On Nov. 27th, the Clay County Commission meeting was over in just 20 minutes. Lots of interesting side conversations were had. From our perspective, here's the info.
    Frontier DSL management does a pretty crummy job providing internet service in County Clay. Many areas  received zip DSL service while other neighborhoods pay for high speed service and get less than dial up service. So bad is service, a couple years back, Frontier was ordered to lower prices to $10 per month for those with the most egregious DSL speeds.
  Locally, a pot of $$$ has become available to upgrade DSL in Clayberry. A group has been meeting for two years to try and come up with a game plan for the new venture.
  During the Nov. 27th CCC meeting, Commissioner Kinder advanced: that volunteer group met, assigned tasks and duties to committee members and bids for an engineering firm should be advertised shortly with the grant decision coming in Feb. 2020.
  Here's an interesting part. The committee needs a test site to set up and see what happens.
  How about you? Have you emailed or talked with Connie Kinder and told her: Hey, we need internet in your neighborhood? You haven't? How dumb dumb dumb.
  Some sections of the county system will be traditional land line DSL while others may be a wireless set up. Do you have a tower site on your property? That may give you a leg up in being one of the first communities to be served with the new system. So far, only the  Elkhurst section of Clayberry has asked to be the first set up site. How about you? To get in line, talk with Ms Kinder.
   Behold a miracle has come!!!!!!!!!!!
   According to the Gospel of Fran and based on her conversation with the contractor tearing out rails and ties for the new ERTS State Park, by the end of the work day Nov. 27th, all the hard work should be completed . The conversation between Ms King and the Contractor was held several days before the CCC meeting. She , he, were referring to the section of the hiking trail from Nottingham Store in Duck down to the Ivydale Bridge.
  We drove up there with camera in hand ready to capture the miracle. Ahhhhh, we didn't even see the brush cut to the bridge!
  What the contractor couldn't take into account or plan for , was, all the wet weather. It's our guess, that's slowed down the promised miracle.
  We can tell you our prediction, if we get some clear weather, the rails and ties should be removed down to that Ivydale bridge.  That's pretty good progress.
   Bruce Cunningham has been around long enough to be a skeptic. We talked with Mr C after Turkey Day. He told us, he had talked to the Contractor and has been watching the progress on the old railroad rights of way. Here it is readers, Bruce Cunningham says, he's now more optimistic and upbeat on the State Park notion.
  The county wide 911 Dispatch Center is in the progress of getting a $30,000 equipment upgrade. No not on the towers or somewhere outside, but rather,  inside the  Main Street facility. Upgrades include hardware and systems running Windows 10 software.
  Clayberry went under wawa in June 2016 when the Great Wash Out muddied out the county. Since then various govt groups have spun their wheels or otherwise wasted taxpayer funds for over three years! Funds have come and gone for tearing down flooded homes. Commissioner King reported to the peanut gallery, HUD funds are now in place to tear down four more of homes.
  How many of you have seen structures bulldozed that weren't even touched by flood wawa? King said the HUD funds can be used on "blighted" properties and not just on flooded buildings. That blighted word means, if you know the right person you can get your old clunker rental property razed without a cost to the landlord. ... or at least, that's what it sounds like to us.
  With few in the peanut gallery, the 20 minute public meeting was over Poof, just like that.
AW