OPINION: Commissioner Raymond "Joe" Haynes

 











Mark Halburn's Vendetta Continues

Joe Haynes is being harassed. And one man is connected to all of it: Domestic terrorist Mark Vance Halburn. 

For years Halburn has had a vendetta against Putnam County Commissioner Joe Haynes.

Halburn has also harassed Haynes' wife, Karen, going so far as to call her "a bitch." He also stalks them at every opportunity he can find.
Why?

It stems from Haynes and the County Commission's refusing Halburn's demands to buy his second ex-wife's overpriced house next to the Hurricane Walmart.

Halburn's latest screed manages to repeat the same old shit he's been bitching about for years and twisting the truth to suit himself, as usual.

Let's take a look.

 

Halburn railed endlessly about the condition of the old shelter and now that the new shelter is under construction he is still complaining.

The old shelter was an unsanitary small temporary building built almost 30 years ago and was in poor condition.

Halburn complained that the construction costs were having to be raised privately, but  when the Commission voted to commit $2.3 million to the project, he complained about that too.

Karen Haynes helped spearhead the raising of more than $200,000 for the new center, and also worked to acquire a parcel of land from the State of West Virginia valued at $120,000, hundreds of thousands of dollars that taxpayers of Putnam County won't have to spend.

Combined with historically low bond rates, taxpayers will save hundreds of thousands of dollars more. And donations are still being accepted at The First State Bank, in Teays Valley.

He also complained endlessly about the annual Dog Swim, used to raise funds for that project.

Now he calls the new construction "gold plated"
 

Gold plated? Not hardly.

The new Animal Shelter will have twice the capacity of the old one, a surgical suite, visitation rooms and room for expansion in the future. Not extravagant. Not fancy. Certainly not "gold plated."

Halburn pretends to be an animal lover, but when he was living at his 2nd ex-wife's house, he allowed his dog to roam loose, where he was a hazard to drivers in Walmart's parking lot. He later abandoned the dog and moved to South Carolina after his 2nd ex wife had him evicted from her house. The dog eventually had to be euthanized.

"El Oroso"

Halburn also struck and injured a dog in Hurricane with his car and then had the nerve to go to the owner's house and demand that the owner pay for some alleged damage to Halburn's car. Damage Halburn didn't "discover" until hours after he struck the animal.

It's clear Mark 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. 

You may have seen the new Valley Park addition. Halburn objects to that too.

The county bought 5.6 acres of land adjacent to Valley Park for $735,000. That money was taken from Tax Increment Financing funds. The fund is made up of money from growth in property taxes from a specific area of Teays Valley set aside several years ago for infrastructure improvements. Exactly the type of project the fund was set up for. No debt was created. In land hungry Teays Valley, when a piece of property becomes available that's adjacent to a park, you don't want to let that slip through your fingers.

An additional $1.4 million was spent for the actual construction of an additional t-ball field, soccer field, a much needed replacement for the maintenance building (oddly enough, the old one burned in 2009. Where was Halburn?), and a long overdue new entrance to the park. 

What Halburn calls "a costly "one room schoolhouse" (frame only)" is in reality a large picnic shelter modeled after the old one-room schoolhouse in Eleanor. The "pig pen" he complains about is actually a sandbox for children.

The new section brings the park right down to Teays Valley Road, making it more visible and more accessible to area citizens

He goes on to blame Haynes for all the woes at the Putnam County Health Department, where Haynes sits on the Board. Strangely enough he doesn't mention any of the other Board members, Jim Dillon, Ryan Lockhart or Gary Sigman.

The Board is not responsible for the day to day operation of the Health Department. That is the administrator's job.
Once the Board found out about the financial problems they requested an audit which is in the process of being completed.

The PCHD made a request for request for $186,000  in emergency funds from the state but later withdrew it because the PCHD couldn't answer required questions IN THE TIME FRAME THAT THE STATE WANTED.

And he complains about the Department renting space in the Teays Center.
He would be complaining if the county had decided to build their own building too. He'd offer some limp dick reason like, "The county is wasting tax dollars. They're depriving landlords of the chance to rent their property. The new building is gold plated."

Halburn got pissed that a Putnam County Health Department Sanitarian Carey Eden was driving a county-owned vehicle-to her home in Cabell County.

Halburn's solution?
Hop in his Korean subcompact and follow that employee home. That's right. He followed her home and then took a picture. 15 miles from the office. He stalked her for 15 miles to Milton and photographed her house. Literally 5 miles from the county line.

It's more than 15 miles to Buffalo. How about Liberty? That's over 20 miles. Should they be able to drive there?

There's no law against county employees driving county vehicles home. There's not even a policy. It's often more efficient to take a vehicle home and get an early start on visits instead of driving to the office to get one. 

