A message from Chief Hunker

Hello, I can't believe the calls and visits that I received when I was in the hospital. I received flowers from the FOP Lodge #185 and heard numerous comments of concern that eventually made their way back to me. There have been Chiefs, Sgt's, and many other Officers whom have called me and called the department expressing concern for my well being. It was really nice because people that I don't even know had expressed some concern. It means so much to me and my family that people do actually care what happens to another person. I'm not quite out of the dark yet, but I can't wait to get back on my feet and back to the P.D.

Happy Holidays and Thank You again from me and my family,


Sincerely,

Tim Hunker

Site Update

As of writing this post we have broken the 300 visitors mark. I think for a website dedicated to a small village, that is tremendous, and I haven't even put out the yard signs yet! One things for sure, I am not talking to myself.

I use a free service called Feedburner to let me know how the site is being used. I can see what posts were looked at the most. The two most popular posts so far were the comment from David Buschur and the post about what a Councilperson does. I have been pretty busy at work but I am typing another similar post to explain how Fire Board works and hope to have that posted soon, probably after New Year's though.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Be careful driving out there!!

Update

Chief Hunker is now home and resting. He is very appreciative of the overwhelming amount of well-wishes he has received.

Get Well Soon Chief!!

With Christmas and New Year's around the corner I will be light on posting for the next week or so.

Update

Chief Hunker is doing fine and is in great spirits. He expects to be released tomorrow. His doctors are simply completing some routine tests.

Local news update

Chief Hunker was hospitalized today after becoming ill at work. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

A comment from a local business owner

First it was nice having lunch with the people who showed up for the Wakeman Business meetings at the new Poore House. Thank you for the invitation and the good conversation. I particularly enjoyed the conversation we had about the ability to defy gravity. That was quite interesting. Special thanks to Kathleen for her input on the subject.

I will also take credit for the question to Jim about, “Why would anyone in their right mind vote for more taxes.” Seeing that I am fairly ignorant when it comes to government (which makes me fit right in with the people we have in it-for the most part) I appreciated your input to the federal/state taxes compared to a local village tax. I would agree as long as the money is being used wisely that the local tax that was passed was a good move. I hope I don’t see Tim driving another new cruiser from it, he needs to get on a bicycle and get some exercise. You could use that extra income for shooting lessons for him if you like though. You never know when he might be forced to shoot a rabid coon.

Thanks for lunch.

David Buschur

Note: David asked me to post this email he sent me. David has nine full time employees and is probably the biggest employer in town. Many thanks to David for your humor as well as your serious comments on the local income tax. If you would like more information about the Wakeman Area Business Association, visit www.wakemanbusiness.com

What does a Village Councilperson do?

Did you ever wonder? Did you really care?

Well there is a bit more to it than getting together once a month. Let's start from the beginning.

Once you get elected, or appointed, if you are filling out someone's term, after you get sworn in by the mayor, you get your tools of the trade. Keys to the village hall and a copy of the codified ordinances. It's a gigantic book. I have a copy of the ordinances on my computer, Trish has my hard copy somewhere. I hate paper. You fill out a couple forms for PERS and insurance. Yes I am allowed to drive the village vehicles except the police cars :(

In addition to attending village council meetings there are other responsibilities. The village has 14 standing committees. I serve on eight of them. Some exist only because I think the state mandates we have one. Many of them only meet when required, but some of them have regular meetings. Finance, Street Water and Sewer, and Fire Board meet regularly and are probably the most active committees. I am on the Fire Board, Planning, Zoning, Safety, Special Ordinance, Library, Records, and Parks and Recreation Committees. Fire Board meets every month and requires a separate posting to talk about. The other committees only meet when there is something to talk about. The mayor decides who sits on these committees. I have attended two Park and Rec meetings, one Planning meeting and missed one Planning and two Library meetings because of family commitments. I have not missed a Council or Fire Board meeting.

Then the paperwork starts rolling in. Ordinances, financial reports, resolutions, meeting minutes. I already have a box full. Everything also comes to me by email. This is what I read. I do read them over. All the documents I receive by email I load into a program called Microsoft OneNote. I have a Tablet PC that enables me to write on the screen. I can take notes on the documents I receive. Yes I do run regular backups on my PC.

The council meetings will generally run a minimum of 90 minutes, many times they can run longer. Really much of what we do are things required by the state. Approval of previous minutes, financial reports, vouchers (bills), resolutions for various things. Bills go through a large amount of checks and balances before the council votes to pay them. It was frustrating for me at first because of the fact, if I need something for my business, I just go buy it. It does not work that way in government.

After we have gone through previous minutes, allowed visitors to speak if their subjects do not pertain to scheduled agenda items, and Old and New Business, the mayor, each council member, the Police Chief, the Clerk, the Solicitor (lawyer), the Village Administrator, and the Zoning Inspector has a chance to speak about anything. If a council member is a chair of a committee (I am chairperson of Parks and Rec) that has met since the last meeting, that person gives a report of the meeting. After we have allowed each of those people to speak, visitors again have a chance to speak. Finally if no one has anything else to say the meeting is adjourned.

Sound pretty tedious to you? It can be. At the beginning of this year when Mayor Hipp started, the first few meetings drew a good crowd. The last few months we have barely have two people show up. To me it means we are doing our job, because people usually do not come to a meeting to thank you or compliment you. They come because they are upset, have a problem, or didn't like something you did.

I get paid 600.00 per year for being on council. We get paid once a year in December. After taxes and PERS I received 525 and change this week. I do not get paid extra for serving on committees (except for Fire Board, I will explain that in another post). Everyone has their opinion about pay rates for Council. Some think we should not take any pay, and there are those who think we don't get enough. I think the pay is fair. I don't believe we should work for free. It is worth something for the time we dedicate to it. A few have told me they think its worth the pay just so they don't have to sit through the meetings themselves!

