Upset in E-town in wake of FOIA flood: MAYOR RESIGNS
ELIZABETHTOWN—Following a flurry of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from both Disclosure and other citizens, the village president (mayor) of E-town has resigned.
Tom Seiner, new E-town Village Prez
The move occurred Monday (Aug. 7) at the regular village board meeting after an executive session called to not only accept Heck Rose’s resignation, but to appoint his replacement, none other than former Hardin County sheriff Tom Seiner as new village president. We weren’t even aware that Seiner lived IN E-town; we thought he resided on the outskirts of Rosiclare, but we could be mistaken. We like Tommy Seiner; he was always VERY helpful to us when he was sheriff, and current sheriff Smoky Cullison speaks highly of him. So we’ll see what kind of a mayor he will be.
The first move Seiner made was to accept the resignation of water supervisor Skip Brownfield, according to Seiner, whom we contacted Wednesday. As those in the affected area are no doubt aware, Brownfield is the one who’s been in charge of the water over the past several years—and past several EPA violations. Apparently, according to one of our sources, this most recent violation, involved a mis-feed of chlorine (something that can actually be deadly if it gets out of hand); we’ll have full details on what President Seiner is doing to rectify the situation.
We’ve been advised that Brownfield is alleged to have falsified documents for treatment of water. We’re not sure what type of documents; it appears, though, that it may be time cards. This is an issue because reports have indicated those cards show Brownfield was clocked in at E-town working on the water, but in actuality, he was at his other job at the state park in Cave-in-Rock. IF this is the case, it’s said that Brownfield has been told he can either give up his job (as water supt.) or face legal charges.
This version of things leads to involvement of Rose, too….our source says the former village prez got caught up in all this business with Brownfield, and actually stepped down because of THAT. Which, we guess, is better than stepping down over allowing federal items, obtained through the LESO program, to be used by private citizens for their own personal business….better to have the state sniffing after him than the feds, perhaps, although if the EPA comes sniffing, it may BE fed, as it’s been reported to us that E-town has an ongoing problem with e. Coli in the water. And we have an interesting post coming up on how THAT might be happening….dates back to this past March. Be checking back, this is constantly developing, and there’s a LOT more information we’re bringing in the print version, including a FOIA response we received last week….click the PayPal to renew, or get your check or money order in by August 22, so you can receive the August 24 issue in the mail!
Short URL: http://www.disclosurenewsonline.com/?p=8844
Posted by Jack Howser
on Aug 9 2011. Filed under Breaking, Hardin.
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Well, what the citizens of Elizabethtown need to know is that this problem with the water and with Mr. Brownfield has been going on for years, longer than Mr. Rose has been in office. The entire board and the previous mayor knew about this the entire time…..as did the new mayor Mr. Siener…..his acting like he was stepping in and getting rid of Mr. Brownfield is just another smoke screen to make the citizens think that they did not know anything was going on. I for one do not like the idea of them appointing Mr. Siener as mayor. He was not a good sheriff and will NOT be a good mayor either. As for his living in Elizabethtown, he does when he’s not living with his girlfriend in Harrisburg who he was cheating on his ex-wife with while he was still married and had a child with while he was still married…..that says a lot for the character of this man. Also, there is a HUGE conflict of interest on the board and in the town, less so since Mr. Rose has resigned of course. Many people don’t know that Mr. Rose as the mayor and the board hired Mr. Danny Lowry as the engineer for the town, who is also the boss of Mr. Rose at his position on the Hardin County Highway Department….can we say “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”!!!! Also, the years the town has employed Mr. Conkle as the police officer of which he did his job (when it was done) out of his home, or chasing down the ambulance when there was a call using the town’s police car and even wrecked said police car while speeding following the ambulance to a call in Cave-In-Rock. It’s kind of a big conflict to me that he is/was kept on the payroll of the town while his wife was on the board and his brother-in-law was the mayor…..wouldn’t ya say!!! He was also paid monthly to “watch” Robert Tolbert who is the town maintenance man and make sure he was doing his job, as well as being paid to be the fire chief in Elizabethtown…..wow!!!! Come on people, use your brains for a change!!! And while the town goes broke whether it be from missing funds or what have you they are paying Mr. Conkle these salaries and with him really not doing his job…..and paying an enormous amount of insurance premiums, actually more than his monthly salaries put together…..talk about a big liability to the town…..in this alone we could be saving thousands (yes thousands) of dollars every month by just getting rid of his positions all together….I’m sure he can get on Social Security for his medical care…it shouldn’t be a problem for the town to take care of at any rate however you look at it!!!!
Ed’s not going to live long enough to go through the process of receiving social security….then people will blame us for that, of course….and we really don’t know what to think about Tommy being mayor, but there are some things that need to be cleaned up in that town, and even after they’re cleaned up, there’s every possibility that the feds are going to roll in there and start making arrests, particularly over this LESO equipment. Should be an interesting scene when this occurs….