Beaufort County Voice

You have to admire the creativity of the Beaufort County School board. They could have simply ignored the calls for work to stop on the Whale Branch High School, as they have in the past. Not this time though.
With one hand, they moved to halt construction, but not only on WBHS, but on the Bluffton Schools too. JR Ewing himself would have been proud of them. They sent a ‘be careful what you wish for’ message to opponents of the money-wasting project.

The motion failed of course.

We were told about how much money would be wasted if contruction was halted. Between $13.2 million and $19.2 million. So now they are suddenly concerned about wasting money? Looking at the breakdown, I’m doubtful that even that is accurate.
The sum includes $6.3 million already spent on the project. How can that be counted as a cost of stopping construction, as it’s already been spent whatever happens?

Opposition to the building of this school is growing. Even BT is against it now. But why now? Why not last year, or the year before? Why not when the Carey Report said it wasn’t needed? the fact that we are in a recession hasn’t changed the projected attendance figures, or the amount of money it will cost. 

Nobody can say they were unaware of the argument against it, so why was it alright to waste the money then, but not now?

Is there anybody out there who actually parts with money for some of the goods advertised on TV?

I’m thinking particularly of the various miracle dieting products we seem to be bombarded with.The first thing I want to know is, how can a new product have so many success stories? There are always a bunch of people who went from the size of a whale, (for some reason shown in black and white), to  lean, mean supermodel proportions, presumably overnight, since the product responsible only just came out.

If you look closer, you’ll see the disclaimer, “Results not typical”, when they show these before and after images. Well, wouldn’t you expect a product that is supposed to make you lose weight to do just that, typically?

The best one is the inevitable words of wisdom, usually in small print, that the product is designed to work as part of a program of healthy diet and exercise. I will go out on a limb here, and say that if, at 2.30pm every day, you stand on one foot and say “Arooga!” three times for six months, you will lose weight if you also adopt a regime of healthy diet and exercise.

Considering the amount of money that is spent on the advertising of these products, they must sell like hot cakes, presumably sugar-free, low carb hot cakes.

So, Whale Branch High is in the news again. The School Board appear to be keeping a low profile about it. The questions they are being asked are not new. The main one is, “Why are we building a school that will be, at best, only 50% occupied?”

To back down now would be the right and honourable thing to do. It would also be admitting that they have spent the last 10 years pushing for a school that has never been justified. �

Something is seriously wrong when Wall Street bigwigs use one hand to hold out for a bailout payment, while the other hand pockets billions of dollars in ‘bonuses’. 

Just who is feeling the pinch because of this recession? The man in the street cetainly is. His house is probably worth less than he owes on it, his wages are going up less than the cost of living, and his job may even have a limited lifespan.On the other hand, those who probably caused this recession are barely affected at all. 

The worlds of finance, banking, insurance and oil have a lot to answer for, but we all know that they will never have to answer for it.This isn’t how its supposed to be.�

It’s interesting to read the various accounts by various officials as to why the vote was so close.

Board member George Wilson said he isn’t sure why. Joan Derry suggests a lack of trust between the voters and the District. Chairman Fred Washington puts it down to people being in “a tough spot finacially”.

They all seem to have missed the fact that almost all the critisisn I saw, was based on the fact that the referendum shopping list was stacked with un-necessary items that if removed, would have saved the taxpayers millions of dollars.

Funny how things can slip by un-noticed isn’t it? Â