A Not So Merry Christmas

It was a pretty depressing Christmas for me this year.
Most of you know that my wife deserted me over a month ago, leaving me to fend for myself. But, I was able to pick myself up and find a really great place to live.

Now that all the excitement has died down, I thought I'd share some of the joy with you.

I got such a big tree this year that I had to move out of my bedroom.

It's OK though, the rest of my place is so luxurious that I don't mind sleeping in another room.
Well, it's kind of like another room but it's outside. I do get plenty of fresh air though!!!


I had a feast with my family, my NEW family, the night before Christmas this year. This one couldn't be beat. Best of all, it was all free!!!
Later I went over and drowned my sorrows with a big bucket of my favorite Christmas pick me up.

Then the big day came.

Somebody put some coal in my stocking. I don't know who would do something like that. Probably Joe Haynes or those darn trash bloggers again. I think I've been a good little boy this year.

The folks at PutnamLIES.com gave me even more shit this year.
What a crappy Christmas. I guess I'd better get used to it.

I hope the new year is better! It couldn't get much worse.
Many Thanks!

Merry Christmas!

From Putnam County's homeless Santa.



Another Christmas is destroyed by EXCESSIVE NOISE.

I am awakened during the night by some kind of jingling bells coming from a sled in the neighborhood and someone laughing loudly. HOW RUDE!!! There is NO reason why someone should be so rude!!! What kind of IDIOT would do such a thing so late at night?

I'm living in a dumpster behind Wally World and I still can't get any peace and quiet ON CHRISTMAS EVE!

Peace on Earth and good will to all especially Walmart, AEP, Scott Edwards, Steve Andes, Raymond "Joe" Haynes (do the Amish even celebrate Christmas?), Mark Sorsaia, Gary Walton, Ben Newhouse, Girl of Words, Lee, Lenny, Tyler Hollywood, Tybois, Harry Stamper, and all the great readers and commenters at PutnamLIES.com!

You know what I got for Christmas?

Nothing!

Here's to ya!

A Creepy Christmas Card

This Week On The Family Channel

A Hilarious Christmas Comedy!



A touching tale of an abusive bully who gets an early Christmas present.

Neediest Cases

Real Job, New Place To Live Would Make Difference For Man

Mark, 50, was married and had one child until his second
wife divorced him. He once lived in a modest $299,000 house owned by his mother-in-law and wife until they threw him out.

His wife was his sole support. Mark worked several menial jobs so that he could feel that he was contributing, but it was barely enough to put gas in his cheap Korean sub-compact car. In fact, his plight is now so bad that recently he's been forced to sleep in the car when his favorite dumpster is unavailable.
He sometimes works as substitute baby sitter for a local school system but he can only work there until they find out about his record. He mostly drives around aimlessly looking for children to photograph.

Mark has a severe personality disorder that makes it difficult for him to hold a job or interact with normal people. His weight makes it difficult to do much except his hobby of running what he calls an "internet news site". A number of arrests also hamper his ability to get along in the area. He was recently banned from all parks in Putnam County.
"He's obese, balding and very difficult. He complains constantly. He's already gone through 2 wives. Seriously, 2! How in the world did he fool two women into marrying him?" said a social worker familiar with his case.

He is in dire need of a place to live and a new wife to support him..

Won't you please help a needy, hateful old bastard have a Merry Christmas?

Needs: Cardboard boxes to sleep in, old blankets, a gullible naive desperate woman.

Cases published in PutnamLIES.com's Neediest Cases have not been verified by anyone.
Contributions may be left in front of the third dumpster from the right behind the Walmart in Hurricane.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To Putnam County's news loser.



We're thankful you'll be gone soon.

NEW FEATURE! Local Recipes

Mexican Cheese Ball

Many folks have been asking us if we could run recipes submitted by readers. So today we're running one by Doedy, a long time reader from Hurricane. Thanks Doedy!

Submitted by Doedy H
PutnamLIES.com reader

I have taken this to many, many parties and each time I have literally seen someone "licking" the dish clean. It makes a great dip for chips!

MEXICAN CHEESE BALL

2 8oz Packages Cream Cheese (Can use the low fat for less calories)
1 Cup Mayo (Can also use low fat)
1 Med Diced tomato
1 Med Diced Red Onion
1 Med Diced Green Pepper
1 12 oz. Jar Salsa
4 - 6 oz. Shredded Cheese (Can also use low fat)



Blend the cream cheese and mayo together, round into ball and put on plate. Chill overnight.
Pour salsa over cheese ball and then vegetables.
Shredded cheese on top.
YUM YUM YUM!!!!

