Where oh where is Don the Drone Detective

[P A Paul]

It’s four weeks since Gold Wingnut last video, a full week beyond his normal 2-3 week update. Hope he’s o.k.

[Stu from NYC]

I did see his truck at a parking lot Sunday afternoon

[kansasr]

Probably has a lot on his county commissioner plate!

[Goldwingnut]

It’s four weeks since Gold Wingnut last video, a full week beyond his normal 2-3 week update. Hope he’s o.k.

I’m still out and about. I’ve been extremely busy since the last video came out dealing with a litter of puppies (all have great new homes!), the County Commission job has been keeping me busy, and there’s been a few other personal items that have kept me from getting a lot of editing done. #132 has been shot and is still in the editing phase. I’m hopeful to have it out in just a few more days (but I’ve been saying that to myself for the last 2 weeks). Good stuff coming and I’ve already got things mapped out to include in #133. Thanks for the concern.

[JoelJohnson]

I know how it is to be a Goldwing nut, I bought my (only) Goldwing in 2000 and sold it the year we moved down here in 2015 with over 130,000 miles on it. Sold to an officer in our town and it still looked brand new.
Looking forward to your next video.

[P A Paul]

Thanks for update Don….many of us are “addicted” to updates

[Nana2Teddy]

I’m still out and about. I’ve been extremely busy since the last video came out dealing with a litter of puppies (all have great new homes!), the County Commission job has been keeping me busy, and there’s been a few other personal items that have kept me from getting a lot of editing done. #132 has been shot and is still in the editing phase. I’m hopeful to have it out in just a few more days (but I’ve been saying that to myself for the last 2 weeks). Good stuff coming and I’ve already got things mapped out to include in #133. Thanks for the concern.

Congrats on homing all of your puppies! Loved watching them grow in your videos. Hubs and I are big fans of your videos, and so excited when there’s a new release. We live in DeLuna so we are personally very invested in the southern areas. We’re wondering if you have ever flown the drone over the Hogeye preserve, and if so is it in one of your past videos? We walk the path often and are so curious what the huge preserve that we can hear, but not see, looks like from above. Thanks so much for the great updates! Can’t wait for #132!

[KenLee100]

It’s four weeks since Gold Wingnut last video, a full week beyond his normal 2-3 week update. Hope he’s o.k.

I saw Don on the 14th @ Learn and Grow Expo. He is doing fine and has a video close to dropping. Stay tuned!

[Bogie Shooter]

I saw Don on the 14th @ Learn and Grow Expo. He is doing fine and has a video close to dropping. Stay tuned!

Didn’t he say that in post #4?

[ROCKETMAN]

I figured you were busy with budget stuff. Hopefully next year some of the fire stuff will be taken care of. Sorry first responders were the losers in all this getting no raise.

[Goldwingnut]

I figured you were busy with budget stuff. Hopefully next year some of the fire stuff will be taken care of. Sorry first responders were the losers in all this getting no raise.

Been very busy but I made great progress yesterday in editing and should be starting the voiceover tomorrow morning. It’s been a challenge.

The budget has been a difficult process this year and unfortunately the calendar is our enemy and every state agency waits until the last minute to release needed budget numbers to the local governments, this pushes our budget processes to the very last minute with little room for making adjustments when things don’t work out as anticipated, this was a part of the case that impacted our fire budgets. In this case the devastating impact to our local businesses community was not known until the TRIM notices went out and their fees were calculated. Had the fire assessment passed the impact on jobs, prices, and the businesses of Sumter County would have been a devastating and crippling economic blow. Given more time we could have reevaluated the recommendation of the study that was performed and made some adjustments to make it more fair to all. That will be the goal of the next few months, to work this out and get a better plan in place. Budgeting rules and regulations handcuff us on how monies in the budget can be allocated and used, this is unfortunate as it made our fire departments take on the burnt on the impact of this decision.

To be very clear, very few in Sumter County only pay $124 per year for fire service, everyone who pays county taxes paid much much more, nearly a third our our county general fund goes to the fire service which means that you pay $124 plus about 30% of your county property tax. Businesses are no different except that the property taxes on their buildings and facilities are much huger than the typical homeowner’s and they get no homestead or other exemptions to help reduce their taxes. In the budget just approved on Tuesday, the $125 assessment (it went up $1) covers less than 1/4 of the $40,000,000 combined budgets for the fire departments in the coming year, the rest comes from the general fund, your county property taxes.

Amazingly the POA has known this information for a long time but refuses to publish the facts, last month’s driveway toilet paper they distributed continued their misinformation message of businesses only paying $124 per year. Sadly, people are believing this crapsheet. One has to now wonder what the POA’s agenda is…

The increased cost came at the demand of the residents for more/better ambulance response service, going from 6 contracted ambulances to 16 firefighter staffed ambulances comes at a significant cost that must be paid. There is no “someone else” going to pay for this, you will see your county tax bill go up next year, it’s just a matter of how much and how it will be broken out. There is no mismanagement as some have accused the county of, it is paying for what the residents have demanded.

Sorry for going on like this, it’s talking to people a dozen times a day or more, trying to deliver this message that has taken me away from editing my videos. So I’ll end now and get back in front of the computer, until the phone rings again…