County Board Supervisor Ken Hall ripped his opponent Brian Dey and The Journal Times Friday for reporting that he wants to spend $250,000 on a new disc golf course in Racine County.
"Disc golf courses do not cost anything close to $250,000," Hall said in a press release. "This ridiculous figure was either made up by my opponent to confuse voters or it is simply sloppy homework."
Dey made the comment in Friday's Journal Times that Hall was not a fiscal conservative because he wanted to spend "$250,000 for Frisbee golf." JT Reporter David Steinkraus wrote the story, which has yet to be uploaded to the JT's website.
Hall estimated the cost of a disc golf course in Racine County at $12,000. Here's Hall's take on the proposal:
Is disc golf controversial? No. It is one of many issues the board works on and it is routine to invest in parks. The likely public cost for a tournament quality course, under the terms of the resolution approved overwhelmingly by the county board is likely to be a bit over $12,000, about half of the cost of a playground. Any course will be a 50/50 public/private partnership, as arranged by the Public Works Committee.Here's a story in the JT from January 2007 reporting the cost of two disc golf courses in the county at $12,000 apiece. A J-S story from Sept. 24, 2006 reports Hall saying two disc golf courses in Racine County would cost $50,000. We couldn't find reference to a disc golf course costing $250,000 to build. Whole parks were estimated at that price, but not just a disc golf course.
Disc golf is like regular golf but played with Frisbee-like discs. Players throw
the discs into metal baskets with hanging chains (see right).UW-Parkside has one of the best disc golf courses in the area, and the university hosts an annual tournament. One nice thing about disc golf is that it's free to play (aside from the cost of buying discs to throw).
Hall and Dey are running for the County Board's 15th District seat. Both have political experience. Dey, a member of the Racine School Board, was an outspoken critic of former Superintendent Tom Hicks.
Hall is finishing his first term on the County Board. He lost to County Executive Bill McReynolds for the county's top spot in 2007.
I dislike Mr Hall I hope he loses on the first.
ReplyDeleteThat being said I think that Disc Golf is a good idea as we could easily promote this (O.K. I know that The City nor the County have any sort of marketing plan and most of the marketing that is being done is done from out of State Companies vs using Companies in Racine or owned by folks from Racine)
and start for just a few bucks putting Racine on the map as a stop on Disc Golf tourney's bring in folks who play the game and would spend money here in the area.
But that would take forward thinking something that our leaders no longer do.
No the City will spend 100K+ on a worthless Uptown art project when we have empty store fronts on Main st and the old 6th st art area is about dead.
IMHO The DRC will kill anything that is not for the rich white folks or steal ideas from others and clame them as there own (POP) or force others to allow the DRC to clame ownership when they can (Ice Carving)
I sure do not want Hall to win but this idea of having disc golf is not a bad one.
Disc golf is a good idea for Racine. One of a number of good ideas that Ken Hall has advocated.
ReplyDeleteI argee Disk Golf would be a good idea
ReplyDeleteHall having more then one good idea not true
Dustin - please correct the rather large error in your report. Dey did NOT abruptly resign from RUSD for personal reasons - he is STILL an RUSD board member and will be until the the next board is sworn in. You're thinking of Randy Bangs.
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ReplyDeleteThe original version of this article incorrectly reported Brian Dey abruptly resigned from the Racine Unified School Board. Dey simply chose not to run for re-election.
ReplyDeleteDisc golf would be a wonderful family outing. The cost is minimal.
ReplyDeleteWhy anyone would use disc golf as a 9 iron to bang on Hall astonishes the intelligence of those critics.
Why Dey chose to run against Hall is anyone's guess. Hall has been one for opening UP the board meetings to be televised. Dey says he agrees but I am still suspect of the reasons why Dey would leave the RUSD and then want to jump into another firepit.
Hall and his wife remind me so much of Jim and Joyce Smith. They are vengeful and spiteful people and hold a grudge against anyone who didn't support them for his run as county exec.
ReplyDeletePersonally I hope Hall gets beaten in his race, Racine does not need any more of the Smith-style politics.
I want to encourage the Racine Post to delete the previous comment. Debating Mr. Hall's record is one thing, but it is wrong to subject his wife, who is not an elected official, to criticism from a vengeful and spiteful chickensh!t annonymous writer. If you want to talk trash about someone's wife, have the courage to post your name.
ReplyDeleteI've been to a couple of county meetings and the supervisors vote on as many as a dozen issues each meeting. Hall has cast probably a few hundred votes as supervisor.
Brian Dey and his Beavis and Butthead mouthbreathers can only come up with disk golf and on that they don't get the facts straight.
Dey is the guy who almost got booted from the race for not getting enough signatures (which he admitted was his fault) and now when he has something to say, he's wrong.
(Sorry, I forgot his ridicule of the "Save Don't Pave" folks who want to preserve open land in Caledonia. What a bunch of weenies.)
This guy and his buddies remind me of school yard thugs.
p.s. Disk Golf is a ton of fun.
Oh please "Iggy". If you know the Hall's AT ALL, which you claim you do, you know darn well that Mrs. Hall is just as involved as her husband. She may not be the elected official, but then, neither was Joyce Smith.
ReplyDeleteI know Ken Hall and have found him extremely serious and dedicated to save the taxpayers' (that's us) money. How anyone could think any differently baffles me -- has he or she actually talked with Ken about his ideas?
ReplyDeleteTo the above anonymous, sounds like you don't know the Hall's that well. Anyone can put on a good front.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cheap commentary on Mrs. Hall. I have never ever heard anything like that.
ReplyDeleteThis race appears to be more of a vandetta than an actual race of qualified people. If Brien Dey's people are going to misquote, mislead, and now wager personal attacks against Hall's family, we don't need Dey in ANY politics.
Hall is NOT for open government. Hall, and his sidekick Diane Lange, both moved their email off county servers to put it out of reach of citizens using open records laws.
ReplyDeleteWhy? What are they hiding?
Let me guess....these anonymous bloggers are MacBully supporters. Rather transparent and sad.
ReplyDeleteYou know it's almost funny, if it weren't so sad, that anyone who is not a supporter of Hall is labeled instantly to be a supporter of Dey or McReynolds.
ReplyDeleteI don't know Dey, yet, I have no use for either Mr. or Mrs. Hall, I just don't like their style of politics. Period. Is that really so difficult for some people to believe??
And when a spouse is equally as involved (such as Mrs. Hall), it shouldn't come as any surprise that their name would come up in conversation as well. I don't like either of them. But I hardly consider that wagering a personal attack against the Hall family. They remind me of Jim and Joyce Smith and their brand of politics.
Frankly, Mrs. Hall if you can't take the heat, then stay out of the kitchen honey.
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