Another satisfied customer.

Guess who's 50 Today?

And Not A Thing To Show For It


Hallburn turns 50 today.
What's Marky getting for his birthday?
A BRAND NEW DIVORCE!
A NEW PLACE TO LIVE!

50 is a milestone.
Many people that age are starting to wind down and looking towards retirement.

Not old fatboy.
An average of 2 jobs a year since he started working doesn't put any money into the old retirement account.
He'll have to work until the day he dies. How ironic will it be when the only job he can get is saying "Welcome to Walmart"?



Happy birthday motherfucker.
Hope you don't have many more.

Now pack your bag and get out.

HALLBURN (SEMI-) PUBLICLY APOLOGIZES

In a desperate attempt to salvage his disappearing marriage, Hallburn printed the unthinkable on Saturday: an apology.



Sources tell PutnamLIES.com that his behavior and the attack articles on his blog were a source of friction in the marriage. This appears to be an effort to placate his soon to be second ex-wife.

But he buried it as a Letter to the Editor on his blog. A publisher with any credibility or ethics that is apologizing for his editorial and personal behavior would place an apology prominently on the front page. Which immediately tags this letter as another piece of self serving bullshit that Hallburn is so good at serving up.
Here is the letter in its entirety.

I Apologize

It has been said that some of the techniques used to cover news, and the editorial cartoons used on PutnumLIVE.com have offended people.

For that I apologize.

PutnumLIVE.com will continue covering the news. However, the tactics will be toned down.

Mark Hallburn
Publisher
PutnumLIVE.com


Sincere?
Are you kidding?
This letter is nothing more than a big pile of horseshit. If there's one thing we all know, it's that Mark Hallburn does not apologize. To anyone. For anything.
A three line post hidden on his letters page does not make up for years of bullying, stalking and harassment. His tactics are exactly the root of his problem. If he was able to tone down his tactics, maybe he'd still have a wife.
We all know how he treats members of the general public. How do you think he treated his second wife?

All he is concerned about is himself. He's lost the place where he sleeps, he's lost the World Headquarters building. He's lost the woman that was supporting him so he could play reporter. But apparently he HAS found religion. As he always does, he blames others for destroying his marriage, then he tries to get all churchy, asking people to whom he won't tell the truth or even the existence of his divorce, for help.

Look in the mirror, Halburn. That's who's responsible for destroying your marriage.

Happy Birthday To Lee!

I got you a present.
Can you guess?
Thanks to you,
I'm now homeless!

Happy Birthday to someone that's made me miserable.

Walmart Neighbor Wants Out Of Marriage

HALBURN'S WIFE FILES FOR DIVORCE.
Mark Halburn says he'll shut down his blog and move.

Tired of the constant whining, the public embarrassment, the arrests, and the verbal humiliation, one neighbor of the Hurricane supercenter wants out of her marriage.

Mark Vance Halburn's wife filed for divorce on November 1 and a copy of the deed to her house was attached to the complaint. We hope Mrs. Halburn has a lawyer. You know he'll try and bully her into submission to get as much as he can.



Our Topix correspondent, sent along the following tidbit yesterday, posted there Monday night by none other than Mark Halburn, posing as "Newsguy Mark", under the heading of "Hallburns are divorcing".

Halburn writes,
"Before someone else announces it, I'm posting it here. All good things must come to an end, it seems. Tired of the Putnam County harassment, I am moving south. No adultery was committed. No more details, it's none of anybody's business. Show some class and leave it alone."

Well, that's not going to happen, fuckhead. No one's ever accused us of having any class, so let's just get right to it.

You say you're tired of the Putnam County harassment? And you're moving south? Great. We're tired of it too.
Have you already picked out someone new to harass down there? You should get in shape so it won't make you so tired this time.

Where are going to live? You have NO money. You should've thought this through before you once again tried your little sympathy kick. Or did you find a desperate semi-barren old maid on the internet to support you? Maybe someday you can buy YOUR third wife some cheap Chinese shoes.

And why even say "No adultery was committed" out of the blue? What brought that up?
You might as well have said "There is no taco salad" and it would have made as much sense.

Adultery? Hah! You haven't seen your cock in years.
How about mental cruelty?
We've seen how you treat women. We've seen how you bully and belittle people. Could it have been any different for your poor wife behind closed doors?

We can see that being prohibited from taking your child to the park can be a real marital strain. We can see getting fired (again) (you claim you quit, which would be even worse in this economy) from another job with benefits after only six months would cause problems. We can see that being publicly shamed for your behavior at the doctor's office might put a chill on things. The non-stop ranting and raving about trivial matters and all of your other juvenile behavior. It's cumulative. It takes a toll.
Maybe it was when you weren't at home in the evenings and things were so much nicer. Quiet. No chaos or drama. Reality finally strikes.

