Exposing The Publisher #6

In this hard hitting series of Exposing The Publisher, number six focuses on a recent story that was the “top headline” story of the day that ran for two days during the week of the 4th. First, it should be noted that The Publisher over at Putnam(Omitted).com never dates his articles. This fact plays an important part in the following expose’.

Oh yeah, I call this one ” I kain’t stand da noise!”

MAYOR EDWARDS ADMITS ZONING DOESN’T CHANGE NOISE IMPACT

“For months, Hurricane Mayor Scott D. Edwards has told neighbors of the Walmart that to get the city to order the retailer to build a sound wall that they must change their zoning to residential.”

Actually, to be honest, it doesn’t matter what the zoning is. Changing the zoning permits won’t force Walmart or any other business to build any sort of sound wall or plant trees. A study would have to be done to see if the noise emitted, the distance sound waves travel and the actual decibel levels, effect any sound waves have on neighboring dwellings, would warrant the need of sound protection. One man complaining constantly about ambient noise (lets face it, we all have seen the video, it’s just ambient noise) does not make a study on sound wave effects.

“The neighbors have accurately said that zoning has no impact on noise levels and that the fast-talking Edwards has been throwing up a false argument to protect his pet project.”

What? I don’t even understand this statement as far as an argument in The Publishers favor. I just got done saying zoning doesn’t make a difference. The way he stated this line makes one wonder if he is crazy because it comes across as him stating an obvious; that something on paper (zoning) doesn’t effect something of a physical nature (travel of sound waves). Really, is he crazy or did I just read that that wrong way?

“As he has used the lame argument to stall the sound wall, Edwards has had council members and other politicians buying his rhetoric, including C. Brian Ellis and West Virginia State Senator W. “Mike” Hall. All along, Edwards has refused to provide any scientific evidence or statements from sound engineers that zoning has any impact on sound waves.”

“Of course, anyone with common sense knows that the reason Edwards never produced any evidence or sound engineer opinions is that there isn’t any.”

Those last two paragraphs/lines are more rhetoric than Edwards has ever let slip from his lips. Seriously. In a vain attempt to make himself sound sane, The Publisher uses his opinionated desperation to once again, disparage the Mayor.

“Now, Putnam(Omitted).com has a recording of Edwards admitting that the zoning has no impact on sound waves.”

Of course he does because The Publisher calls Mayor Edwards at least 4-5 times a week to complain about this or that. I have no doubt that this is one statement that is actually true.

“There’s no difference,” says Edwards. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Of course he doesn’t want to talk about it with The Publisher…he’s sick of talking about it! Matter of fact, there is nothing to talk about! It’s just The Publisher ranting hysterically. Who wants to deal with that, other than the now famous Trash Bloggers Alliance.

“Now that Edwards has finally spoken the truth on the issue, it remains to be seen if Hurricane City Council members will stand up To Edwards and take care of the more than 20 residents that endure the excessive noise from Walmart traffic on a daily basis.”

Edwards has always told the truth. He even admitted that yes, the zoning was changed years ago to simply fit the needs of Hurricane as it grew and evolved. Not to mention the fact that this is a NORMAL course of city evolution. Edwards doesn’t need to be challenged by people that support him. He needs to have a security detail thought because The Publishers obsession with calling the Mayor as much as he does, borders on the creepy.

“Edwards has promised that if a commercial offer were to be made on the neighbor’s homes that the city would gladly re-change the zoning back to commercial again. But he has a credibility problem about his statements and promises.”

Wait a second. Didn’t The Publisher just state in his opening line something about changing it back to residential? Let us check, shall we? To save you the scroll back effort, I’ll re-quote; “…to get the city to order the retailer to build a sound wall that they must change their zoning to residential.” Seriously? This guy calls himself a Publisher, says he has an editing team and calls this a legitimate business and he lets this make final copy? By this point, any reader that is not in the know about this guy is going to look at this as complete tripe and hit the X button in the upper right corner. What really kills me is he flip flops back in the next points. God, this guy is worse than John Kerry in his flip floppy decisions.

“Neighbors of the Walmart don’t want to change the zoning for two reasons:

Realtors have advised them that keeping the commercial zoning will make it easier to sell their homes.

Neighbors of the Walmart don’t trust Edwards after he promised to enforce the City of Hurricane noise ordinance during the July 2nd, 2007 city council meeting, then failed to keep that promise, instead going to court to have the ordinance nullified.

The Walmart neighbors have lived in their neighborhood for decades, up to 40 years. They have endured excessive construction and traffic noise for up to four years. About 15 lawsuits have been filed over construction blasting and construction noise simply because Edwards and the City of Hurricane have failed to enforce its noise ordinance as well as common sense and decency for its longtime citizens.”

