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March 28, 2024

The Airplane has LEFT the Building!

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On December 8, 2012

ECWd

We have confirmation that Jimmy Wells, Edgar County Airport Manager, has in fact removed his personal airplane from the main hanger.

Concerns raised at the last county board meeting exposed that Mr. Wells had quite the sweet little deal going on, all on the backs of the taxpayers, as if this type of action surprises anyone in this county.

Mr. Wells was utilizing county property as his own personal hanger and not paying any rent for that space.  Hardly an ethical thing to do considering such an action is not allowed within the scope of the law.  I also am curious about the issue with reduced rent for Mr. Wells on the hanger he is using.

Other questionable acts by Mr. Wells are under investigation and as secondary confirmation of our initial findings are confirmed with more paperwork we will bring that news to you.

Who is to blame?  Are we past the point of pointing the finger at the person who commits the act?  Is it time to point it at the very people in charge of those people?  In this case that would be none other than the newly elected County Board member Chris Patrick who is the Chairman of the Airport Board and knew the manager was using public property for personal storage.

Note that I did not call Mr. Patrick “County Chairman”, as it has been confirmed that the last meeting was in fact not a legal meeting, and they have to redo all action taken at the last meeting.

That being the case, will there be even a single person willing to stand up and appoint someone other than a person involved in numerous scandals in this county?  From private drives on the backs of the taxpayer, to allowing his airport manager to have free hanger space, it is clear Chris Patrick is not in any fashion the leadership this county needs; just as I pointed out during the November County Board Meeting.

Other than Karl Farhnam, every other board member would be a better selection than Chris Patrick, but the ego’s of the ring leaders won’t allow a common sense selection.

All that aside, citizen involvement has again put a stop to the trampling of our rights and abuse of our tax dollars by our elected and appointed officials.  Yet another example of how you CAN make a difference!

Many speak of the entitlement “class” and the burden they place on our society, and when you hear those references most think they are talking about the less fortunate people who are barely making any money at all, if any.

It has become very clear though that we also have another entitlement “class” and it is the Political Class.  The ones who run for office for what appears to be no other reason than to expand their own agendas and self serving.

Considering they have yet to be in office for more than two weeks it is going to be interesting to see how they deal with all this self serving adventures of the very people in charge of things.

As was evident at the last county board meeting, the people have had enough and are finally taking a stand and demanding accountability.  After speaking with dozens of people, it has  become a consensus that Mr. Wells and Mr. Patrick have no place in public office of any kind as it is clear they do not care about the people’s money.  Actions speak louder than words!

The Plane has left the building! 

Will Jimmy Wells be the next to leave?

 

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8 Comments
  • Al Schneider
    Posted at 23:02h, 08 December

    I am completely thunderstruck!!! I have been totally dismayed
    at the way our country is being completely destroyed — and then
    to find out about all this business in our own county—I am sick!
    I fought with my life for our country and our county in Korea 1952
    and thousands have fought and died since then and still are to this
    day fighting and dying for ALL of us!!!! And then have idiots
    (my at one time friends and neighbors) behave like this is unbelievable.
    Is this for money in their pockets?????? or do they just hate our
    country, county and all of us???? I have been on several boards
    over the years– Kansas school board 18 yrs. pres. for 15 yrs, Farm
    bureau board several yrs and several others—— We always seemed
    to know how to hold a legal meeting and all the problems we had were
    not easy to deal with but we did it with no intention of breaking any
    laws. I plan to be at the Wed meeting—- Chris Patrick should not
    even be on the county board let alone nominated by Heltsley and elected
    unanimously to president. I sincerely hope that the board will be
    intelligent enough to have thought this over and at this hopefully
    legal meeting, make some changes. Folks, I have to be VERY upset to
    think something like this, let alone post it.

  • jmkraft
    Posted at 19:22h, 09 December

    We have received several questions as to what made the meeting on
    Dec 3rd an illegal meeting.
    .
    Here is the answer:
    .
    55 ILCS 5/2-1002 (Counties Code) states that special meetings will be
    held only when requested, in writing, by at least one-third of the
    board. The notice of said special meeting shall be published in some
    newspaper printed in the county.
    –Neither one of those things happened.
    .
    .
    5 ILCS 120/2.04 (Open Meetings Act) states the notice requirements of
    the Act are in addition to, and not a substitution of, any other notice
    required by law.
    — The special meetings requirement in the counties code must also
    be followed.

    • jmkraft
      Posted at 07:01h, 10 December

      Someone metioned I didn’t include the whole paragraph in the counties
      code, they are correct. That is why I included the statute number and
      paragraph number – to encourage those reading this to actually go and
      read the statute.

      The remaining parts of the paragraph do not apply to this situation:
      *our county board chairman is not elected by the voters-
      *county clerk did not receive a written request signed by 2/3 of the
      board –
      *and there was no vacancy in the county clerk’s office.

  • Al Schneider
    Posted at 06:49h, 10 December

    I guess I need to explain my preceding remarks a bit. A person that had read
    only this news release asked me why I was so upset about Jimmie Wells parking
    his airplane in a hangar and paying no rent. Jimmie Wells took a complaint
    from an airport employee about Ann Bogue breastfeeding her baby in the airport
    office to the airport board. My problem is the actions or lack of actions of
    the airport and county boards following this complaint. All this is explained
    in detail in other news releases on this web page.

  • Robert O. Bogue
    Posted at 20:58h, 10 December

    Many thanks to those of you that attended the December 3 Edgar County Board
    meeting in support of Rusty. You will have an accurate recollection of the e
    vents.

    FOR THOSE THAT WERE UNABLE TO ATTEND….THE OFFICIAL COUNTY BOARD MEETING WEB
    SITE AND VIDEO…HAS BEEN EDITED. IF YOU’RE INTEREESTED IN THE UNEDITED VERSION,
    VIEW THE VIDEO SHOWN ON THIS WEB PAGE. AL SCHNEIDER, JAYNE BROWN, MYSELF AND
    PERHAPS OTHERS HAVE BEEN EDITED….OUT. ALL OF US SUPPORTERS OF RSB AND ALL OF
    US IN DIRECT CONFLICT WITH THE BOARD PRESIDENT CHRIS PATRICK AND HIS STOOGE
    JIMMY WELLS.

  • Jayne Brown
    Posted at 23:10h, 10 December

    I was proud to be at the Dec. 3rd Edgar County Board Meeting in support of
    Rusty Bogue and RSB Aviation. Editing a video and calling it an official
    meeting video is dishonest.

    • jmkraft
      Posted at 16:23h, 11 December

      This is the answer I received and have no reason to doubt it since it is a new
      camera and this is their first try at uploading video to youtube.
      .
      OK – the camera records to a hard drive, when a file gets to a certain size it
      automatically starts a new file. The complete board meeting video ended up being
      3 files – only 2 got uploaded – the county is uploading all of it soon…

  • Robert O. Bogue
    Posted at 17:01h, 11 December

    Late yesterday when the missing video segment was discovered, I contacted
    August Griffin at his home and asked if he was aware of it. He was clearly
    surprised and agreed to work on the issue the first thing this morning. We
    visited today and I’m completely convinced this was a technical glitch that
    had gone un-noticed; and that it will be repaired asap if it has not been
    done already. I believe video taping public meetings is critical to improving
    government here in Edgar County and applaud Auggie’s efforts in both in the
    video recording and in correcting the technical glitch that brought about
    this situation. Thanks, Auggie!

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