Showing posts with label Preservation Trust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Preservation Trust. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Gloucester, VA Public Library Debate Over Leasing's High Costs

Public libraries are a key element in promoting literacy and intellect, building a community and providing free and open access to a vast amount of information the public would otherwise face challenge and expense in obtaining. Gloucestercurrently has two public libraries where the community may access only a small portion of information actually available. The quantity of information contained in public libraries is highly dependent on local community financial investment. Upon glancing at the amount of money Gloucester annually invests in our public libraries, it is evident their importance to the community is realized by our elected leaders. Unfortunately upon a closer look at how the money is actually spent it becomes clearly evident the taxpayers are getting very little return on their investment. In fact, we are throwing away several million dollars to lease library spaces instead of owning them.
 
This year the Board of Supervisors (BOS) budgeted $996,982 to operate our two public libraries. $577,630 is for salaries and benefits and $253,226 for rent, leaving only $166,126 for library operations. The larger of our two libraries is located in the MainStreet Center and owned by the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust (GMSPT). Rental of this 24,000 square foot library space initially began in 2004 for a period of 10 years, with four five year renewal options for up to a total of 30 years. The BOS renewed the lease for five more years in 2013 which became effective in 2014. This year we will pay the GMSPT approximately $190,000 in lease associated payments to rent the library and among other things, to pay 23% of the property tax charged on the entire Main Street Center. Our second library, located in the York River Crossing Shopping Center, is rented to Gloucester under a similar lease agreement. This year the People will pay approximately $63,000 in lease associated payments for this 3,916 square ft. library space.
 
Should Gloucester continue leasing the Main Street library for the full 30 years, the taxpayers will have paid the GMSPT close to $6 million in rent. A new 24,000 square foot library constructed at $2.50 per square ft. would cost the taxpayers approximately $6 million and would convert the annual rent obligation from $190,000, to an annual library capital improvement fund contribution of approximately $50,000; rendering an eventual annual savings of at least $140,000. Similar, but smaller scale results could also be realized by constructing a second library instead of continuing to rent. Over the years Gloucester’s administration and elected leaders have made some deals and decisions that have proven to be contrary to the long term financial interests of the overall community. Just think, if the earlier decision makers had truly acted in the community’s best interest, they would have built a new library and the benefits and savings of such would be enjoyed financially stress free today. Unfortunately, we now appear to be locked into a carefully designed financial cycle that will be very hard to break without a significant cash windfall, as we currently cannot afford to rent and build a new library at the same time. The current BOS has an obligation to address this issue and initiate a process that will result in construction of the larger of two new libraries within the next six years, with construction of a satellite branch beginning not far behind. Hopefully the current BOS becomes the Board that did what was best for the entire Gloucester community; otherwise we will just keep paying more for library rent than for information quantity and quality.
 
Respectfully,
Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Friday, October 10, 2014

GMSA and GMSPT Have Created GRLF Revolving Loan Fund, Watch Your Investment Disappear?



The folks who run the Gloucester Main Street Association and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust have developed a new way to get at potential business investors money.  It's called the GLFR, or Gloucester Revolving Loan Fund.  All hail BAAL for that.  These folks want you to invest in the dead area of Gloucester Main street.  A place with minimal parking at best, where the sidewalks barely meet residential standards, never mind commercial standards and there are areas considered potentially dangerous to pedestrians as the slopes on the sidewalks do not meet specs based on our research.  

  This is an area that has a lot of new business turnover as most people can not make a go of it here.  One must ask why.  Simple, no parking and no chance of ever attracting an anchor business.  An anchor business is pretty much a large retailer that has the capability of attracting large amounts of traffic into it's store and all the other stores in the area will hopefully benefit from the extra traffic in the area by offering complimentary goods and or services not carried by the anchor store.

  Not to take anything away from the well established businesses on Main Street, there are some wonderful shops there if you do not mind the lack of parking and poor pedestrian walkways throughout the area.  But look at what has been built in the area over the past decade and you will see that the only thing that might prove viable is senior service providers and if the population does go up with seniors, then maybe one candy store can make it in this environment.  I would not bank on anything else.  