Looks like she finally reached her limit with you. After 13 years of your joblessness and being an impediment to life, she'd had enough.
She was totally taken in by you, which is how you sociopaths operate, which probably makes her all the more angry.

But on the other hand you've acted this way since you were married. She's seen how you behaved and saw how you were treated like a pariah and she went along with it, either by choice or by force.

PutnamLIES.com knew something was up a couple of months ago. He changed his Facebook status from "Married to DMH" to just "Married". Then she appeared to have defriended him on Facebook, plus his sister, his nieces and nephews ... all of them.

What's he going to do now? Change his status to "single" or "it's complicated"?

Then he goes on to say:

"I don't publish divorces on Putnum LIVE dot com. I am sure PutnamLIES will slime themselves some more by publishing it. Papers were supposed to be filed today. It's in the lawyer's hands.

I'm releasing the news here because I wanted SOME control over the inevitable publicity.

My plans are to move south and sell the news web site. I've already picked out a house that I will buy once the current one is sold.

The prospective new owner of Putnam LIVE dot com is a hard-hitting journalist that will give the bad guys that run this county nightmares that will surpass ANYTHING that I have done. The bastards will get what they deserve!"

You don't publish them but you've had plenty of snide comments to make about other people's divorces.
Believe me, assmunch, as soon as we get the papers we'll publish them.

You wanted to "release" this on the trailer park of the internet. How appropriate for you since you're lower than trailer trash.
Funny though that you didn't announce it on PutnumLive or Facebook. I guess you wanted someplace that more than 29 people would see. That sure will happen here.

You don't even have a claim on the house, asshole. Property acquired before marriage is not a marital asset. And, your name was never on the deed, as you insisted in pointing out at least five times in your deposition. Plus, your mother-in-law has an interest in the house as half owner. At most, all you'd be entitled to is 25% of the profits.

So, unless your second wife is so desperate to get away from you that she'd sell it for whatever she could get out of it and GIVE you some of it, all she owes you is a kick in your flabby ass as she sends you out the door, while she, her son and her Mother continue to live there. It'll be a lot more tolerable with you gone.

She's always been your meal ticket.
She works, cleans, cooks, takes care of the kid and she and her mother own the house. You can't hold a job because of your personality disorder. How are you going to survive in the real world without someone providing for you and wiping your ass?

It's about time she stopped putting up with your shit.

And then there's the son. The little boy that you've polluted and warped with your negative attitude. The only one that's truly innocent in this whole sordid mess.

Without you in the picture though, there's still hope for him. He's what 4? Get him away from you and he ought to smooth out in a few years. He has plenty of time. He'll forget a lot, because your broke ass won't come around often.He'll have a chance to start over if she drops the last name and moves to Kanawha County. If she's smart she'll petition the court to change the kid's name to give him a fighting chance. Going through life with the last name of Halburn would be like being the son of Charles Manson.You know you'll be a deadbeat dad. Collecting child support from you is going to be like pulling teeth.

God love her for giving that kid a chance. I hope she cuts all ties with you.

Then there's the house. Always the house.
That house isn't going to sell unless your second ex-wife accepts reality and puts a realistic price on it. $299,900 ain't going to do it. Reduced price? By $100? Please.

And then you bring up the Scott Edwards offer. But you never tell the truth about that.
The offer was the pre-Walmart appraisal of $149,000 plus 10%. That works out to about $164,000. You should have taken it. 100% of nothing is nothing. Which is what you have now.

Nobody wants your piece of shit opinion blog. The only thing that is worth a dime is the domain name and that's not worth much. The name is damaged goods.

Who are you going to sell it to? That hard hitting investigative reporter Jay Smith? Let him be the next one banned from everywhere. He already has the trespassing conviction to go along with it.

You know the really sweet thing? You're getting exactly what YOU deserve, you fat bastard. In public. The only thing better will be the day you pack up and leave town.

Adios, motherfucker.

As always, we invite Halburn to tell his side of the story or correct any inaccuracies, if he has the guts to.

PutnamLIES.com will have more as it becomes available.

UPDATE: 11/06
Here's the announcement as it appeared in the Sunday Gazette Mail.

It's Halloween Again!

It's that time of year again, and by popular demand we're bringing back some Halloween favorites.

Once again you can be the scariest fat kid on your block with the Official PutnamLIES.com Mark Hallburn Halloween Mask.