So there you have it. Your Civics lesson for the day.

One more thought on the tax

Some people keep bringing up that this tax we passed this week is "taxation without representation". Can someone remind me the last time we voted on a federal tax increase? How about a state one?

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

I hate taxes

I got asked today why I would be in favor of taxes. It's a very good question. Those of you who know me pretty well know I am pretty conservative. As a general rule I do not like taxes. So why would I be in favor of an income tax here in Wakeman? Here is my reason.

When I pay federal or state taxes, I really have no idea where most of it goes or what a lot of it is used for. I am sure that my federal and state tax money funds things I am not in favor of. When I pay our local tax or for a police, school or fire levy, it is very easy to see what exactly that money is used for. I bet that in 30 minutes you could sit down with a financial report, or, something even more fun, drive around town and see where each dollar is spent (way more fun, those reports are boring). That is tax money that is being used directly for my/our benefit. Aren't you more comfortable spending money when you see what exactly it is you are paying for?

WOW!!

I put a hit counter at the bottom of the page early this morning just to see if this site would be worth my time. As of writing this it is at 48. Frankly I am surprised. I have also received three emails of support for the site. Thank you Amanda, Gail, and Barb!!

I want to clarify the procedure for leaving comments. ALL comments must be emailed to wakemanfacts @ gmail.com I have email addresses for a number of people in town and if I have had email correspondence with you lately, I can post your comments without you calling me. If you have never emailed me before, then you just have to make one phone call to verify your email address. Then whenever you email me I will post your comments. The phone call is a one-time thing. I don't expect a lot of people to comment, maybe I should give a prize to every fifth poster?

Don't expect a post everyday. My suggestion is to subscribe to the website by email (the subscribe box is in the upper right hand corner), unless you want to drive my hit counter up, then by all means visit as much as you want.

I guess a few people on the Reflector website had some things to say about my site and my comment procedure. Here is my advice. If you hate my site, go out and start a site that is exactly the opposite of mine. Allow anonymous posts, in fact start the site anonymously, anything that is the exact opposite of what I do here.

HAHA I just had a thought...if my site is called wakemanfacts, what would you name a site that is the opposite of that? :)

Spam!! (and the lesson it teaches us)

Read here for an article about Spam sales.

Spam sales have gone up since the "recession" started. Sounds bad doesn't it? People are reduced to eating spam. You know who thinks it sounds great? The men and women who make Spam. Some industries and products do well when there is a "recession". I bet that maybe the people at the spam factory are going to get a raise or a bonus this year. Maybe they will take that money and buy a car. I hear the car guys need help. Maybe they will buy steak (they probably get tired of looking at Spam). Either way they just stimulated our economy. Sure I oversimplified this, but the underlying principle is correct.

Now, based on this, I have something for you to think about (mainly for council and the mayor to think about). If the spam factory owner came out and told his workers "We are worried about how it would "look" right now if we gave you a raise. So we are not going to give you a raise".
The workers are thinking, "Wait a second, we had a good year, or at least we are going to have a carryover, why aren't we at least getting a cost of living adjustment, or ANYTHING?"
Hmm, the spam factory owner is in a way stifling the economy, isn't he?

Setting the Record Straight

I think this will be a regular column here at the site. Today the Reflector had an article regarding last nights council meeting. There were a number of inaccuracies in it.

1. The article states that the vote on the tax was passed unanimously. WRONG. Kathleen Frey voted no. The reason she voted no was because the ordinance we passed was for an income tax that would only last until the end of 2009. Kathleen wanted the ordinance to be continuous. I also wanted the tax to be continuous. I voted yes because we did not have enough support in council to make the ordinance continuous. This meant we would go for a year with no income tax money until it went on the ballot next November. I didn't want to see that happen, so I compromised. Either way it is going on the ballot next year. I feel that there are enough council votes right now so that the ballot issue will be for a permanent tax.

2. The article also says that we voted to place the income tax issue on the ballot next year. WRONG. We did not do that last night. We can't do that til later next year.

3. Chris states that the village didn't campaign for the issue because so many were involved in the school tax repeal issue. This could be true. I will state for the record that at the October meeting Nancy Delong mentioned we needed to do some campaigning. I said I would get the committee set up but I needed help and I would not go door to door by myself. The very next day I setup the committee at the Board of Elections. The mayor and at least one council member knew within a day or so that I had set it up. I didn't really beat down anyones door to get help, but no one beat down my door either. I did exactly what I said I would do.

Well thats enough for tonight. Want to comment. Read the directions.

First Post

Well this is the beginning of Wakemanfacts.com I wanted to be able to broadcast my thoughts for all to see and read. You may not agree with what I have to say, but I am simply going to be honest with you about things.

Many of you (99.9% of Wakeman residents) do not attend Council meetings. I really don't have a problem with that. For the most part they are boring. If you did vote for me, I think you did so that I could attend the meetings for you, and I haven't missed one yet. In fact since I took office, only three residents have actually called me to discuss issues with them. So I started this site as a way to let you know where I stand on political issues.

The other reason I started this site is because I hate sites that allow anonymous postings. Yes Reflector and Journal, I am talking about you. I encourage people to post here but you must follow my rules. The rules are on the right hand side of the site page. They are simple. I don't care whether you agree with me or not, I will post your comment. That's a promise. My site, my rules. Remember though, this is the only place you will see me posting my thoughts unless someone else creates a website that doesn't allow anonymous comments.

I have ordered five yard signs with my web address. One goes in my yard and two are spoken for already. SO if you want one of the remaining signs email me at wakemanfacts@gmail.com and I will put one in your yard.

Keep reading!!