Halburn's animus towards the health department stems from former administrator Jacqueline Fleshman's refusal to submit to Halburn's innumerable FOIA fishing expeditions. Combined with information fed to him by a disgruntled employee, Halburn continues to harass that Department. It got him arrested there in April.

Somehow all of this is Joe Haynes' fault too.

And then there are the pools. It always comes down to the pools with this fat fuck.

Remember when the Putnam County Pool was closed because it fell apart due to lack of maintenance?

Built in the 1970s, the pool suffered from years of neglect and continued to deteriorate under the reign of Halburn's hero, Director Cordie Hudkins and former Parks and Recreation President Sally Holliday.  

After decades, the shoddily built pool was in dire need of repairs. Nothing was done under the "leadership" of Hudkins.

Somehow though, in Halburn's lizard brain, Haynes is apparently responsible for the damage.

Instead, through the leadership of Putnam County Commissioners Stephen H. "Steve" Andes, Raymond "Joe" Haynes, and their Parks and Recreation Director Scott W. Williamson, a $138,000 liner was installed to repair the pool and it is now back in operation.

Then there was the decision to, in Fatboy's words, "give back" a $250,000 grant to build a Kiddie Pool at Waves of Fun.
 
In reality, what happened was the County Commission UNANIMOUSLY turned down the grant because it required that the taxpayers of Putnam County cough up a matching $250,000 in order to receive that grant.
There was no money "given back." The grant was never accepted.

Joe Haynes and the other Commission members saved the county's citizens money. Smart commissioners don't take on $250,000 in debt.

 








What is it that makes Halburn obsessed with pools? Could it be that there are lots of children there for him to photograph? Just askin'.

Sour grapes? You bet.

Halburn is a bitter, mentally defective, obese, balding middle aged man with two failed marriages, who refuses to make court ordered payments to his second ex-wife, has at least 6 arrests under his XXXL belt, an inability to hold even the most menial of jobs and the fact that if he ever does find gainful employment he will never be able to retire, Halburn is always looking for a scapegoat to blame his failed life on. This week apparently he has chosen Joe Haynes. Again.
It's just more empty bloviating from a pathetic sociopath with no future.

The record is clear: This responsible leadership of The County Commission has one consistent vote: Raymond "Joe" Haynes. Putnam County voters are happy with the job he is doing. They have returned him to office for a second term.

He and the other Commissioner are doing exactly what they were elected to do. Be wise stewards of the public's money.

Thousands Of Animals Put To Death - Joe Haynes Had Nothing To Do With Any Of Them

When Putnam County Commissioner Joe Haynes voted to move forward with the new Putnam County Animal Shelter, he made a point of saying that when he took office he became aware of the terrible condition of the current Putnam Animal Relief Center.

The current shelter is nearly 30 years old, overcrowded and in disrepair. During Haynes' February 14th, 2012 comments, he made the point that replacing the shelter is his priority. 

Halburn blames the numbers of euthaniasias on Commissioner Haynes. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

None of this is Joe Haynes' fault.

Halburn filed yet another in a long string of Freedom of Information Act requests to find out how many animals were put to death at the PARC during Haynes' seven years as commissioner.
We didn't have to file a FOIA to get the same numbers. According to a phone call we made, in 2009, 1743 animals were euthanized. In 2010 - 1866. In 2011 - 2087.
What do these numbers mean? They mean more animals were taken in. The percentage of animals put to sleep stayed virtually the same.

Halburn says the numbers are troubling, and they are. But what he doesn't tell you is that the exact thing happens at virtually every shelter in the country. Far more animals are euthanized than adopted.
It is a shelter's goal to find homes for 100% of adoptable animals, but unfortunately there are many animals that come through the doors that may be unadoptable for a variety of reasons.
Many animals that are received are injured, have serious disease or other major health issues, or are aggressive. In many cases, the most humane solution for these animals is to euthanize them. These are policies shared by the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States, and the American Humane Association, among others. Sometimes, in extreme overcrowding situations, animals are euthanized due to space.
The employees of the shelter are not bloodthirsty ghouls. They have a hard job. They don't want to put these animals down, but there is no other choice.



The new Putnam County Animal Shelter will be able to hold about twice as many animals as the PARC, which means that the numbers of euthanizations will probably go up even more. Sad, but true.
Kanawha County puts 200-300 animals to sleep every month.



The new shelter, near Eleanor, will be completed in 2013, giving Putnam County a first class facility in which to care for animals.

The only animal that needs to be put to sleep in this case is Mark Halburn.

Related article: 
New Animal Shelter: Halburn Gets Nothing!

New Animal Shelter: Halburn Gets Nothing!