Download Full Size PDF


Introduced last year, the PutnamLIES.com Strokey Mark Mask is the most popular mask we offer! With 75% more scare than the regular mask, this was downloaded over 1500 times last year.

Download Full Size PDF

This year, readers have asked for accessories to go with their masks, so we're introducing the MARK HALBURN MANPURSE!
Now you too can pretend that you're very important. Pretend you're a reporter for a blog. Do like Halburn and keep track of the things you don't have to do or the people you need to harass. Send an invoice for ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!
It's easy with your manpurse.

Download full size PDF

Pick a mask, print it out, cut it out & put it on!
(straitjacket not included)

Go to the Hurricane Walmart.
Go to Hurricane City Hall.
Go swimming (only when the pool's closed, of course.)
Be a substitute teacher in Kanawha County! (no qualifications needed)
Go Trick or Treating at Fatso's house.
Do anything you want!
You're Mark Fucking Hallburn!

Scare your friends!
Scare your neighbors!
They'll run. They'll cry.
They'll shit their pants!

Many thanks!

Happy Halloween!

Halburn Was Arrested For Strong Arm Robbery

Pudgy Publisher Allegedly Robbed Furniture Company



When you send your children to school, you might
think that the fat substitute teacher in the t-shirt and sandals is harmless.

So you might be surprised to know that PutnumLive.com publisher and part-time substitute teacher Mark Vance Halburn was once arrested for strong-arm robbery (211 PC), a felony, in California.

Arrested in in 1989, he spent over a week in the San Bernardino County Jail before he was released for trial.

Halburn purchased a set of shelves that was allegedly missing a shelf. He went to the furniture factory while on his lunch break from his substitute teaching job and after allegedly making some threats, and forcing a worker to take a shelf out of another shelving unit, left with a new shelf. He was later arrested at home after the employee alleged that he had a gun.

Robbery is defined as taking of property from another against their will by means of force or fear. The force doesn't need to be anything other than simple physical force or threat of force along with the intent to coerce and prevent resistance. There don't even have to be any weapons involved.

Strong-arm robbery is exactly what the name implies, a robbery committed through physical force or intimidation, or both. A robbery where the victim is punched or shoved, the classic mugging, is a strong-arm robbery under California law.

Many strong arm robberies are committed by people who are large and imposing in size. There is no actual weapon used. However they use their large size to bully a victim into handing over his valuables.

Starting to sound familiar now?
It's the classic Hallburn M.O.
Go to a furniture factory, get up in a clerk's face, make a lot of vague threats and bully them into coughing up a shelf.

Later at trial, the charges were reduced to disturbing the peace, to which Hallburn pled no contest and was placed on one year's probation.

Ironically, after he was released, Halburn never got the shelf back.

HALLBURN BANNED FROM PUTNAM PARKS

Sociopath Substitute Served


Once again, Mark Halburn has been banned.
This time it's from all Putnam County Parks and Recreation facilities.





The ban stems from Halburn's continued harassment of Putnam County Commissioner/Putnam County Parks and Recreation Commisioner Joe Haynes, his wife Karen and Parks and Recreation Director Scott Williamson. Halburn is obsessed about the yearly closure of Waves of Fun before Labor Day and has had a vendetta against Haynes for years..

Last month when Halburn attacked Commissioner Haynes, Haynes rightly called the pudgy publisher a "borderline psycho."

So, no one should be surprised that Director Williamson sent Halburn a letter banning him from all Putnam County parks. The order was served via telephone by Captain Larry Wingo of the Hurricane Police Department.



You may recall that Halburn has been arrested several times. The most recent incident happened in Kanawha County, when he attempted to force his way into a closed swimming pool. He was arrested for trespassing. Halburn was then humiliated in court last year when he was convicted of all charges in both Kanawha County Magistrate Court and in Kanawha Circuit Court. The audio of that trial is available only on PutnamLIES.com. He also narrowly avoided arrest last spring when he was escorted by police from a Charlotte NC motel.

Hallburn vows to get his crack legal team working immediately to get the ban lifted, if they will take the case on contingency.

Even with this latest order we expect that Halburn will continue to harass and stalk public officials because he won't be deterred by legalities. The easiest way for Halburn to avoid tough legal action is to act ethically. Which, as we all know is impossible for him, since he has no ethics.

Hallburn isn't the first nut to be banned from public property. And he won't be the last. It shows how deranged he is that Putnam County officials have to ban him from our parks.
As his court ordered mental report states: "Given his degree of agitation and volatility, any threats made by Mr. Halburn should be taken seriously and dealt with appropriately."
They obviously acted on our advice of September 20th when we suggested, "PutnamLIES.com has long said that the Parks And Recreation Commission should ban Halburn from any coverage of future Dog Swims and ban him from visiting Putnam County Parks. He's a ticking time bomb."



