The Citizen, The Police Officer, and The Judge –

EDGAR CO. (ECWd) –

I’d like to illustrate a point by telling you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a driver of a car. This driver was a young teenager. Well actually, it was probably an old fart like me in a beat up old Caddy; but that really doesn’t matter. The driver wanted to do some midnight shopping because of some kind of enormous “you can’t pass it up” sale local merchants were having. But there was a problem. The problem was, where to park? Eventually a place was located, packages were purchased and the driver hiked back to the car.

When he arrived at his car he noticed a police officer was putting a parking ticket on his windshield as it was being hauled away by an auto wrecker. It seems, cars were only allowed to park at this location for one hour.

It appears, another officer had marked the time on the vehicle’s tires at the end of his shift as 12:00 am. Although the car had been parked for less than an hour…Daylight savings time had occurred and the hour was advanced forward. Arriving not long after his shift began, a rookie cop noticed markings on the car’s tires. He compared those to the present time. They were nearly two hours apart.

Angry at the motorist for breaking the law the cop called a wrecker to haul the car off and wrote the ticket.  An heated exchange ensued between the owner of the vehicle and the cop. Then it got ugly. Back up was called in to support the officer. Eventually things settled a bit but the car owner was forced to walk home.

Mad as hell, this car owner went to court. As his case was called, he looked up at the judge. The judge was the officer that had written his ticket and that had his car towed away.

Does that seem fair to you?

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Well, the present situation with the airport is a lot like this. Events now in question, transpired either during or immediately after Chris Patrick was the chairperson for the Airport Advisory Board. Those of us that are seeking justice are doing so in the only venue available. We’re presenting our case to the Edgar County Board. The same board over which Chris Patrick now presides.

Have you noticed, not much has happened since we began to carefully describe the situation to our board members. You may ask why?

The opposition we’ve learned; simply isn’t using this venue. Jimmy and Chris have open access to all board members with the support, approval and guidance of Chris, as we’re being held to a higher standard and at arms length. Both Jimmy and Chris hear all of our complaints in public. They can rebut them at any time and in person with any of the board members without the inconvenience of waiting for the next meeting. They can do this in private without any fear of misstatements or lies (should they inadvertently occur) will be challenged!

And we’ve also learned, although some of their complaints are made public (but not at these county board meetings/and/ which are rebutted with the facts) but they’ve also chosen to create new and false charges in private. Notice, since we’re not privy to complaints made either by Jimmy or Chris in these private sessions, we therefore cannot counter them with facts. In essence, we’re now shadow boxing with the devil.

I bring this up because of recent discussions shared with me by a reputable party. It is now alleged, fuel ticket invoicing, not in Jan-Dec 2013, not in Jan-Dec 2012, not in Jan-Dec 2011, but before are being brought up as a serious concerns and issues on the airport’s behalf.

We would like to rebut this issues but will have to wait until next months’ meeting; perhaps well after the impact of these misleading statements is ‘cemented’ and well after commitments have been made.

Here’s todays question; is a complaint never voiced three years ago, good enough to justify today’s eviction notice?

At this point, we’re simply shadow boxing with the devil under the guise of what is presumed to be a fair and equitable system. Patrick should have stepped aside because this is a conflict of interest that is very unfair to Rusty and his business. He’s using our county government against us. Where is the Justice? Where is the justice in Edgar County? Is it only something we can wish for?

Thanks for listening,

Rob