Ok, lets tackle these one bullet point at a time.

Point #1: Of course realtors have suggested the zoning stay commercial (though as of this moment, based on this article, we are unsure what the zoning actually is) as it can bring a bigger payday. However, it won’t make things easier to sell. Based on a personal opinion here with the current direction of the economy (we are headed into the worst depression since the 20’s) there isn’t going to be a lot of commercial property changing hands in the near future in many places, much less Hurricane, WV.

Point #2: The only “neighbor” that doesn’t trust Mayor Edwards is The Publisher. But he’s not going to tell you that. He makes these blank statements so that if another Edwards hater happens to be linked to the article, he’ll get a misleading representation to add fuel to the fire. It’s a crock statement.

Point #3: More smoke. Those 15 lawsuits? All filed by The Publisher over the course of the last 3-4 years. Again, omitting the whole truth is unethical. And I will state again, there is a reasonable amount of evolution going on here. There are but a few neighbors still on Grace Drive and one of them is a huge salvage yard or whatever it is. Things have changed. Evolution has come to that part of Hurricane and The Publisher is doing nothing to better his position by complaining and demanding. He better be careful because ever since The New London, CT incident (the start of it) there is something called Eminent Domain. He’ll never get the $350,000 he is asking and Hurricane has plenty of time to wait him out before they hand him Eminent Domain papers and a check for what the property is actually worth.

“Edwards is a member of the Putnam County Development Authority Board of Directors which put together the Walmart project and served as a non-elected Hurricane City Council Member when the Walmart was planned. He was elected mayor in 2007 in a disputed election that included a decisive ballot box with unsealed envelopes.”

The Publishers version of the Florida “Chad” incident.

“Putnam(Omitted).com has reported that the City of Hurricane changed the zoning without the neighbor’s knowledge or permission, up to four decades after they bought their homes.”

Again, this is now harping, not reporting and again, it’s called city evolution.

“Meanwhile, Edwards refuses to put the Walmart sound wall and trees on the city council agenda, preventing a vote on the matter. When asked why, after the June meeting, he simply said, “because I don’t want to.” This means one man, the mayor, is preventing an entire neighborhood from having peace and quiet, something he enjoys every day-in his neighborhood across town from the Walmart.”

Ha! I love how he says “one man” in that statement. Why? Because it’s one man behind all this bullshit we are exposing now. The Publisher. He is “speaking” for all the residents. The only resident that complains is him. The only resident that hates Mayor Edwards is him. The Publisher. I’d also like to point out that The Publisher once again lied. He says Mayor Edwards enjoys his quiet in his neighborhood across town. I beg to differ. he can hear the caterwauling of The Publisher from his house every day.

“Putnam(Omitted).com used to publish a daily diary chronicling the daily excessive noise. However, we pulled it after Edwards’ supporters and Walmart supporters harassed this publisher and family members.”

Bullshit. It’s still up there. He just doesn’t make public the link for fear of one person. Your’s truly. Between myself and the commenter’s to this blog site making light of his lies and incessant bitching, he can’t stand it so he only allows it to be seen when he is all bent out of shape over something Walmart related. As it is, his latest effort is only updated through June 25th and that was released all at once. So it’s still pure BS and a crock.

“Councilman Ellis looked stunned when Putnam(Omitted).com informed him of Edwards’ admission, and councilwoman Lana Call says “The city can’t afford it,” while ducking the real issue of the city forcing disruptive businesses to endure the cost of sound walls.”

I happen to agree with Lana Call here. Of course the city can’t afford it. They have had to endure not only the down economy but the lawsuit wrath of The Publisher. That costs time, money and effort and each one (I know he has admitted to the 15 as stated in this piece earlier but there have been dozens more…all unsuccessful but disruptive none the least) adds to the time it will take to make a recovery.

Now.

Remember I said to pay attention to the fact that The Publisher never dates his stuff? Well, if you take out the last two lines of this story, you will find that this “article” was posted several months or even years ago. I know I read this entire piece about a year and a half ago when we first were turned on to the antics of The Publisher. Of course, he will call me a liar because there are no dates on said article. That doesn’t prove I am a liar, it proves he is unethical by deceiving the readers with old posts and added lines or changed facts when he has been called out.

As an added note here regarding this article, I have been invited by the Mayor or Hurricane himself to (at some point of my convenience) to give him a call. I am sure Mr. Edwards will be happy to put some truth behind the spin job that we have just exposed.