The Alleghany Traveler: Learning About Drones & More
Drones, Radio Thoughts, Town Notes, Coffee & Biscuits... |
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I simply cannot do without her: that's what I always tell my mare, "Calypso." She's been so loyal for so long that I always try to remember to do one more thing for her in response.
Occasionally, I'll braid her mane, brush her tail and take some extra effort to make sure her hooves are not clogged with debris. Her job is to take me all over the Highlands area "on demand" and for that service she regularly gets grain and a beautiful pasture with an adjoining pond to enjoy when I put her out.
It wasn't that long ago that a female vet friend of mine sent me a radiograph (that's what vets call X-rays) of a horse's hoof whose owner had called to report was lame. My vet friend arrived on the scene, lifted the horse's hoof and didn't see anything wrong. But the horse clearly was in pain. So, with her portable radiograph machine, she soon found the problem. The horse had stepped upon a 2 inch needle, which had gone "eye up" into her hoof area. Imagine the pain if YOU had done this, but couldn't tell anybody about it!
My vet friend got out her instruments and poof, in almost no time, relieved the horse from an awful situation. A little antibiotic cream was applied and the animal was back in business. Ah, the wonders of new technology!
On Friday, Calypso quickly took me up Michigan Ave. in Covington, making the relatively simple climb in no time. We pulled into the parking area where the "Flying Circus" was set up and I was able to join many others in watching high speed drones doing what most of us would consider an aerial obstacle course.
Folks, this was way beyond cool - it was ultra cool. What was going on here is the beginning of a new "industry," as young people adopt technology and use it not just for fun and "recreation," but apply it in so many innovative ways that it is nothing short of amazing.
During my brief visit, I met and talked with people from many states who, without exception, felt compelled to tell me how beautiful our area was and how welcome they all felt. Here's another thing I noticed about this crowd: These were professionals of all kinds, not just kids with planes and "quads." I met a computer engineer, two high-end computer programmers, a doctor, an airline pilot (747s and more) and several other really, really smart guys. There was no lack of pure brain power on site, that's for sure.
(There is the belief in some quarters that drone flying is done by a bunch of folks who don't respect personal privacy and want to fly their units over your house just in case they can find somebody half-naked in your back yard getting a sun tan. I don't doubt that if somebody can dream up something creepy like this, it might happen. In my personal case, I am on record of telling one local drone operator this: "If you fly your drone over my property, I WILL shoot it down, make no mistake about it." He was surprised, but he didn't doubt that I meant it...because I did. I take my personal privacy seriously. I don't sit in my back yard naked, but if I want to I will and don't believe I have to worry about some fool flying a drone over my property with a camera attached.)
But on the more positive side, drone flying has many, many positive possibilities, not the least of which is photography, many military applications, search and rescue and believe it or not, in the future, delivery of some items from stores.
I guess I should have taken Steve Greenblatt with me on Friday: perhaps one day he'll fill an order from Vic's via a drone flying up Jefferson Ave. and dropping off a pepperoni and mushroom pizza to a group at Linden Park. Who knows?
In summary: the "Flying Circus" concept has the potential for putting our area on "the map" in terms of not just regional, but even national interest. Area businessman Steve Bennett and those supporting this creation like DSLCC, the city of Covington, the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Corporation and the Alleghany Foundation are being really innovative in promoting an event that is going to grow exponentially in the coming years. Just you watch and see.
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I'd be willing to bet that many of you share with me a simple bit of enjoyment: morning coffee. And when I'm in a hurry, sometimes I have to hitch up Calypso quickly to get to the latest news event as fast as possible. Sometimes we'll just go to the Hardees drive-thru lane like everybody else. We all take this great service for granted, but there are REAL folks inside doing all the work to make our coffee and biscuits so good. Two of them are Samantha and "Cookie," who get up as early as 3 a.m. each morning to get to work on time and do the preparatory stuff so that the rest of us may quickly get on with OUR business. I tipped my hat to both the other day as I rode off with my butter biscuit and medium coffee, served up in less than a minute. Nice. Thanks, gals.
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I pay my water bill on time, just as most of you do. But I must say that if you're gonna let folks "game" the system (as, apparently, some are doing in Covington) via a situation where multiple families can share one meter, I'm not gonna be happy. There's no reason to get negative here, but putting everybody on the same plain seems like the right thing to do. Sometimes it is difficult for some public officials to understand the challenges of older, fixed income residents: every increase in taxes or utilities takes away their limited disposable income. So even a one cent rise in real estate taxes or a two cent rise (as may be proposed for the county) can have a negative impact on the quality of life.
Water and trash bills must all be fairly shared. Getting all this properly organized is no simple task...but it needs to be done.
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We all know what the concept of a "double whammy" means. On the one hand, something negative, like your ultra dumb behavior causing local law enforcement costs to rise, while on the other, causing your future to go down the drain via a felony drug conviction. There is no upside to all of this.