  What also tickles our funny bone about the statements coming out of the Main Street Preservation Trust is their commitment to preserving main street.  Take a look at the present structures around the area and explain to us where preservation exists.  Look at the rents for the area and they are way to high for such poor traffic.  Most of the businesses that went out of business all complained of no customers or not enough customers to support the business.  

  So you want to go broke trying to make money on Main Street?  There are much better options and at better prices in other areas of the county where you are more likely to get traffic into your business.  If you listen to the hype these folks want to sell you, it all sounds rosy.  Your best bet is to walk the entire Main street area for one day and talk to present business owners and actually pay attention to everything you see.  You may save yourself a fortune and much heart ache.  Just be careful around these folks who want to give you such nice loans, they can sell ice to an Eskimo and water to fish.  And they can make everything very easy and handle all the paper work for you.  Just don't miss any payments even after you have gone belly up and have nothing left.  Isn't that just great news?


Link to all the wonderful news.  All hail BAAL!  And you even get to bow before the great BAAL when entering their office at their wonderful BAAL shopping center on Main Street.  Where our public library is as well.  That's just so special how they thought of all these wonderful ideas ahead of time.  Just remember, anyone after your money is going to be very helpful and offer more than you ever expected, that is until all your money is gone.  Then you get to see they are not sheep.  And you thought they were as gentle as lambs?

Monday, January 27, 2014

Gloucester, VA Main Street Ice Hazards, January, 2014




A week after our first major snowfall, we went for a walk through the Gloucester, Main Street District and were shocked to find that many of the sidewalks were never cleared from snow and ice from the winter storm we had a week ago.  The sidewalks throughout the business district were not only a disgrace, they were down and outright dangerous to walk over.  Above you can see a series of pictures we took of area conditions.

  Several major shockers we found were one site that did not clear ice and snow from their sidewalks was one of the Insurance companies, Prudential and Blue Cross Blue Shield rep office on Main Street and the other big one was out in front of the Cook Foundation at the old Coke building.  The Cook foundation is a part of the Gloucester Main Street Association and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust along with Attorney Hicks in the same building.

  Both the Gloucester Main Street Association and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust are always trying to promote Gloucester Main Street and here they are not even taking care of such basics as cleaning their own sidewalks.  That is a disgrace.

  What was even worse.  We ran into several contractors measuring the sidewalks and streets as the State and Federal Government are putting money into paving the Main Street come this spring or summer.  Their own take on the area sidewalks?  Too narrow, littered with lightposts in the walkway, the pitch in some area were above grade making walking for anyone with a handicap, potentially very dangerous and they questioned the clearances for wheelchairs.  (We did tell them that we measured these last year and they barely passed). We did not even have to point these issues out to them in the least.  They already saw it.

  In Washington, DC shop owners had 24 hours from the time of snowfall to clear the sidewalks in front of their businesses or get fined.  Is it the policy of the county to just let shoppers fall and get hurt and just sue the businesses as an overall policy.  What a great public relations effect that will have.  People want businesses to come to the Main Street District but don't worry, you won't have to work to get customers, none will come with this kind of nonsense.  


Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust Assets Located

Digging through public records we have the information regarding the real estate listed on the 2011 tax forms of the Main Street Gloucester Preservation Trust also known as the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.  The following is what we have dug up from public records.

  This is the majority of the property we believe to be under the Trust.  So what we see is that the Trust receives payments from Gloucester County under a lease agreement for space used by the public library.  Your tax dollars funding a part of the secret shadow government infiltrating Gloucester county government.  Gloucester County pays out about 20 thousand dollars a month for leased space in both locations in the county as found on the county's own yearly budget information.  The Main Street location being much larger of the two, we are sure that the majority of the lease payments under the 20 thousand goes to the GMSPT, a non profit, Trust,  fraternity according to their own records.


