Gone but not forgotten

My temporary absence has seen many changes in my county. Mr. Young is no longer manipulating the Banner, Walmart is coming in, Meijers is coming too. The FOC is still the most immoral branch of county government but hopefully will follow other unethical operations paths (Drunken County Sheriffs, Narcotic trafficker loving prosecutors, etc...). Talk is that Pennock hospital is being eyed by a larger hospital for some type of merger/take over. News was that Viking was sold and was closing/moving but they are holding an "employment fair" tomorrow. The Charlton Park is running much smoother and is now funded. 911 is a done deal with just a disgruntled employee tossing a lawsuit around. Both the new prosecutor and the Sherriff are doing their work as they should (both have disgruntled residents tossing rotten apples, lol). The new addition to the Medical facility is now in operation and tendercare has killed someone (kind of like Pennock but without the cover up). Several new banks are in town and at least one of the originals is suffering greatly in this baking crunch.

Guess I shouldn't be away for so long!

Mish Mash

Whew! It appears I kicked a bees nest in another blog. Seems others are not so tolerant of differing opinions and have abundant amounts of anger just waiting to spill out. Add to this that like individuals with anger issues seem to group together. So be it I guess.

Pennock Hospital is still at it. Thier Environmental Services supervisor, Mike Strimback, demoted a competent person from his old position of lead maintenance man and placed in his spot his hunting buddy instead. This buddy has a well known reputation of doing nothing and arguing that for hours. I bet it won't be long before they are back to forging maintenance documents just like they were under Mike's time in that position. watch out for JACHO Mike. They will not be so forgiving as the board of Pennock.

And Pennock was awarded something for being in the "top one hundred small hospitals" but won't release the criteria or any names of other hospitals concidered for the award. I am betting that not more than a hundred or so hospitals filled the slot thereby ensuring Pennock an award. Yes the facility is good, most of the medical personel are great, but management there is a major reason Pennock will never be a "Metro" or a "Spectrum". Why is it the hospital had to hire a "PR" man? Can not their reputation stand on it's own?

The Wymer's are back at it. Seems Ms. Wymer has a warrant for her arrest again. I just happen to have stumbled on to it. I am not sure what it is for at this point but I do know it exists. Seems our court system is going to spend some more time dealing with this bunch.

Wal Mart is making a push to build a super Wal Mart behind Family tree Medical. Many are lining up against it and many are lining up for it. I am not sure there is much anyone can do to stop it if the waltons want to build it. The best that can be hoped for is that Walmart will pay for all of the raod improvements and other extra costs resulting from thier building in our county. I can't believe they don't get enough business from us from thier surrounding stores though. I bet thier other strores will lose business to this one if it is built. I can't see how that will improve thier "bottom line".

Have a great week!

Anger in Barry County

So much anger in Barry County.

Two weeks ago Don Johnson wrote a letter to the Banner and it was published in the letters to the editor. In this letter he made many harsh and very untrue statements concerning race, our country’s history, and what should be the outcome of the Dickinson murder case suspect. This letter was not truly surprising to those that are regular readers of the Banner as we have witnessed Don’s letters in the past. He always seems to be attacking someone, somewhere.

What was so surprising was the response to this particular letter. Instead of someone rebutting the claims of the letter most wrote in to personally attack the writer and even the paper for publishing the letter. And if that were not bad enough, a few even went so far as to personally attack David Young as he is the one ultimately responsible for the letters published. Only one writer, Stacy Garrison, attempted to take this on in a constructive manner. He mentioned several black famous people and somewhat refrained from attacks.

My hats off to you Stacy.

What was even more interesting was the writers on several blog sites concerning Barry County. Most of these writers took the low road themselves and made personal attacks. Even when one was challenged to do this in a positive manner the writer choose to continue with bigotry and verbal assaults instead of taking on the actual subject. It seems this writer choose anonymity and cowardice instead of strength of character.

What this original letter did was expose so many like individuals. Even though they are on opposing sides of this matter, they are one and the same. They each carry the same anger, the same ignorance, and the same preset ideas. This is a very sad statement of the writers in this county.

Late but not forgotten

This is terribly late but it is something that is interesting to note concerning the Wymer drug case of '05 and '06.

Timothy and Melissa Wymer brought a motion to court in Late '06 in an attempt to force the ex husband of Melissa Wymer to allow unsupervised visits with her children. Judge Fisher presided over this hearing and was not his reserved self.
The Wymers were present along with several of thier followers but a notable absence was the guy representing the "Michigan Lawmens Association". I am speculating that due to the good judge reading him the riot act at the last hearing he attended he did not have the stomach to attend again. This is just a guess but pretty accurate I bet.

The hearing proceded smoothly being totally one sided testimony wise. The Wymers paraded several individuals to the stand that spent the time praising them as fine upstanding citizens - EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE BOTH CHARGED, CONVICTED, AND SERVED SENTANCE FOR BEING MAJOR DRUG DEALERS and that Mr. Wymer has a long history of violent charges and convictions! The Wymers should have brought an attorney as one of thier witnesses contradicted thier major complaint. The Judge was very patient and allowed this to continue until they exhausted thier witnesses. The Ex husband of Melissa offered no testimony or witnesses as the Wymers had done themselves in without his help.