We applaud Commissioner Haynes and Director Williamson for taking this step to protect themselves, their families and the people of Putnam County from this menace to public safety.

Related articles:

Hallburn Verbally Attacks Joe Haynes - Again
 
Sprayground Won't Open This Summer - That's OK

Halburn Disrupts Dog Swim

Putnam County Pool Finally Re-Opens

Dog Swim Cost Parks No More Than $250

Hallburn Calls Haynes A "Bitch"

Why Does Mark Hallburn Hate Dogs?

Convicted Pool Trespasser Hallburn Boo-Hoos About Closed Pool

Halburn Announces Crack Legal Team

Since Halburn just got fired (again) from his most recent job scrubbing shitters, he needed someone to scapegoat, so this time he picked everyone. He announced a scheme to silence his critics by threatening to sue them.
Again.
This is what, like the 423rd time, fucknob?
PutnamLIES.com has uncovered the secret details of his plan.

Halburn was overheard saying, "I have assembled the finest legal team this country has ever seen. I'm suing everybody for everything. As a matter of fact I'm waiting on a million dollar check from a doctor even as we speak. They were not professional and were rude to me. They will pay!!! Everybody will pay!!!"

Halburn has gone back to his former baby sitting duties in the public school system. He was last seen rubbing his pudgy little hands together, drooling and saying how he REALLY missed the kids.

Watch your children.
Their pictures could be in his manpurse.

Hallburn Verbally Attacks Joe Haynes - Again

County Psychopath Continues To Harass Commissioner

For some reason, every year when the pools close, Halburn takes it as a personal affront to himself.
It's always some evil conspiracy to prevent him from swimming, usually headed up by his nemesis, County Commissioner Joe Haynes. Then, as always, he goes on a FOIA fishing expedition.

Earlier this year, after his latest FOIA, he said that, "the commission produced some documents that proved it cost more than $1,142 to maintain Waves of Fun for the Dog Swim."
They produced nothing of the sort. They produced an electric bill and an invoice for some chemicals. The monetary amount was something he pulled out of his big ass. Which proved nothing. PutnamLIES.com proved it cost less than $250 to hold the swim last year.

During that Dog Swim, he browbeat Putnam County Commissioners Steve Andes and Joe Haynes and harassed them both with questions about the dog swim. Andes didn't answer. Haynes wisely refused to speak to PutnumLIVE.com, Halburn's opinion blog.

That's a typical tactic for Hallburn. He exhibited similar boorish behavior at a doctor's office last week.

Then Halburn trots out the old tired canard of the so-called Park Commission firings. Hallburn tries to say that Parks Commission President Sally Holliday didn't resign from the Parks Commission. Again, with Halburn it's all about semantics. It all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is. This fat fuck is greasier than Slick Willy.

It's just more Hallburn bullshit. He always spins the story to make it more favorable to himself and his friends.

Here's what really happened.
In February 2006, Halburn's hand puppet Cordie Hudkins was fired over his belligerence and bad attitude. Sally Holliday said at that time that she would resign on March 10. Parks Commissioner John Samples also planned to resign at the same time.
At the County Commission meeting at the end of February, both were notified that their terms were up and they were replaced with new members.
Holliday's term had actually expired in August 2004 but she continued to serve beyond then because county commissioners had not updated the commission.
Replacing Holliday and Samples was nothing more than a response to their intention to resign.

But it gives Halburn another reason to attack Haynes. Fast forward to 2011. Halburn acts like the date for the Dog Swim was picked the week before Labor Day and the weather was known. Wrong again, lardass. It was scheduled at the end of July. Nobody knew what the weather was going to be.

Due to the rain on Labor Day, the Dog Swim was canceled, and re-scheduled for the following Saturday. Halburn says, "Again, humans were denied the right to swim in their pool for a week before Labor Day Weekend, including Sunday when it was 88 degrees."
Was it 88 degrees on Sunday? Maybe it was. But was also pouring the rain.

So at the dog swim, Halburn barges through the gates of Waves of Fun and immediately accosts Commissioner Haynes and begins harassing him by shouting questions at him in his squealy, high pitched, lispy voice. Which Halburn apparently thinks is tough but fair.

Then Haynes responded: "I won't talk to you. I refuse to talk to you," and added "You're a psychopath, stay away from me." Halburn then states, "Coming from Haynes, that's a compliment." No, crisco, coming from anyone that's the truth.

