Unanswered questions on central office project

As a lifelong citizen of Salisbury and Rowan County and a proud product of our Rowan-Salisbury Schools, I strongly feel that we would be remiss to our readers if we did not respond to and clarify several statements contained in the Jan. 29 front-page article on the new central office.

Several concerned citizens have worked with me on this project for over three years. We are excited about the possibility of a downtown central office for our school system and want to make it the best it can be.

Initially, it was indicated that we were opposed to the central office. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although we still have a number of unanswered questions on this project, we agree that it is very important and definitely needed.

Secondly, it was stated that the Local Government Commission had been provided, at their request, a confidential list of 116 names of citizens who were involved in the reported conspiracy. This is also not accurate. To the best of our knowledge, the article should have stated that 116 persons may have firsthand knowledge of the facts in this case. No allegations were made in this information.

Thirdly, it was also reported that certain allegations were made several years ago about a similar site problem with the Rowan Hospice House. To the best of our knowledge, that statement is also false and very misleading. All statements and claims were supported by factual information.

Thank you for the opportunity to make the above clarifications. If you have additional information to report, please call Crime Stoppers at 704-638-5388.

Ronnie Smith

Salisbury

 

Obama controlls mortgage rates

After reading John Burke’s response to Richard Roberts’ letter to the editor, I was amazed that the writer was so unfamiliar with the government mortgage programs. Have you never heard of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HARP), Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), Making Homes Affordable (MHA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Home Administration (FHA), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) or Government VA Mortgage Administration?

Take a look at this quote from a government website:

“The FED and Obama administration have been compressing mortgage interest rates for some time now. Due to these efforts and other market factors, mortgage rates and APR’s on most 15-30 year fixed government backed mortgages have recently been coming in between 2.75 and 4.25 percent.”

I believe the Obama administration has been in control of mortgage rates for everyone, including banks. The problem is, neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac, nor any other government programs, will ever go broke because it’s backed with taxes from those still working and the government money printing press.

Let’s consider for a moment the idea of free school. There is no such thing as free anything. School, college or universities have buildings to maintain, professors and teachers to pay, and utility bills to pay, just to mention the obvious. Does Obama have a stash somewhere or does he plan to take from Peter (some existing finance programs)to pay Paul (his great benevolent dictator’s pen)? The idea of two free years of schooling will be the same as extending high school. We will have added grades 13 and 14. How will adding two more years of high school do what 12 years have failed to do? If half of the people today are forced to live with government assistance, how can anyone say Obama’s ideas are working?

Jean Roberts

Kannapolis