It’s time to put this tactic of smoke and mirrors to rest. It’s been said that, if you repeat something often enough, other people start parroting what they heard, and after a while, more and more people start doing the same even if what they are repeating is not true.
They don’t bother to check the facts, and that is exactly what the Edwards-Maiden camp have been doing long before the engineers race began.
It started on WAIS’s program Viewpoint with Sharon Edwards. A small handful of callers continually claim that Archie doesn’t live in Athens County and he rarely goes to work. Both of those allegations are absolutely not true. They are complete lies.
What this is actually about is Jeff’s retirement. For six years, Jeff has sat on the Hocking Conservancy Board, attending one meeting a month. The board participates in PERS and, with PERS as your retirement plan, you can retire as early as 10 years, and what you get is based on your three highest-paying years.
If Jeff became engineer, he would have the 10 years he needs for PERS. Since Jeff filed for bankruptcy in 2003, he needs this job and PERS to get out of debt and deal with his current financial difficulties.
Now for a little history: Rex Maiden was engineer from 1977 to 1979. At that time, the men working for him wanted to unionize, but he was against it. To this day, all of the Maiden businesses are still non-union. Rex resigned and allowed Archie to finish out his last year of his four-year term, and the Democratic Party appointed Archie.
Archie has been the engineer ever since and has done a great job all 32 years of his tenure. Archie deserves our support. He’s a veteran of Vietnam, and he is one of the most honest and straightforward men I know.
Brian Blauser resides in Athens.
