Warren County paid him $83,000 per year and Union County will give him $86,000 yearly with a $2,500 raise a year.
Akes came under fire from county residents for the poor job in caring for rural roads.
1,300 residents signed a petition, and gave it to the Board of Supervisors, asking that Akes' contract not be renewed.
For Chris and I it was his attitude, as you can see by his quote, that rubbed us the wrong way.
Here's and e-mail she sent him on February 20th of this year...
Good morning.
Would it be possible to get some sand or something on (road names removed) in the next day or so? These roads are becoming very treacherous.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Mr. Personality responded with...
We can not sand unpaved roads because there are 637 miles of them and we have used up our supply of sand on thepaved system. We are in the process of blading and scarifying the unpaved roads but until we get some temparaturesabove20degrees,itwillprobablybealosingbattle.
SteveAkes,PE
Warren County Engineer
Temparatures?
We've lived here for over twelve years and they sand each and every year.
It appears his attitude was a problem pattern with Mr. Akes.
Akes told The Old Weird Harold...
"They said I was being rude to people, but I never got them to say who. Most of the calls I got this spring were people who were very rude to begin with".
Akes is a well compensated employee of the taxpayer, deal with it.
I love how the Old Weird Harold and Record Tribune keeps writing "allegedly" in their Burger coverage, maybe because in one story they have his BAC as 0.152 and another story has it at .156 and whatnot.
For full disclosure, I have made financial contributions to Representative Sorenson, as well as exchanged e-mails and voted for him.
So with that in mind, it would have been nice to have a heads up that he was making this move, the last Sorenson's Straight Talk I received was on 9/26 and it was about the Republican plan for health care reform.
In it Sorenson misspelled the bullet point for Affordability as AFFORDIBILITY.
Good thing it wasn't a newsletter about education.
Staci continues to send out her weekly(?) updates the last one on September 25 with the one prior on September 10, showing it's weakly too.
Somebody's going to make a lot of money off this race, last time Appel had well over $250,000 to play with and outspent the Republican about 12 to 1.
In an aside, Appel's husband Brent (of the Iowa Supreme Court) was cited by the Indianola Police on September 16 for failure to obey a traffic control device.
He struck another vehicle and caused $3,000 damage to the victim's car and $2,000 to his own.
It's not the first time he didn't think he had to follow the law.
My State Senator , Staci Appel, had an editorial in the Indianola Record and Old Weird Harold regarding Federal Deductibility (which is not in their online version) and she asked people to contact her.
I jotted her an e-mail stating my opposition and that she, nor I truly knew who would see a tax cut vs. a tax increase.
I was surprised to receive a reply, she hasn't bothered in the past, and she toed the party line about middle class tax cuts (which was exactly verbatim as her editorial).
She also said...
Unfortunately, this middle-class tax cut is vigorously opposed by many of the richest Iowans and some powerful special interests. They are frantically using emails, commercials and other venues to blanket Iowa with misinformation and half-truths.
That angered me so I replied to her reply...
I am one of the 96% in your district that make $125,000 or less. In your editorial for the Indianola paper you invited constituent contact, why when you had already made up your mind? The ones who are not telling the truth are statehouse democrats who tried to sneak this by in the last weeks of the session and lied when they tried to sell it as a middle class tax cut. The top rate, and the tax increase, kicks in at $63,350.
Plus, don't try to lump the few who see no increase or decrease in with those who might see a reduction. As for the reduction in tax rates, that doesn't matter if taxes go up.
According to the Department of Revenue 39,294 taxpayers in my income bracket will see a reduction of $225.14 and 32,566 taxpayers will see an increase of $177.42 That's hardly fair and what's worse is I don't know which group I'll fall in, you don't know and my CPA doesn't know.
Here's my take on a few State House races that I've found irritating.
Jerry Sullivan is the Mayor of Windsor Heights and is running TV spots where his friends tell you how wonderful he is.
I'm not impressed that someone who went to Dowling High School with you mentions that in a commercial.
His wife mentions how long they've been married, and I'm happy for them, but how does that equate to being a State Representative?
Two people brag about Sullivan balancing Windsor Heights budget seven years in a row, Sullivan's campaign and the Ragister say it's only six, especially when you've raised taxes to do so.
His ad then goes on to brag that he'll balance the state's budget without mentioning that the legislature is legally required to do so.
In my neck of the woods Maxine Bussanmas is making her second straight run for State Representative.
Ms. Bussanmas ran an ad in the Indianola Record and Old Weird Harold that mentioned her "vast experience as employee and small business owner".
Bussanmas stated "as a member of the Iowa House I will":
"Fight for affordable, accessible healthcare and prescriptions for all"
"Work for enhanced education to prepare students for the global employement opportunity of the future"
"Position Iowa a world leader in alternative energy technology and production"
"Continue to maintain a balance budget, while providing essential services to all"
"I will work hard to improve scholastic achievements, ensure accessible, affordable healthcare and ensure a strong economy for all of Iowa"
Dr. Alan Koslow wants to be the Doctor in the House and after my personal encounter with the doc, that's a wee bit frightening.
Koslow was the Vascular Surgeon on my spinal fusion ten years ago.
In laymen terms he made a six inch opening in my stomach and moved internal organs so the Orthopedic Surgeon could remove the bad disc, then he closed the incision.
The procedure was done on a Tuesday, which means I had no food or drink since the day before and I had to make sure my system was clean before they went in.
On Thursday, Koslow was concerned that I had not had a bowel movement and he was ordering a laxative.
WHAT?!
I told him nothing in, nothing out and I refused to take it. That made the nurses all laugh because they too knew how ridiculous that was.
By Friday he thought I was ready for some broth and everything came out fine, which allowed me to go home on Saturday.
Finally, there's a TV ad from Al Sorensen's opponent which has a picture, on the left, of Al with his name.
The problem is on the right they scroll Al's previous record and in doing so mispell his name as "Soresen", all the while his picture and name (correctly spelled) remain on the left.
As an aside, we almost had the need for another special election as Dummycrat State Representative Scott Ourth didn't look where he was walking and stepped in front of my vehicle, the other day, while he was having a conversation.
Dummycrats it's not smart to put your life in my foot's hands.