What was the interesting thing here (and the reason of this blog) was that at the conclusion of the Wymers case, Judge Fisher stared them in the eye and told them how it trully was. He informed them that it was evident they were lying and that "no one in the courtroom" believed that the 32 pounds of drugs they were caught with was for thier "personal use" as they had testified. He also said that nothing presented that day convinced him that they were of sufficient parental quality to warrant any unsupervised visits and he was not going to allow Mr. Wymer to have any contact with the children at all (Which they have already violated).
And here is the REALLY interesting thing the Judge said. Judge Fisher made a point to say to Timothy Wymer that he should still be in prison. Judge Fisher informed him that he could only rule on the charges brought before him and "if he had faced the charges that should have been filed, you (Timothy) would sit in prison for many years".

Hmmm. Seems to be a pretty good stamp of approval for sending a past prosecutor down the road I would say.

A final observation here is that during the Judges comments, the Wymers did not react in any way. It was like they did not hear anything the judge was saying. They smiled and appeared as eager adolesents about to be given the family car for the first time. I don't think they get it yet. I also think this garrantees our courts will see these two again.

Pennock is still up to it's eyebrows in trouble

It appears Pennock Hospital is still operating as it always has. Slightly different players (with a few old line operators) but same game. As per a writer in today’s Banner, the head of environmental services, Mike Strimback, is still steering sweet deals to his family like the hospital is his rich uncle. It seems mike has eliminated a position involved with maintenance in the Pennock Village plus the overtime incurred maintaining the snow removal of the hospital and replaced it with contracted operators. This might be OK if it saved money (but I would bet it doesn't) but it should have been advertised instead of being handed out to his own family.

Yes, that’s right, his own family. You see, Mike’s second child is managing the company that was given the contract. In fact, as per an inside source, Mikes youngest son also works for this company.

Pennock has tried to contract maintenances services out in the past with no success. This was attempted by past management employees who are no longer in the employment of the hospital. It ended up costing the hospital much more money than if they had maintained their own maintenance department.

This family employment racket in the hospital's maintenance department is nothing new. Mike has had his 2 youngest boys working the department on many occasions; EVEN WHEN THERE WAS NO WORK AVAILABLE! The regular employees were ordered to "hide" the youngest even. Mike's wife was even employed in the same department for several years as HIS secretary. When a regular employee notified higher ups, he was let go. Those “higher ups” were let go themselves later, lol. My bet is that this current writer made the same mistake and tried to alert higher management of improper management practices occurring in his department.

I would think Pennock would have to march a much more “straight” path due to their recent troubles. This “family” employment in their maintenance department goes against any good management practices that I have ever known. It not only destroys moral in the department but it drops employee efficiency drastically as work that would normally be done by regular employees properly employed and trained for the job now is performed by untrained, unmotivated, and demoralized workers.

Pennock Hospital would have been much better off keeping Harry Doele and letting go untrained and uneducated maintenance employees. In fact, I wonder just what Management education or experience Mike himself might have. Doesn’t appear to be much if anything.

Wow, Pennock just can’t seem to get it right yet. Time to clean house some more.

Christmas Joy

We are now looking at Christmas time and hopefully living life to it's fullest. Our county is quiet (except for Nashville) and some major problems are solved or well on their way to being there. I have had some serous personal losses this year and am headed back into the hospital for further treatment so may not be here to write this on Christmas.I just want to take this moment and relay some very interesting things I have read lately.

first of all, one of my favorites observed this...

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the
Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the
Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the
atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each
other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy
Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!' --- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"

I hope we keep in mind just why this holiday occurs.

There are many I have encountered that cannot find anything to be greatful for. Thomas Jefferson made this remark concerning this very thing....


My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
-- Thomas Jefferson

You see, our self centered charactors are not something occurring as of late but have haunted us many, many generations.

This should be the time of the year we set our grievences aside and express our love for each other.We could not argue with others if they did not possess the same passions that we do. Where would we be if there was no opposition for each of us? think how lonely this would be.
there are many (myself included) that do not have another to share this time of year with. Yet for the most part we continue with life in a positive fashion. What I have found is that life can be rewarding ...

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what
we give."
Jeanne White, Simme Valley, Groton, NY

as I have ample material possessions and enough resources to obtain whatever I desire but my true fulfillment is in my helping those that do not have what I do and are suffering.

I guess what I am propositioning everyone to do is to for at least once this season, exchange your complaints with help for another. Instead of tearing someone down, help someone in need. If you know a family without a tree, get them one. if you know a child whose mother or father is not present, be there for them. the return on this investment will stagger you.

I would like to leave you with this saying my father said to me when I was a child. I am not sure he originated it but it does lay the basis for my beliefs.

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by
your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the
Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children ."

Take care. Pray for each other. let your loved ones know you love them. Someday they may not be there to do so.

Silence in Barry County

I am back partime durring my recovery. The last year has been pretty rough in this neighborhood. Between health/personal/politics/work/school I have been running from fire to fire. Now that the fires have receded for the most part I can look over the edge again but i am not seeing much.
There are no major drug deals, no major trials, it appears the major dumbells still in office in this county are on borrowed time and know it, AND even the bloggers have mellowed a bit.
The courts have rendered a couple of good decisions, the 911 director is behaving, no state troopers have been accused of anything, and the city police are even refraining from further extramarital affairs and/or drunk driving.
We have a decent sheriff, a good prosecutor, and the FOC is either sleeping or has figured out they had been doing more damage than good.

Could it be that I have been sick for so long that I just haven't seen/heard of the usual misbehavior?

Christmas is coming. Do you think everyone is afraid if they are bad Santa won't bring them anything?