VFW thanks those who gave
Comments (...)Dear Editor,
Oregon VFW Post 8739 would like to say thank you to every business and individual that made a donation to the annual Christmas Food Basket Program and to all of the people that came out on Saturday to pack boxes and help deliver them.
Without your donations help and assistance we could not keep this program going from year to year.
This year we were able to deliver 112 boxes of food to individuals and families that needed them.
Once again we say thank you to everyone that helped.
T. Richard Day
Commander
Oregon VFW Post 8739
Goodfellows are thankful for help at holidays
Dear Editor,
The Mt. Morris Goodfellows would like to thank the many individuals, organizations, and businesses who choose each holiday season to support our efforts to help those in need.
Over 128 families were touched by your donation this holiday season.
Blessings of the season to you and yours from the Mt. Morris Goodfellows.
Sincerely,
Charles C. Beard
Jerry Griffin
McMichael claims assessors caused problem
Dear Editor,
I have been accused of reporting someone’s under appraised and under paid real estate taxes to the Ogle County Tax Assessor.
I want it to be known, I knew nothing, nor did I report, nor did I care, about anyone else taxes.
I received an unsigned letter in the first part of December (I know at least three of my neighbors, also, received this letter).
The letter indicates the under appraisal and under paid taxes has gone on longer than I have lived in this area (10 years).
When I was accused of this, I was shocked and sick to my stomach. In addition to this, I’m now angry.
I now know, the information in the letter I received is true. I don’t know what the letters sent to the Ogle County and Pine Creek Township Assessors said.
I want to say, had the assessors been doing their jobs in following state law (state law requires assessment every four years) this property should have been taxed at the proper amount years ago.
In closing I want to say, possibly the owners should have come forward to correct this. Taxes of $214.76 a year on a house are pretty low.
I’m not the one who caused this problem-the owner and assessors did.
Sincerely,
Harold (Sam) McMichael
Oregon
Food pantry appreciates those who gave
Dear Editor,
We, at the Polo Food Pantry, thank everyone who in any way contributed to us during 2011.
The churches, their your groups, service clubs, Polo students, Crop Walk, local and non-local businesses, and numerous private individuals were extremely generous to the pantry.
Our gracious and cheerful volunteers have been faithful throughout the year and are greatly appreciated for their efforts.
The people of this area are most kind and caring, and we feel blessed and proud to be in this community.
Anne L. Vock
Polo Lifeline Food Pantry
Oregon couple says it is time to “listen up”
Dear Editor,
When Julie Watt speaks, it’s time for the people of Oregon to listen up!
She laid out everything the OEDC is doing perfectly, something I could never have done.
Read it and weep because that is what will happen in this city unless more get involved and soon!
If you think the “round-about” debacle was bad, this is worse!
We cannot believe the people on the city council and the businessmen serving on the OEDC actually think what they are involved in is good for this city.
It seems there will be a good number of people put out of work and we don’t need that, for one thing.
Seems like the library has had tremendous problems getting a new building constructed.
Now they are look at other property?
And, what happens to the Ruby Nash house?
When we heard Sullivans wanted to come downtown, the hiring of Dave Diamond/Walter Wayne Development made perfect sense and our council, who are elected to serve us, went for it, and someone with quite a reputation!
Unfortunately, they were advised too late not to focus on one developer.
Sullivan’s have a building. It was completely renovated before they bought it.
Let them stay there. And, we have a mall, it’s called Conover.
Finally, speaking of our city council, we believe the councilman who wanted to return to school should have done just that and resigned.
The meeting dates and times should not have been changed for him.
Patricia and Glenn Stroh
Oregon
Lankvelt wants Byron residents to “wake up”
Dear Editor,
Wake up Byron! What is going on?
We have lost three administrators and two more have just requested to go back to teaching all in less than one year; Superintendent, High School Principle, Curriculum Director, Elementary Principle and Elementary Assistant Principle.
One of the administrators, who recently requested to go back to a teaching position, had continued his education to become qualified for the Superintendent position.
Imagine how hard of a decision it would be to request to step out of the Administration role and go back to teaching when you’ve spent your career pursuing higher education, put significant time and effort in the pursuit of Byron’s educational excellence and knowing you will take a significant pay cut.
It is extremely disappointing to have this much turnover at one time and what a tremendous loss it is to our children, teachers and faculty.
Additional burden has been put on the current administrators as each of them have been required to pick up additional duties because Byron doesn’t have a permanent Superintendent.
On top of this the Board of Education went back to individual committee meetings instead of the committee of the whole.
This means that the administrators must meet multiple times to present to the separate committee meetings and then again at the school board meeting.
This process is redundant and delays decisions and actions.
One of the most frustrating factors for the administrators in the Byron School District this past year is watching programs they have invested much time and effort lost traction such as MAPS and Pinnacle where the results of our children’s test are no longer getting fully reviewed and analyzed for potential curriculum improvement because the Curricululm Director position has not been replaced.
The money has been invested and it is not being utilized to its full potential.
The current administrators are without a permanent leader, they haven’t been given goals and objectives, they have been required to pick up the Superintendent duties, District Leadership Teams have been abandoned and all committee meetings are held prior to 6 p.m. when the majority of the working public and anyone attending to children getting off of school cannot attend.
Where is the community input to the strategic plan?
Citizens of Byron need to get involved and get informed and involved, our children’s education and your tax dollar are at stake.
The mass exiting of the administrators will have a significant impact on the teachers and faculty and this will have an impact on the education of our children.
There will be more administrators who request to step down.
The next big BOOM will be failure to reach an equitable agreement with Exelon, contract is up in 2012, and the only reason taxes have been lowered every year since the last agreement is because it was negotiated into the contract.
The valuation of the nuclear plant is critical to the financial security of the Byron School District.
If we don’t have a strong attorney and intellectual leadership to negotiate a fair and equitable agreement we could end up settling at a much lower value like many of the taxing bodies almost did during last negotiations.
If you have a student in the Byron School District you need to get informed and involved.
If you are a faculty member in the Byron School District you need to get informed and involved.
If you don’t want to pay for expenditures you didn’t incur you need to get informed and involved.
If you don’t want your tax rates to climb you need to get informed and involved.
If you don’t want to repeat the programs and deep spending cuts of 2002 you need to get informed and involved.
If you are ready, please email us at GetInvolvedByron@gmail.com with your contact information and we will contact you about future informational meetings.
Don’t find yourself sitting on the sidelines shocked and dismayed in the aftermath.
Ann Van Lankvelt
Byron
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