Haynes also added, "You've been arrested."
Halburn then tries to deflect attention away from his criminal record by saying, "What he failed to state for everyone within earshot is that this publisher was acquitted-twice-of politically motivated charges based on lies. Twice. And one of those false arrests was instigated by the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Commission."

Yeah? Prove it, lippy.
Your mouth and your actions are what get you arrested.

What you failed to state is that you were convicted of trespassing at a Kanawha County pool. Was that arrest politically motivated? Was your California arrest for strong-arm robbery politically motivated?

At that point Halburn turned and ran away like the pussy that he is.
Raymond Joe Haynes does not have to answer to you about anything, Hallburn. Your questions, coverage and attitude are neither tough nor fair.

We don't blame Hallburn for being an insufferable asshole. Few people would want the world to know that they can't hold a full time job and that they have a severe personality disorder. The mentally ill often do not know they're mentally ill. Verbally attacking public servants because of a vendetta is an old, tired game that the public can see through. And we know Hallburn doesn't want people to know about his bullying tactics, because of his reaction last week to his outburst at a local doctors' office. However, as long as Halburn chooses to act this way in public he is fair game.

With the proliferation of audio and video recorders on everyone's phones, PutnamLIES.com has a suggestion. If you are being harassed by Mark Halburn or see him harassing ANYONE, take out your phone and start recording. If he tries to intimidate you into stopping, keep on recording. It is your defense against him. Then send it to us. If enough people did this it would really expose his behavior to those who he'd rather not have see it. Remember, many people believe his bullshit because it's the only side of the story that they hear.

There is a way that Hallburn can avoid such scrutiny in the future: Let the humans and their dogs enjoy Waves of Fun and stop harassing the citizens of West Virginia. Or he could die in a fire.

PutnamLIES.com has long said that the Parks And Recreation Commission should ban Halburn from any coverage of future Dog Swims and ban him from visiting Putnam County Parks. He's a ticking time bomb.

You're lucky I'm not running the show, Hallburn. I'd give you a roundhouse kick to the sack.

Stay tuned.

Putnam's Job Killers? Not Hardly.

Halburn's Negative Attitudes Killing Putnam County Jobs



Halburn's latest screed tries to blame Putnam County Commissioners Stephen H. "Steve" Andes, James H. "Jim" Caruthers, Raymond "Joe" Haynes, Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards and others for all the ills he sees in Putnam County's business climate.

He claims that business, transportation, and education projects have been killed by those local officials. He calls their voting records anti-business and anti-progress and says they're keeping business and progress from Putnam County which hurts our community and causes needless job losses.

That just isn't true.



As he did, we'll also start with the picture above this paragraph. That's a vacant lot behind the Mi Pueblito Mexican Restaurant, in Hurricane - near Gino's and Tudor's.



Halburn complains that in 2004, Putnam County Commissioners Steve Andes, Jim Caruthers, and Joe Haynes turned down a Tax Increment Funding proposal that was needed to build an office building and retail stores. The lot remains vacant, allegedly costing Putnam County construction, office, and retail jobs.

First of all, you stupid bastard, Joe Haynes wasn't even on the County Commission when this decision was made.
At that time the Commission President was Jim Withrow with Andes and Caruthers being the other two members. But that's just the kind of shoddy reporting we've come to expect from Putnam County's news loser.
(ed. note: After reading it here, Halburn went back and changed the name on his blog to Jim Withrow. You can send us a check for the proofreading, you fat fuck.) Tax Increment Funding money is created when a property is assessed before the property is developed, and then it is reassessed after development. The difference between the two tax values is used to pay back bonds that fund the development.

At the time, WV Commerce Secretary Kelley Goes said that the state approves tax increment financing for water, sewer, road and other "off-site" infrastructure improvement projects.
"We typically don't do retail and residential development," Goes said. "Our philosphy with TIF is you exhaust all other funding allocations, and TIF fills the gap."

So what is the real story here?
Developers approached the Commission about using TIF money to fund their project.
How much are we talking about here?
SIX MILLION DOLLARS!
And WHO are we talking about here?
Former barber and state senator Oshel Craigo.
The man who owns Gino's Pizza, Tudors Biscuit World and a string of other businesses and land all across the state.
He milked the people of West Virginia for 22 years in the WV Senate and then he then wanted them to finance his latest project.
A 16,000-square-foot office building and another building for retail stores. The office portion was to be occupied by the Department of Health and Human Resources which would then move from Teays Valley to Hurricane. Which, by the way, would have doubled the rent that they were paying.
The County Commission said no.
The site could have been developed without TIF funds, but it has not. The County Commission is not to blame for that.