The library shopping center on Main Street
                                                                                           
Map#          Last Name        First Name     RPC    Land Value   Improvements   Value
32A2(9)-1A GREGORY YVONNE          33565  $500.00            $0.00         $104,500.00
32A2(9)-2A GREGORY YVONNE          41228 $1,023,200    $255,100       $1,278,300
32A2(9)-2A THE MAIN ST. TRUST        41227      00             $1,201,500    $1,201,500
32A2(9)-3A GREGORY YVONNE          41229 $10,600          $0.00             $10,600

Map              Last Name        First Name     RPC    Land Value   Improvements   Value
32A2(9)-2A GREGORY YVONNE            41228 $1,023,200    $255,100       $1,278,300
32A2(9)-2A THE MAIN ST. TRUST          41227     00             $1,201,500    $1,201,500
32A2(9)-3A GREGORY YVONNE            41229  $10,600          $0.00             $10,600
32A2(1)BK A-3A THE MAIN ST. TRUST 42949  $58,500          $0.00              $58,500
32A2(1)BK A-3G THE MAIN ST TRUST 13876   $760,600      $2,459,000      $3,219,600
32A2(1)BK A-3J THE MAIN ST TRUST   42950    $22,000         $0.00            $22,000
32A2(12)-1 THE MAIN STREET TRUST  35133   $1,800            $0.00              $1,800
 -Map 32A2(9)-2A is the parking lot area of the library, health dept., etc.
-Map 32A2(1)BK A-3A is a corner lot located in proximity to the grass area between Main Street and the library
-Map 32A2(1)BK A-3G is the property the buildings sits on. The property is much larger than the building.
-Map 32A2(1)BK A-3J is a property behind the meeting place building
-Map 32A2(12)-1 is a very narrow property between Map 32A2(1)BK A-3A and Main Street.

The above numbers would seem to agree with yesterday's posting information and tax returns information.  The link on yesterday's post shows 2012 figures but no tax returns.  The above figures are right in line with 2012's information.

  So the income for the trust, from what we can gather, comes in the form of lease payments from the ownership of the property known as the Gloucester Main Street Shopping Center.  This is the same property that they depreciated over 1.7 million dollars on for 2011 as seen in their tax form filing.  How they did that we have no idea.  How they get away with not following what other business owners must now follow thanks to the GMSPT involvement with the county is also highly questionable.  How is it that they have not been forced to tear up their parking lot to put in flower beds?  

  Also, according to the 2011 tax form from the Main Street Gloucester Preservation Trust, they did not pay out any grant money to any businesses.  So where did the money come from that the local paper keeps reporting that the GMSPT has awarded?  State or Federal funds that the GMSPT brokered on behalf of those local businesses and take credit for?  We don't know and there is no way to tell.  The 2011 tax form left it blank where the GMSPT or the MSGPT is supposed to show grants held and then paid out.

  Does anyone find this suspicious?  And we want these people promoting Gloucester why?  Are they pocketing fees for brokering services and farming those jobs to themselves through their own businesses not shown to be in connection with them?  Legal fees to Ingles law firm maybe?  Again, we do not know.  We can only ask the questions based on what we see.  According to the GMSPT website, they seem to be brokering commercial real estate.  We have no problem with them brokering real estate unless of course they are collecting extra fees and sending business to certain buddies of the GMSPT and they are the only ones who can handle the business.  Even then it may be okay as long as they are not purposely playing interested parties and milking extra fees from them.  But again, there is where questions come into play.  Are certain people using the GMSPT as a front for other activities?  As a non profit Trust fraternity that has no other source of income other than real estate lease payments, it looks very strange at best.

  And why does a Gloucester County Board of Supervisor need to sit on the Board of this organization?  Again, based on what we see, there is no real reason for that.  And we must continue to ask, why is this Trust Fraternity so interested in making plans that affect taxpayers and businesses within the county?  They are not a charitable corporation like others in other areas are.  So again, this makes no sense.  You have to ask a lot of questions based on the public information of this and it's sister organizations, The Gloucester Main Street Association, supported in part by the GMSPT, and the Cook Foundation.  The folks who brought us the Beehives that polluted the county landscape then the landfills.