Hallburn Continues To Harass Haynes Over Shelter Spending

In February, the Putnam County Commission voted to spend 2.3 million dollars to finish the construction of a new 10,000 square foot Putnam County Animal Shelter. Commissioner Joe Haynes praised the volunteers, led by his wife, Karen, for raising more than $200,000. Haynes says about $70,000 of that money is left.

Hallburn is now demanding to know where that $130,000 that the volunteers raised was spent and with whom. What was the bidding process?

It's none of PutnumLIVE.com's business.

He then filed yet another of his endless string of Freedom of Information Act requests with Putnam County Manager Brian Donat. Donat responded by telling Halburn that the funds were not county funds so he had no record of the spending.

He continued to harass Karen Haynes about the money.
She wisely refused to answer his questions.

At the Reindog Parade in December 2011, Halburn had his fat toady Lawrence J. Smith ask Haynes the same thing. She refused to answer his questions, knowing Smith was sent there to do Halburn's dirty work.

Halburn then sent a letter to Haynes' home demanding a listing of expenditures, and the corresponding bids. That letter was not answered.

Hallburn continued his harassment of Karen Haynes. In February he confronted her again. He chased her into a room at the courthouse where she was forced to retreat for her own protection, while Halburn screamed at her to answer the questions.

Now, he's whining about it on his blog.

He continues to ask the same questions:

What was the $130,000 spent on?

None of your business.

Who was the money spent with?

None of your business.

What was the bidding process for each project?

None of your business. They didn't have to bid it at all if they didn't want to.

Some of the money went to Pray Construction for site preparation. So Halburn wants to know:

How much was Pray paid?

It makes no difference. It's none of your business.

What was the bidding process?
Who cares? It was their money to spend as they wish. Private parties are not required to solicit bids. Pray was picked because they were the best qualified.

Volunteers worked for years to raise the $200,000. The money raised was private funds that donors expected would be used to privately build a new animal shelter. The donors trusted the Putnam Animal Relief Center Fund to spend the money wisely. Which they have done.
The donations were spent on the 14 acres of land itself, site preparation, including surveying, moving a gas line, engineering, excavating and grading the site so it's ready for construction.
How a private non-profit organization spends their money is none of your business, Halburn. They still have that $70,000 to spend on amenities for the shelter once it is completed.

Let's be clear: This was private money. Nobody has to show you anything about it. They owe you nothing.
The only thing that has to be publicly disclosed is the spending of public money. Now that tax dollars will be spent, the required bidding processes and spending disclosures will be made.

Karen Haynes owes you nothing. Except her contempt.

Now get out of town, you fat fuck.

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

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!

Dog Swim Cost Parks No More Than $250

Dog swim 2010 was not a very expensive project.

No more than $250 was spent by the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Department to maintain and operate Waves of Fun for the September 6th, Labor Day fundraiser.

Halburn goes through all sorts of contortions trying to prove that it cost an exorbitant amount of money to hold this event. And as usual, he lies to his shrinking readership.
He does this by including the week before in his costs. The pool closed for the season on August 29.



First of all you can't determine a day's cost by of electricity by dividing the total of the bill by 30 days. You can get an average cost, but not the true usage cost. Costs are based on peak and non peak hours. Nights, Saturday and Sundays are non peak times.
Weekends cost less than weekdays.
There is also the basic cost of operating the facility. Even during the winter when it's closed, it uses approximately 4000 kwh a month in electricity.

Using Hallburn's suspect math for utilities & chemicals, + Scott Williamson's personnel numbers it looks like the cost for the swim was somewhere around $211.25.

Electricity $93.75
Chemicals $37.50
Personnel $80.00
---------------------
Total $211.25

The pool was closed for the preceding 7 days. The water wasn't treated or filtered. Since the pumps weren't on there wasn't any wear and tear on them that week so that cost is zero.

The days the pool was closed is immaterial to the cost of the fundraiser. The day of the swim the water was treated then the next day the pool was drained.

Halburn just doesn't get it. He whines every year about the pools closing before labor day. He just can't seem to get it through his thick skull that you can't open a pool if you have no lifeguards.
The kids are back in school so there's no one to go to the pools anyway.
He thinks the pools should stay open just to serve him.
Should a pool stay open an extra week just to serve a handful of patrons?
We say no.
Would he be willing to pay an admission fee based on the number of swimmers that use the pool that week? We don't think so.

$211.25.
Not a big price to pay such for a good cause.
Karen Haynes, organizer of the Dog Swim, reported that the event raised exactly 1884.58 dollars this year.

Hallburn complains that the county doesn't do enough to fund the construction of a new animal shelter, but when they do he complains about that too. He is the worst type of hypocrite.

Halburn will do or say anything to put his political enemies in the worst light.
His petty personal vendettas are not news. He is not a journalist and his opinion blog is not a media outlet.