all love a woman that is full of herself. I didn’t know the election was over. 

Jan if it should turn out that you don’t need 4th Street for your victory party, we would like to use it for an Office Bar reunion. 

Why don’t some of you people that call and write me letters, do this, say this, write your own letters to the newspapers. Landlords I heard you. If the levy passes, you’re going to raise your rents. Tenants you have been told. 

Two years ago we farmers got a seventy to one hundred and twenty percent tax increase. We didn’t like it but the price of grain has been strong so we absorbed it and moved on. Some grain brokers are predicting five dollar corn and nine dollar beans this fall. Maybe you would be better served to keep your money than use it to build a monument to a financially challenged school board. 

Senior citizens should be made aware that the state of Ohio is trying to get a law passed to take away your homestead exemption. This could add hundreds of dollars to your taxes when you can least afford it. 

As for the negative phone calls and letters. I have no intention of going to that hot place some of you have recommended. For some people’s information my mother was married when I was born. I want to thank someone for the dead chicken they left in my truck. When I found it the meat was a little to ripe for my taste. Of course it’s the thought that counts. 

Stay tuned.

Don Wright,

Greenville