Having another election to raise taxes is plain ridiculous. Especially when their are GRANTS out there for this type of thing. Why won't the officials, and everyone else involved, get off their lazy bums and search for these? They're out there!

The only thing I can see stopping them is--the grant will have to be used specifically for the inteneded purpose. Whereas tax money--once they get it, they can continue to cry wolf while the hole in their pocket burns wider.

This is a scam. Pure and simple. To blame the jail admin. for the jail situation is wrong. This is only passing the buck. Now if the jail was set up to make money (business), then ok, but that would be illegal. We want to stay away from jails for profits. Until they come out with a ballot that says this money (1/2 Cent) will be used for the JAIL only I suggest we vote NO! We will find ourselves back in the same boat. Understand, this was the plan right after the last vote was defeated. Give the jail all these problems, threaten to close it, give it back to the sheriffs office, and ask for a 1/2 cent tax (1/4 to him, 1/4 to them). Yes the Jail Admin. will have to go. This will make the voters think we are doing a hell off job cleaning house, now give us your money. A half of a half is not going to be enough to run this jail for long. Did anyone do a long term study?, consider rising cost,payroll, insurance,etc..? Stay tuned I'll have more.

Did I not call this move or what. Could sse this coming. Which means that someone needs to check to see if meetings have been taking place on the down low. Again I stress that I will vote for a tax for the jail ONLY. No need to try and pass this off as a for the jail only tax cause I know whats going on. People need to be careful when they listen and read the statements that will be coming out. I always say that we need to keep our words sweet for the day will come when we will have to eat them. Live free and thank God your Cherokee.

For me it isn't necessarily about the money. It is about why do wait until we are in trouble to do something? This is about poor management, who couldn't see this coming? Why the personal attacks upon each other? Everyone has their right to an opinion no matter how silly it may sound to you. Can you not debate the issue and stay away from personal attacks?

Can anyone tell us if it is true that the Administrator and 2 others have been relieved of duty from the jail?

well doggie lover good luck but I like 60% of the other voters will say NO TO MORE TAX!

and the man that killed the Seminole County deputies probably got out just like they do here by taking a plea deal and get set up with a payment plan.

Bottom line, we're in this mess and we all have to work together to get out of it. I am a property owner and I don't want all the property owners to pay for something that EVERYONE in the county will benefit from. That is not fair. And furthermore, it does no good to point fingers and try to pin down whose fault this is. The problem is there, let's work together to solve it.

I would also like to note that the man who shot and killed the two deputies in Seminole County was released from the county jail just three months before.

On the other hand if the tax fails again, then the only way to keep the County moving forward would be to raise the personal property taxes, if that were the case then everyone that ownes land or vehicles in Sequoyah County would feel the entire tax. If a raise in the personal property tax is implemented then that will not go to a vote for the citizens to have a voice on, the >County Commissioners would have the decission to >raise that tax and we as property owners would >not have a say one way or the other. In short >pass the tax and everyone that can and will pass >through this County will pay our taxes for us, >or let the County Commissioners raise the >personal property taxes and then pay it all >ourselves. Now that you have been educated use >your head and vote yes for the sales tax >increase.

excellent comment, sequoyah county has some of the lowest property taxes in the state, i am surprised that this has not come up in any of the meetings, or maybe our commissioners did not know this, the simple mind set of not raising taxes really does not work here, they will get you one way or the other, my problem is, i am tired of eastern sequoyah county getting all the money, when the major growth for the last few years has been up here in the Tenkiller area

VOTE NO

for the 3rd time, VOTE NO! NO MORE TAXES!

first of all if the jail did close we would still have police protection and he did say last month he needed more money but then he ran out bought 2 brand new suv's when he could have got 4 cars for the same price now that was just stupid on his part where did his extra money come from all of a sudden we have a lot people running around that should be locked up but since they have there hands in the right pockets nothing is done they did break it and now they want us to fix it they say the county dont have the money well if they would stop waisting it trying to get a tax voted in they would have a good chunck of the money sorry your an idiot and you think you have to run us down the news needs to hear the other side of the story

Fun4all i have attended the meetings which is probably more than i can say for you. And i agree about the commissioner getting arrested ...it is very embarressing to our county.. however.. the only difference between him and alot of other people is that he got caught. I do disagree about what you say about our sheriff. He is very hard working and doing all he can to make the jail situation work. And as far as you saying that he was saying that he had no money before , sadly once again you are wrong. He stated that he wanted to put a few more fulltime officers on the street in order to provide more protection for the county. That, retard, is what his objective was. You want to buy tshirts and all that , which if i am not mistaken cost money and you pay taxes on. But yet you are so stubborn and pig headed you won't open your eyes to the big picture. Well fun4all your only one person and a stupid one at that so who cares what your opinion is.