  Anyone know how that Beehive deal worked?  We found out.  Here was the deal as it was explained to us.  You had to buy the Beehive and decorate it yourself  at your expense.  You then had to give it back to the Cook Foundation once it was decorated.  If you wanted it back, you had to pay for it again.  No joke.  They pulled that off and had those Beehives everywhere for a year.  But hey, it was for charity.  Who's benefit is the question however.  You can still buy the Beehive posters at the county Welcome Center located in the historic Courthouse Circle, if you are so inclined though.  A reminder of those fun times and the landfill deposits.  


This is an inverted image of one of those Beehives mentioned above.  They were about 4 feet tall if memory serves correctly.  There were hundreds of them around the county and now there are hundreds of them in the local landfill still waiting to decay.  How green was that move?   
Enhanced by Zemanta

Friday, May 3, 2013

Gloucester, VA - Edge Hill Service Station Potential Demolition Update

Looking further into the Edge Hill service station being scoped for potential demolition by the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust and presented to the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors, we decided to see if the Fairfield Foundation was still the owner of the present Edge Hill Service Station and it is.

  What we also looked up is any ties between Fairfield Foundation and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.  We found one. The present Edge Hill Service Station is listed in the county as Fairfield Edge Hill LLC or a Limited Liability Company.  Not a non profit organization, yet still tied to the non profit foundation.
https://apps.gloucesterva.info/cor/landbookdb/landbook3DNN.asp?Param=29861  is the link to this information.

The Fairfield Foundation is a member of the Gloucester Main Street Association.

You can blow this image up to see it more clearly by clicking on it.  Now the Gloucester Main Street Association is tied to the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust which has Louise Theberge, chairperson of the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors, on it's board.  Both organizations are tied to the Cook Foundation.

The Edge Hill Service Station is a for profit arm of the Fairfield Foundation which is a non profit organization.  The question that comes up that we ask is the Fairfield Edge Hill LLC looking to sell the building to the county for these new plans possibly making a profit on the building and at an expense to local taxpayers?

  The present market value of the property is $97,300.00 according to Land Book which is available for everyone to view at the link above.  Fairfield has owned this property since May 19th, 2010 and to date has not done much with it except restore the exterior to a more pleasant facade fixing numerous exterior damage.

  Any plans for opening it up as an educational facility would seem to be running far behind any estimations if it were meant to be opened to the public.  If it was meant to be restored as a period property, again, it is running way behind any reasonable estimations.  The period restoration that was originally talked about is a 1930's service station.  Here it is a few days short of 3 years later and still nothing period about a period restoration taking place.

  So again one must question why the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust was making plans that included potential demolition of this structure when the GMSPT should know that the new owners have plans for the property, or is it that these are the real plans?  And why did the Board of Supervisors except review of the plans with this included in them?  Straight forward facts with straight forward questions.  Plain and simple.

Free MP3 download. - Scabeater - Searching.  A dark Ambient instrumental tune.  Distributed under a CC Lic non commercial/attribution download.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8SWxCMEZSNXV5SVE/edit?usp=sharing  Our way of saying thanks for spending time with us.


For all the latest news, please click on the Home button towards the top of this site.
Have a news story? Submit it above.
Some of Gloucester's most incredible history is found on this site in detail.
Gloucester, VA Links and News – A GVLN Website.
We cover what no one else will.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Gloucester, VA - Looking Inside The Main Street Preservation Trust

You can click on the image to the left and enlarge it in order to read it better.

  We are going to examine some of the information on the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust site and see what can be made of it.






2012 Initiatives

  • Manage the asset known as Main Street Center
  • Support the Gloucester Main Street Association by providing office space,funding the Director's office along with marketing, advertising and website initiatives.
  • Manage the façade improvement grant program
  • Partner with Gloucester County and the community to create and have adopted a sub plan for the Court House village area
  • Develop a billboard on Route 17 to attract people to Main Street
  • Work with consultants to strengthen the already existing businesses on Main Street
  • Work with consultants to devise business recruitment strategies for Main Street
  • Manage the database of available spaces for lease and sale along Main Street
  • Become a business resource for new business looking to locate on Main Street by providing support and information to navigate the process
  • Continue to be a resource for those property owners seeking historic tax credits through rehabilitation of their buildings
  • Assist is establishing a fund for long term capital investment (revolving loan program)
  • Introduce the MSPT to the community and its organizations.  Share our projects and initiatives
  • Actively market the new event space at Main Street Center to the community as a venue for meetings and events both publicly and privately
The above comes off the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust site and is copied here under the DMCA fair use laws of the US.  http://mspt.org/about.html  is a link to the page where the above is located.