Oshel Fucking Craigo can get financing on his own. He doesn't need the people of West Virginia to underwrite his development projects.
The County Commission's vote wisely saved the citizens' money.
They were right to keep the taxpayers from getting clipped again by Oshel the Barber.
Hallburn takes money from Craigo's companies for ads on his blog, a fact that he does not disclose.

His next whine is is about Rt 35 and another one of the politicians that he has a vendetta against, Karen Facemyer. Facemyer is another Putnam county representative that Hallburn has repeatedly harassed over his non-existent noise issues.



His complaint about this matter? He blames West Virginia
Senators Karen Facemyer, (R-4th) and Mike Hall, (R-4th) for not getting U.S. 35 completed, saying they "drank the "no tolls" Kool-Aid." After their constituents spoke out against any tolls on that road, they took the position that the segment could be built-without tolls. Which it could have been.
Facemyer and Hall both did something that is rare in politics today. They listened to the wishes of their constituents and acted accordingly. They did what they were elected to do.

Where was Hallburn during this debate? All over the map.

First he said "Finish the new US 35 - Even if it means tolls."
Later, when County Commissioner Haynes came out in favor of tolls if it would help complete the road, Halburn criticized him for it! Why? Because whatever Haynes is for, Halburn is against.
He criticized Mason County officials for changing their vote endorsing the tolls after they learned the tolls would increase yearly.

Like fellow liberal John Kerry, Hallburn was for the tolls before he was against them.

Then after the public outcry over the tolls and the was the whole matter was handled, Hallburn suddenly eschewed tolls and called for the road to be completed with tax dollars.
He even called Senator Hall " a genious" (sic) for his plan to finance the road through budget surplus money.

Looks like Hallburn has blisters on his fat ass from riding the fence on this matter. There's also a word for what he's doing here: hypocrisy.



Then there's the old Black family airstrip located just above the Hurricane Walmart and Hurricane Marketplace. Several years ago, the Blacks offered half of that property, free of charge, to Marshall University to build a Putnam County campus. Marshall said "No, thanks." The County Commission was even willing to sell bonds to finance the construction. The lot is still vacant.

We fail to see how any politician at any level is responsible for this. Marshall made a business decision. With the main campus less than 25 miles away in Huntington, regional centers in Teays Valley and Pt. Pleasant and a Graduate School in South Charleston, Marshall obviously saw no need to spend the money to build an unneeded facility in Hallburn's backyard.
Certainly Hallburn's profanity laden article about Marshall's plans to build a new center didn't help.



Next, he moves on to harping about the vacant land owned by the Putnam County Development Authority above the Hurricane Marketplace.

This time, he blames another one of his favorite whipping boys, Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards for the land not selling. Hallburn came up with a hare brained scheme that the PCDA donate the land as a park to create business traffic for the Hurricane Marketplace. Apparently, they're the bad guys for not giving away land paid for with public money.
He continues to complain that the Hurricane Marketplace still has six empty stores, refusing to recognize that the country is in the worst economic downturn since the great depression, overseen by his fellow über-liberal, President Barack Hussein Obama. And that malls across the country are suffering the same problem.

And, as usual, he unethically neglects to inform his 29 readers about his interest in developing that land. He thinks it will increase the value of second wife's run down property and make it easier to sell.

He continues to blame Edwards and the PCDA for not buying the dilapidated, overpriced property owned by his second wife and her mother by saying by saying that he has refused to redevelop the Walmart neighborhood. Halburn has compounded his stupidity and unwillingness to take responsibility for his own problems by refusing to build his own soundwall and plant his own trees to protect his family from the non-existent "excessive noise" from the store.

The photograph below shows the location in Teays Valley where Sheetz wanted to build.



Sheetz applied for a zoning variance with the Putnam County Planning Commission. It was denied.
The Planning Commission's reasoning?

Sheetz gave an inadequate explanation of safety issues associated with the location of a new traffic light. The site sits between two residential neighborhoods that are in extremely close proximity to the proposed light. A new traffic light could just as easily create problems which may be worse than what currently exists. Safety concerns were also raised regarding children at the bus stop at Green Acres and White Rock Subdivisions.
Sheetz had no answers about how to correct these problems, so the variance wasn't approved.
There's no evil intent. Just a common sense ruling. Sheetz is free to correct the problems, answer the questions and reapply.

Of course Hallburn's desire for a donut and a cup of coffee outweigh the need to keep our neighborhoods and children safe.

Hallburn says more jobs were killed by the politically-appointed bureaucrats. We think that Halburn was embarrassed once again because another project that he promised would happen fell through.