And so it was that I recently looked at all the recent drug arrests that the AlleghanyJouurnal.com published with not just disgust, but a huge amount of sadness. I understand folks liking to get high and relax for a bit. But many of the people arrested in the recent drug sweep were involved in doing far more than that: they were involved in distributing and manufacturing substances which contribute to the physical declines of hundreds of others...for personal profit.
I do NOT accept the totally phony logic that illegal drug distribution is a "victimless crime." That is 100% malarky.
This kind of double whammy stupid behavior destroys not just the life of the individual involved, it spreads a foolish and dangerous lifestyle to others, and encourages even more irresponsibility.
Some of those arrested on drug charges also got charged for either child endangerment or child abuse because they were allegedly doing illegal deeds with children in the residence at the same time. Victimless behavior? Nonsense, my dear Watson, 100%, total nonsense.
While it certainly is within anybody's rights to have their teeth rot out of their mouths via meth use, it is most definitely NOT in their rights to promote this junk, make our law enforcement and prison costs soar and put others in danger at the same time. And what form of payment do you believe occurs when a local female drug distributor can't pay her supplier? I wince when I think of it.
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How about a little business controversy? Alleghany County School Board member Jacob Wright is well-known to favor buying locally. We all agree with that sentiment. Supporting our business community is critical, necessary and smart. But, I cannot agree with Mr. Wright that the school board should pay any significant premium to local businesses if the same product may be purchased vastly cheaper elsewhere. Taxpayer money is involved here and school boards, governments and other public entities have what is known as a fiduciary duty to get the best bang for our bucks.
I have in mind this attitude: there is NOTHING WRONG with planning in advance to buy this or that item, letting all the local businesses know that such items are needed and then clearly telling them that matching (or nearly so) the prices that are available elsewhere will yield them a sale. Now, what is the proper price premium that might be paid to avoid traveling and other costs to buy products elsewhere? I don't know...5-10%? At any rate, good planning can avoid most of this: there are few things we really need here that cannot be found or purchased locally.
So, Jacob, give us YOUR specific view of this...
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A note to folks who always believe that cheaper is better. It almost always is not so.
Alleghany County probably could get a county-wide radio system installed and operating for less than $5 million or so. But doing so on the cheap probably would mean far higher future maintenance costs and an array of other troubles.
The truth is that the cost of a first class system - one that could integrate others in good time and will operate and upgrade the communications between both law enforcement and other public entities - will probably end up being in excess of $8 million. This system has more than merely the potential for far better basic communications. The implications for both law enforcement and the saving of lives are vast.
There is good news and bad news in all of this: While the system is expected to cost millions, the good news is that the county will soon have less debt service to fund as a result of some debts soon to be paid off. That yearly cost may be applied to the cost of the debt service to create the new radio system.
In short, Alleghany County is displaying leadership here...smart leadership. And, like its new effort to work with the city of Covington on economic development, the county is moving in the right direction.
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Unbeknownst to many of you, Clifton Forge property owners pay 30% higher property taxes than others in Alleghany County. And they pay up to 113% higher personal property tax, 25% high water and sewer rates too.
When it gets to the point of spending $150,000 plus to pay a manager to manage this kind of local outrageous set of costs, something is wrong. That doesn't mean that town manager Darlene Burcham isn't doing a great job. She is doing a good job. But when we consider that the top five town employees with benefits and other costs amount to an expenditure of over $400,000, something is clearly wrong.
It may be time for a citizens group to form to ask the Commission on Local Government (COLG) for some help to examine the wisdom of the town to merge with the county or change its structure to eliminate all the duplication going on. It should not take more than 60 employees to run a town of about 3,500 citizens.
Town councilman Jeff Irvine recently held a nice "town hall" meeting to answer questions from citizens on a number of topics. Unfortunately however, a number of things he said were not totally accurate. Merging with the county would not cause the "loss" of the town's water system, would not cause the "loss" of the local fire and rescue operations nor create worse law enforcement, nor the "loss" of our local library.
All those functions could and WOULD be negotiated. While the result might be the creation of a special tax district that would involve real estate taxation above the current 71 cent county rate so that current town debts or other obligations to be paid, the total result would come nowhere close to the 21 extra cents the property owners now pay.
But the ONLY way to know all of this for sure is to have it ALL examined. That time is now, in my humble opinion.
On the horizon is a potentially huge cost to upgrade the town's 1949 dam. The state wants MILLIONS in improvements and they will get their way. This and other projects will result in costs that SHOULD be distributed to a far wider tax base than the small group in Clifton Forge. It's time for an examination of this entire concept.
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I always want to be positive and that's why that given the least excuse, I place my small video camera up to my eye to capture anything good, cool, innovative, funny or new. So, stay tuned as I expand...no, VASTLY expand those efforts, hoping that many of you will enjoy coming along for the ride. And with that, I look forward to seeing you all again right here next week...
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