Well tiredofitall, maybe you don't think I know what I'm talking about but it's ok for you to have your opinion. However, I do know the jail authority failed at operating the jail, I know the commissioners can't figure out what to do or make decisions, I know that a commissioner was arrested for propisitioning a prostitute, I know the voters turned down a sales tax twice because they didn't want anymore tax increases, I know the 911 system has been a failure and since the equipment upgrade was started over a year ago, it still isn't completed. Now that Lockhart has taken the jail over, he suddenly has the money to operate it for 6 months as he stated on the news but was begging for money a month ago because he didn't have ANY money. I know there have been lawsuits against the county because of brutality, and I know there have been power struggles for years that were so bad, the commissioners would not give the sheriff the new jail and then fought him over the space in the new addition and would not approve his budget which caused the deputies to not get paid on time and cost the taxpayers money on lawsuits.

I suggest you go to the newspaper office and research all of the above and you will find the proof. So now you one track minded idiot, if you want to see or hear more, attend the commissioner meetings and witness the circus nuts at work. Oh did I mention the taxpayers have spent thousands of dollars paying for the sales tax votes which were defeated twice?

Intelligence obviously is the question at hand. If you think that the citizens of this county are unintelligent enough to vote to give money to a sheriff who cannot manage the money he already has you are obviously extremely unintelligent. I do not argue that this sales tax would take food out of the mouths of my children or force me into the poor house, however I do argue that the Jail Authority members are acting like bullies on a playground. First we heard that if we did not vote for the tax our property taxes would be raised to compensate. They found out they couldn't do that. Then we heard that if we didn't vote for the tax the jail would be shut down. They found out they couldn't do that either. They have tried to intimidate and bully the citizens of this county into giving them what they want. Pathetic.

And yes, Tiredofitall, the reserves do pay for their own schooling the majority of the time, but the sheriff is not solely responsible for them having vehicles to drive. The reserves have a seperate bank account and provide their own uniforms, radios, badges etc. Tell them to get out there and work a couple of fundraisers if they want new cars! So let's bypass the reserve issue.

I did not vote for sheriff Lockhart nor will I vote for any tax that helps him in any way. Sorry that is just the way it is. If all naysayers are making him not want to do his job what was his excuse before people started the trash talk? From what I have seen he hasn't made an effort to do his job since he took office! All he has done is whine and complain about the hand he has been dealt. Guess what, life sucks, you don't always get the ideal situation. If you couldn't handle the job why did you want it? Oh, that's right, he didn't want the job, he just wanted the title and the weight that it carries. By the way does your boss Lockhart know that you are posting on a public site? If so tell him the taxpayers aren't as stupid as he thinks they are. That is if you can manage to seperate your lips from his rear end long enough.

To the people of Sequoyah County Intelligence is not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is wether or not to pass a half cent sales tax in order to keep a jail. I read where people belive times will get hard and they will be run into the poor house after this tax that to keep the jail the extra half cent will take the food from the mouths of their children. This i promise you will not happen. I have worked every day since i was 16 i worked my way through college with every job i paid taxes which i paid proudly for one simple reason, because I am an American, and if by god I have to pay taxes then so be it. Watch the feed the children adds on television for starving children in Africa do you think if someone said hey you can come live in America and enjoy the luxaries that we Americans take for granted, with only one catch you have to pay taxes on stuff you buy and your income. Do you honestly think one of those people would turn that down? Well in case your wondering. Absoultely not! So when people are talking about getting t-shirts made guess what? Your gona pay sales tax when you buy that shirt. So if that half cent is what it takes I am 100% willing to pay it proudly without complaint, because i know everyone els in the county is making the same sacrifice along with the interstate traveler. As far as the scare tactics go you should be scared if the well being of the citizens of sequoyah county is left in the hands of nay sayers just as yourself.