Then we get to the pools. Somehow we always do.

Every year at the end of the summer, Halburn starts complaining about the pools closing.
He whines that closing the pools before Labor Day puts lifeguards out of work.
No, numbnuts, the lifeguards are out of work because they're back in school. They voluntarily left their jobs. It doesn't effect the unemployment rate one iota. That's why the pools are closed. There are no customers. They're all back in school. It's not economically feasible to keep a pool open for a couple of swimmers a day. Try and get that through your thick skull, fatboy.

He continues his bitching saying in Eleanor, the Putnam County pool also closed early. Then he complains about the $158,000 renovation of the pool. After decades the shoddily built pool was in dire need of repairs. Somehow, Haynes, Andes, and the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Commissioners were apparently responsible for this damage even though they've only been in office a short time.



Then he complains about green water at the pool, saying they still aren't maintaining it properly. Of course they're not, asshole. THEY'RE NOT MAINTAINING IT AT ALL!!! The pool is closed for the winter. That's why it's only half full.

And then there's the Dog Swim. Started by Karen Haynes (who Hallburn called a bitch, by the way, because she is married to his enemy Joe Haynes) as a way to raise funds for a new county animal shelter, this has been a pet peeve of animal hater Mark Halburn since its inception. He moans about the fact that the pool is usually closed before the swim due to the lack of lifeguards, saying that in 2010 the swim, which is only for a few hours on one day, cost more than $1,142 by using some arcane mathematical calculations. PutnamLIES.com proved those numbers wrong when we determined the actual cost for the day was only $250.



The next dead horse he attempts to whip is the proposed kiddie pool at Waves of Fun in Valley Park. In the grass below the wave pool he says there should be a kiddie pool.



And once again, you guessed it, it's all Andes, Caruthers, and Haynes' fault for turning down a $250,000 grant and canceling the kiddie pool project.
No, what they did was turn down a grant that would have required the taxpayers of Putnam County to cough up a matching $250,000 in order to receive that grant.

 














And once again Hallburn talks about screwing kids.


This is the photo Mark Hallburn stole from Scott Edwards and added to his opinion blog.

Earlier this year, Hurricane Mayor Scott D. Edwards brought out a group of children for the groundbreaking ceremony of the sprayground at Hurricane City Park. It was supposed to open by August. However, Edwards wisely decided to save the taxpayers money by having city workers install the facility instead of spending $50,000 $100,000 to hire outside contractors.



What's Hallburn's problem?
Project delays prevented the pool from opening this summer.
Now, crews will have plenty of time to get things right instead of rushing the installation only to have the facility open for a couple of weeks at the end of the season. That $50,000 $100,000 Hallburn claims that Hurricane would have quickly made it up by families flocking to the town and shopping before and after the kids enjoy the sprayground. That kind of money is not generated by people swimming ALL SUMMER, much less in two weeks. Once again Halburn demonstrates his lack of business acumen by saying that positive publicity would have been valued at more than $50,000.
Publicity isn't worth shit, lardass. If it was, your negative publicity would have run you out of town years ago.

There's a pattern here: If it's one of Hallburn's political enemies: attack, attack, attack.



Hallburn isn't finished with his stupidity. He has this lame brain idea to to rename Orchard Park Road and Saturn Way to Hurricane Motor Mall, as if that's going to sell some cars.. Calling something a "motor mall" doesn't make it so. It's not any government's job to tell businesses what name to operate under. This is just one more just another way for him to attack Scott Edwards.

If Hallburn is serious about jobs, there a few things he can do.

First, get one himself.

Second, hire some employees for his oh so successful & lucrative opinion blog.

Third, move the "offices" of that oh so successful & lucrative opinion blog out of his second wife's basement into one of the vacant storefronts that he is constantly complaining about.

And fourth and most importantly, stop running down and harassing those business and government leaders that he disagrees with.

After all, how many businesses want to locate in an area where they have to worry about some asswipe with a blog badgering and extorting them into taking out an ad or have to worry about him making a scene because he thinks someone treated him rudely?

As for Hallburn, the gutless pussy with all the answers doesn't even have the balls to run for election, because he knows he would be soundly defeated for any office that he would run for and his inflated ego won't let him accept that fact. Putnam County voters are pretty smart, they see through his act.
But you really wouldn't expect a "man" who won't take responsibility for his own problems to take responsibility for others, would you?

Stop blaming everyone else for the problems you've created for yourself, crisco and look in the mirror. If you're so goddamn smart and have all the solutions, step up. Show your true colors and run for office. Negativity kills jobs!
Put up or shut up!