  We want to take a bit of a different look at the above information and see if what they say may have a hidden meaning than appears.  The first area is "Partner with Gloucester County and the community to create and have adopted a sub plan for the Court House village area".  Well we see that this has happened.  And just what does a third party non profit entity have getting into the business of the local government?  With Louise Theberge on the board of the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust, it was a shoe in.  Plus it shows the intention of embedding themselves into the local government?  

  "Become a business resource for new business looking to locate on Main Street by providing support and information to navigate the process".  

  Could that be interpreted as become a snoop to learn how much money someone has and steer them to the inside circle of contacts to suck as much money out of would be business owners?  Think about it.  Give free resources and people will think you are trying to help them.  You can then steer them to partners who will bilk them dry for fees on setting everything up for them.

  Are we saying this is what they are doing?  No.  But we are saying that it has the appearance that this can happen and have no idea if this is happening.  But ask yourself, why else would they do this for free?  They are getting valuable information from you.  Are you willing to risk your money?  You know what they say about free advice.  What's it worth?  

"Work with consultants to device business recruitment strategies for Main Street".

  Again, what is in it for a non profit organization to do something like this?  You have to ask these questions.  Is it again to see how much money someone has and see how much money you can suck out of their pockets?  You have to wonder.  

Free MP3 Download.  The Easton Ellises - "Dance It", is the track for this post.  Our way of saying thank you for spending time with us.

OneGoodThread.com

For all the latest news, please click on the Home button towards the top of this site.
Have a news story? Submit it above.
Some of Gloucester's most incredible history is found on this site in detail.
Gloucester, VA Links and News – A GVLN Website.
We cover what no one else will.




Enhanced by Zemanta

Friday, April 12, 2013

More Issues With Gloucester's Secret Triad Government

In this series of 3 pictures are more concerns.  We are only using these pictures to illustrate the concerns.  What we are looking at in the pictures here is a building that was refurbished by Courthouse Construction and funded by Gloucester County, your tax dollars, Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust Courthouse Construction even kicked in money of their own to help finish the job.  We have no issues with the project here.

The building is a part of Bay Aging which qualifies for federal, state and local funding.  So again, no issues.  In fact, for the most part we applaud the entire project.  Our concerns do not involve Courthouse Construction in any way.

The project was completed in 2010.  The second picture is part of the dedication ceremony.  Here is the problem we see however and again we point out that it's not with this project, the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust being in the middle of any project dramatically changes the dynamics of any potential project and is what is a serious threat to everyone in Gloucester County.

Here is why.  With the Main Street Preservation Trust being in the middle of any project, you have no idea what is being planned for your tax dollars and how they will be used.  With the trust being partnered with the county government, the trust can bypass government rules and regulations in hiring contractors that it picks from it's list of friends and no competition even exists.  Government regulations do not have to be followed when the trust is in charge of the project.  That is in our view why the sidewalks on Main Street are so poorly done.

Secret meetings can be conducted by the Trust that are never open to the public yet affect everyone in the county just the same.  Planning from this trust has already dramatically hurt Gloucester Main Street businesses in our view making life harder for each of them as well as more expensive with the beautification initiatives.  Again, the  Gloucester Main Street Trust has Louise Theberge, Chair Person from the Gloucester Board of Supervisors, on it that we see as a major conflict of interest and a serious threat to everyone.  It's a violation of the public trust.  But obviously she does not care.

  Government has certain safety rules and regulations that must be met when rebuilding streets and public areas.  When partnered with the Trust, if the trust manages the project, then those rules and regulations no longer apply even though they are supposed to?  We really do not need the Triad running government or even involved in it in any way.