I read a comment on one of the other stories about the jail closing. OK LISTEN CAREFULLY !!!! I will type slow for those that can't comprehend. The auxillary officers that the county has work for free...duh..and the school that they have to go through to be a reserve deputy, the biggest part of them pay for the class, which is 3 months long out of their own pockets . And it's not by any means cheap. And the county does not provide them cars to run the streets in. The sheriff only has enough cars for his fulltime deputies ( the ones that get paid) and if reserves come out to work they have to hop in with another deputy. So even when they come out and work there isn't any extra cars out patrolling just extra officers in one vehicle using the same amount of gas as one officer would. Good lord people, know what your talking about before u open your mouth and stupid starts pouring out. The sheriffs department needs at least 2 cars for reserve deputies to use but once again you want them to come out and work for free on their own time but you sure don't want to help provide a way for them to get from point A to point B. Several people keep saying scare tactics, if u would open your ears and listen you would understand we are trying to educate you on whats really going on. It i truly sad to live and work in a county where u have people who care so little about their officers and their own safety. Why do we want to give our tax money to another county to house our prisoners when our tax money should be kept in our county. Many people go to the casinos and stick a 20 dollar bill in a machine and the odds are your gonna leave empty handed but yet you won't take a few cents to help out the county u call home but you expect for the sheriffs department and the jail employees to keep working their tails off daily to keep your sorry butts safe. You vote for a sheriff... well then let him do his job and keep your mouth shut because as i see it nothing but ignorance is coming out of many of you people's mouth. We need to support our sheriff,deputies, and jail employees because like it or not they can't do this alone. And sure not with everyone being against him on everything he does. He is a wonderful sheriff whether some of you idiots think so or not. How can ask someone to protect you and then in the same breath say fire them all, elect someone else?? Kinda makes them not want to do their jobs if they don't have anyone standing behind them. My advice is to shut up and grow up. When you know what your talking about then say something until then keep your trap shut !!!!!!!

Once again Anonymous your showing your lack of intelligence. I was speaking fact concerning the personal property tax. Scare tatics are not necessary, only education you need to be educated as to what could happen because after the Sheriff's Department is broke then what. I attended the meeting today and listened to several view points. The only one that was willing to do anything proactive was Sheriff Lockhart and the County Commissioners were quick to turn the jail back to the Sheriff. We have 6 months to make this work or else we no longer have any police protection in the county. Without police protection what is going to happen to the criminals who commit crimes against you?? More importantly your children?? If you dont care how it affects you directly then think about the crimes against children, if we dont have deputies to take the calls for service when YOUR child is raped, or investigators to investigate the crime, or a jail to house the offender then what are we to do?? I guess we could just travel back in time a hundred years when the Sheriff was the only law we had and house the prisoners at your house. just say the word if you can accomidate some rapest and murders in your home with your children I would be happy to vote yes to that as well. If not just shut your mouth and keep your stupid opinion to yourself. This county is not asking anyone to fix something that is broken just to do the right thing and fix what was never fixed in the first place.

scare tatics that is all there doing now we said no twice get to work on some grants why do we alwys have to fix what they break i say we all get together cheap in have some shirts made that say no more scare tatics vote no printed on them then when we can we vote all of them out of office

I have a first hand knowledge of the issue that Sequoyah County is facing. ANONYMOUS wrote that there are other ways to fund the jail, without adding more financial burden to the families....well if you have a better idea then stop complaining and voice it. FUN4ALL wrote now that the Sheriff has the jail back he will quilify for grant money....well first of all where do you think grant money comes from? TAXES duh. Second yes there would be some grants available but not enough to fund the Sheriff's Department as a whole. Now that I have hit on the stuipdity of the uneducated, class is on. If the tax passes then the tax payers will spend out of pocket 20 to 25 cents of each 100 dollars spent this is just an approximate figure off the top of my head however anyone with a 6th grade education could come up with the exact dollar amount with very little effort. What do you do with your spare change at the end of everyday. Now with that in mind realize the bigger picture here. That is not a tax for just the citizens of Sequoyah County. By voting yes for the half cent sales tax Sequoyah county only pays a portion of that already low tax, everyone that visits Lake Tenkiller, Brushy Lake and stops by the store on their way to the lake pays that tax, every person that travels through our fine County and stops for gas, cigarettes or anything else from Roland to Gore will pay part of that tax for us, so when we may be faced with the issue to pass a tax we are not the ones solely responsible for paying 100% of the tax. On the other hand if the tax fails again, then the only way to keep the County moving forward would be to raise the personal property taxes, if that were the case then everyone that ownes land or vehicles in Sequoyah County would feel the entire tax. If a raise in the personal property tax is implemented then that will not go to a vote for the citizens to have a voice on, the County Commissioners would have the decission to raise that tax and we as property owners would not have a say one way or the other. In short pass the tax and everyone that can and will pass through this County will pay our taxes for us, or let the County Commissioners raise the personal property taxes and then pay it all ourselves. Now that you have been educated use your head and vote yes for the sales tax increase.

one is not supposed to WANT new taxes but as the feds pack up the cash and sends it elsewhere it is just a cause and effect situation for local governments to have to carry a bigger load. its called stepping up to the plate folks. if it was up to me, we would be paying considerable more than we do. good infrastructure ain't cheap folks. i can't help but wonder how many of these folks so against taxes spends their money out of this county.