Street Talk

Submitted by
Name: City council meeting

Comments:
Here we sit being lectured about being polite and how well city council listen. Followed by Kevin Kellems who wanted to explain that the READI grant program is legit and the original grant ranked 10th. He explained that no local tax dollars are involved in Readi grants . He failed to acknowledge that local tax payers also pay state taxes. In other words your local dollars that were funneled to the state are being returned to subsidize local luxury housing. He mentioned how it’s common practice that grants are submitted and scored often amended and “updated”. While he didn’t say bait and switch, in this case proposing a 35 million dollar low income housing project with 5-6 million dollar taxpayer investment was revised just a few short weeks later and switched to fewer apartments for wealthy “professionals” BUT- most importantly what Mr. Kellems failed to honestly disclose is that the 35 million dollar project dropped to 12 million total investment with near at or above 50% of the project funded by taxpayers either through their state or local taxes. In fairness to Kellems he offered me a copy of his statement. I politely declined.

Next up - the mayor had an “outburst” (brief tantrum) following a citizen expressing concerns officials may be accepting financial incentives because it just doesn’t make sense to pursue the project. More later Tjh

Added: September 23, 2025 06:10:19 PM

Submitted by
Name: June Bug Alley Oops to Ozzie
From: Madison

Comments:
This is history repeating itself. In the 70's, you had Mayor Dr. Rucker and his city attorney John Eckert playing the same inside baseball games as the current Mayor. Democrat Dr. Rucker and John Eckert thought they were so untouchable they threw there support behind Republican Bob Pruett for a State Legislature seat. The result was Pruett getting elected over Chad Lewis grandfather Jim Lewis. They even had the Democrat Chairman Dr. Sloan supporting Pruett. Yes, they had shady real estate dealings as well. This launched a young upstart Mayor by name of Markt Lytle to later defeat Dr. Rucker in a tough tough primary that split the Democrat Party for years. Now you got Courtney, Steinhardt, and Kellems playing the same inside baseball games. They may not be supporting Democrat candidates but they are thumbing there nose at the people in the same fashion while making shady real estate deals that makes people think about what is real going on down at City Hall. The same old snakes playing the same old games.

Added: September 22, 2025 11:50:00 PM

Submitted by
Name: Need info
From: Madison
E-mail: Contact

Comments:
With the new vehicle tax that the citizens of Madison have been hit with but not the tourist. My question is are the many municipal vehicles that our CIVIL SERVANTS get to drive and gas paid for exempt from the tax??? Of course that doesn't include our Deputy Mayor who registers his vehicles in a different county. Civil Servants are now Self Servants!!!

Added: September 22, 2025 07:31:51 PM

Submitted by
Name: Dirty boys

Comments:
They don’t get any dirtier than Kellems, Steinhardt and Courtney. Those three are a disgrace to Madison. The commissioners need to take a hard look at Kellems. Rumor has it he makes a fool of himself at the readi meetings .

Added: September 22, 2025 03:21:01 PM

Submitted by
Name: BREAKING

Comments:
Kevin Kellems bailed out accused animal abuser John Scott for 10 grand. Kellems has cut a deal with Scott to aid a buyer to purchase some of Scott’s land. The developer is Temple and Temple out of Salem. Allegedly Kellems stands to make a chunk of money himself and has made promises about readi grants, tif funds and other tax payer contributions in an effort to cut the deal. It appears to be yet another housing development. Ken Temple is the key actor with Kellems.

Apparently Kellems has no standards when it comes to cutting deals. The community was outraged with Scott’s animal abuse charges. For Kellems to do business with an alleged animal abuser it may or may not be viewed as worse than the mayor being proud to stand up with two people who are known to protect child molestors and rapists. So yes, there’s big money in cutting development deals even with animal abusers. Tjh

Added: September 22, 2025 02:08:52 PM

Submitted by
Name: BREAKING

Comments:
I don’t know a single person other than the mayor, a few city council and Bobs pals in local economic development that favor robbing the poor and middle class to subsidize luxury apartments for wealthy persons. But here we are. So don’t forget to attend tomorrow’s (Tuesday) meeting at city hall. Be sure to sign in to speak just in case you want to.

That said I have been tracking another economic development project in our area. As usual lots of closed door conversations . This one has some ugly facts - so I’m not exactly sure when I will get confirmation but certainly by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Finally- yes the hilltop landfill has breached (holes) in several places. The city had a worker up this past week on the southwest corner - past the animal shelter and nearer the housing before Miles Ridge. That’s the smaller breach which has been leaking but not as bad as the major breach past the transfer station over near the creek on the east side. I’m waiting on information from a connection at IDEM. But the city has numerous state violations and continues to leave serious public health and safety issue unresolved . Tjh

Added: September 22, 2025 09:35:32 AM

Submitted by
Name: Charlie Cardinal
From: Madison

Comments:
If the Mayor completes his term he will be eligible for PERF. If you are an elected official. All you need to do is serve two complete terms to be eligible. That is why it was so stupid for Rick Berry to resign from the Clerk Treasurers Office before his term. His temper and ego made him walk out of a state pension.

Added: September 21, 2025 03:33:47 PM

Submitted by
Name: This is Rich

Comments:
I have said from the very beginning of this that Bob is getting a big kick back on this or he wouldn't be so pushy about it. I said oh yes here's his retirement money. So it comes as no surprise to me. Cuz that's just the kind of guy he is. He'll sell us out to pad retirement and bank account any day. His big fat ego won't let him do anything otherwise

Added: September 21, 2025 02:12:06 PM

Submitted by
Name: Answer

Comments:
No the National Park Service does not pay for itself. However a huge chunk of its budget does contribute to its costs to taxpayers. However the amount of revenue that’s created is monumental. Imagine the Smokey Mountains. Then consider Gatlinburg and surrounding communities. They would not exist were it not for America’s favorite National Park. The number of jobs, restaurants, construction etc…The economic impact combined with the positive environmental conservation and pride Americans have in our National Parks cannot be overvalued. Aside from the many research and land management programs the NPS is home to some of our favorite programs which impact every citizen. For example, if you’ve ever been curious if you have a family member who served in the civil war just google: national park service + soldier names . Click on the link and had your family! It’s really easy. Hope this helps. Tjh

Added: September 21, 2025 08:22:30 AM

Submitted by
Name: Makes sense

Comments:
It’s a quick way to retirement if Bob’s taking a “consulting fee”. (Kickback) from Bowen Development. If you think about it, he won’t have enough years in to get a state pension if he doesn’t run again. Maybe I’m missing something but I thought it took 10 years and Bob will have been mayor for 8 long miserable years if he makes it sober enough through the rest of this term. Add a few months where Welch died early but you still don’t have 10 years. So he needs to make up the money somewhere. But no matter what I agree this is a middle class town with more than our share of poor. If we need a tax on food and beverages to pay for parks maybe we should just keep the 4 million in local taxes and give it to the foundation to generate 3-4 hundred thousand a year every year since Bib and his dumber than rocks council can’t figure out how to budget. Or save money.

Added: September 21, 2025 03:32:06 AM