Mac Loming - :The Roots" is the free MP3 download with this post.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8bGZaUHF4bGFTS1k/edit?usp=sharing


Herbal Treatments & Ayurvedic Medicine




For all the latest news, please click on the Home button towards the top of this site.
Have a news story? Submit it above.
Some of Gloucester's most incredible history is found on this site in detail.
Gloucester, VA Links and News – A GVLN Website.
We cover what no one else will.



Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Gloucester, VA's Trilateral Secret Government Now Exposed

Gloucester, VA's very own Trilateral secret government is now exposed.  This is shear conspiracy and it is now safe to say that there can now be no public trust of our county government.  It has been fully compromised by special interests.  We posted the news last night how Louise Theberge, Chairperson of the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors is also a board member on the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.  This is beyond a conflict of interest and now there is no way of telling just where Gloucester County government begins or where it ends.

This means that secret meetings that concern county government can and most likely are going on behind closed doors and that secret deals are being made that no one outside those rooms will ever know about.  That means full deniability exists for any accusations for wrong doing can be made because there is no way to prove it because those meetings were closed.

  This means that Gloucester's own special interests now control your tax dollars and can use it to enrich themselves.  There is no way to tell just how many county officials have been compromised.  We know that several board members have as well as numerous officials just based on the video clip we posted last night.

  Expect full deniability that any kind of wrong doing is going on. Expect only a positive spin to be created around this if they ever even bother to discuss it.  No one is going to shoot themselves or each other in the head.  You won't read about this in the local paper either as we would highly suggest that they are part of the partnership.  You have to control the local media to stay out of the lime light and to also create positive news stories around it all.

  This also means that you have no chance of getting anything put through the county that the Trilateralist's do not approve of.  There is no way of knowing then who really controls the government in the county other than special interests.

  Could it be that the reason for the new proposed water and sewage fees that the county wants passed against the citizens to free up the general fund is so that the general fund will have more money to be raided by the special interests?  It's a fair question at this point.  The special interests are composed of a local well know construction company, well known lawyers, and well known suppliers.

  Lets meet the Trilateral Secret Government Again.  At the top of the snake is the Cook Foundation.  Next is the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.  Third in line is the Gloucester Main Street Association.  That is the peeking order.  Again we have to ask, what is the purpose of three non profit groups all getting involved in promoting anything in the county if there is no money involved in it?  There has to be a profit motive.  Why would any private non profit entity want to promote bringing in new business into the county unless there was money to be made from doing so?

  There is money to be made from doing so and that is by taking over sections of the local government and playing a third party roll in all of it.  Setting up secret sweetheart deals that provide kickback donations?  You really need to look at the web sites of these entities and read between the lines.  In general, they are not at all logical.

Here are the links;

http://www.cookfoundation.info/index.html  The Cook Foundation

http://mspt.org/  Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust

http://gloucestervillage.com/  Gloucester Main Street Association

 
  The Gloucester Main Street Association still has facts about Gloucester County that are wrong on their site.  Gloucester is not the Daffodil Capital of the world.  Never has been and is not likely to ever be.  Yet somehow the county has managed to steal the name as a title only.  Holland is the world's largest producer of the bulbs and England is the world's largest producer of cut Daffodils as well as using Daffodils for making medicine.  Gloucester County is also not Virginia's oldest living village.  Gloucester is an offspring of York County.  So Gloucester is older how?  But then again these people make up their own rules, their own laws and whatever else benefits them even when they violate state laws.

  They are more than happy to make up ways to prosecute you when they are the ones who should be prosecuted.  We don't make this stuff up.  It's all there right in front of you.  Watch their videos and read who is on certain boards.  It''s as plain as the nose on your face that you do not see until you look in the mirror.

  These people think they have a right to do this and that you are nothing more than cattle.  Welcome to the real world.


For all the latest news, please click on the Home button towards the top of this site.
Have a news story? Submit it above.
Some of Gloucester's most incredible history is found on this site in detail.
Gloucester, VA Links and News – A GVLN Website.
We cover what no one else will.


Enhanced by Zemanta