The Emporia Gazette

Charges filed against Swafford

I think that if someone was pounding and kicking on my door, I would have been on the phone with the cops. Why would you open the door? Were the cops called before the gunshot or after? If I was sitting there watching my man and my son fight, I would have been on the phone with the cops. The gunshot would have never happened if the cops were called first, honestly it sounds like all 3 of them are to blame and nobody is right or wrong. 1. Why would you have opened up the door after it was being banged on? 2. Why would you not have called the cops when the door was being beaten on? 3. Why did the cops not get called when there were fists flying? 4. Why were they called after the the gunshot?
Someone hesitated to do the right thing. They both should be charged with something.

July 15, 2008 at 1:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

He’s got a message for the city

I agree with Bailes, I will sign your petition. I have seen you many times with your dogs, before the ordinace went into effect. Your dogs have never jumped out after anyone, that I have seen. I walk my dogs and when you pass me your dogs would just look, not come after us. It is ridiculous that this law is in effect when I see so many people put their children in their cars, under the age of 3, without a car seat or booster seat. They are paying for their insurance and they will put their kids in the car and the kids are standing up, I am thinking if I was their insurance agent I would teach them what a carseat is. I see on a daily basis 15 to 20 cars run red lights and the cops are no where to be seen, but if you have a dog in the back of your truck, beware you might get a ticket. Seriously, lets find some other things to ticket on.

July 9, 2008 at 7:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

No action on dog call

I think it is crazy that the police or animal control can't help out more. I am an owner of two pitbulls. I love my dogs. Me female was getting out of the pen for like 2 weeks straight, she could get a good enough head start and clear a 6 foot fence. Now my pen is almost 8 ft tall. I took care of the problem myself, my dog got into trouble and no one had ever complained about my dog. There are so many dogs loose. But my ? to those of you who say will just say that the dog is viscious and attacking, and then the cops show up ready to kill the dog. You know how many times we have dogs come up to us when we are walking our dogs? I don't freak out and call the cops. Normally if you do not react the dog will not bother you. I think we should just start chaining the dogs and cats that are at large to a tree in the yard and when animal control finally comes out and you get a ticket for animal cruelty because the animals had been tied to a tree, then you tell them to give a ticket to the owner of the dog or cat. It is crap that nothing gets done. My neighbors dog gets out all of the time and roams the neighborhood and then goes back home. It never bothers anyone but it drives me nuts that their dog will go to the bathroom in my yard and she does not even care. I have even seen them walk the dogs and let them go poo in everyone elses yard so she does not have to clean her yard. It is disgusting, that dog goes in my yard, I will take her all the dog poo from my dogpen.

June 30, 2008 at 10:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Fourth of July fireworks

I guess we all should be paying more attention to what is going on. I think it is bull that we can buy fireworks but can't shoot them. I do not know how many people I seen shooting fireworks off on saturday, and guess what no cops around at all? What happened to we will ticked all that shoot fireworks, there will be no warnings? If the city has canceled so much this year what is going to happen next year? Have they thought about that. why is it that the city manager is getting paid that much? Not much has been done since they came into office.

June 30, 2008 at 10:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Fourth of July fireworks

Renegade,

You are so right. Anymore everything anyone does is so offensive. Our Christmas program, isn't christmas program anymore, it is the seasonal celebration. They don't even sing normal christmas carrols. I work in a business that we can't say happy holidays, merry christmas, etc. It is crap, I am sorry you don't celebrate but it takes away from the rest of us that does. I think it is ludacris that we can "run out of money." Where did it go? You can't say from all the damage from the storms because there is still so much to be cleaned up. We all pay taxes don't we? Our water bills went up. Let's take a look at what they are spending it on and let everyone know where all the money goes to.

June 28, 2008 at 9:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

BBQ festival canceled for 2008

kansasgirl,

Can you tell me what is so great about this town? Nothing, that is what it is. We don't have a movie theatre really worth going to, no firework displays, can't shoot fireworks, the circus we do have is a joke. Let's see what else, there is not careers in emporia, our streets aren't the best anymore, but we are going to spend 300,000 dollars on a fire department renovation, all the parking lots in town need some major redoing, we got like 5 stores in our "mall." Not much to do here and it is not the best place to raise your kids. There is so much petty crime, kids running around at all hours of the night up to no good. Please tell me what we do have that is here?

I think it is just plain nuts that emporia is out of money to fund things that have been going on for a long time. Why not charge $3 dollars a person, $5 dollars a couple and 10$ for a carload to get into the fireworks display. Wouldn't that help raise some money? But nope, lets just cancel it and not try anything else out. Way to go good ole' emporia.

June 28, 2008 at 8:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Fourth of July fireworks

I think it is nuts that we are going to not have a display! I do not go to the display, but it is nice to sit in my front yard to see it. We should be able to shoot small things off, like firecrackers or the little fountains. It is not fair to kids that it is taken away from them. I think shooting off the fireworks is no different than the kids that terrorize my neighborhood everyday, all day. We should be able to shoot off fireworks, just put a limit on what you can shoot in town and put a curfew on the nights that need to be done early. Me personally, I will probably find a way to shoot fireworks off, even if it means going to my in-laws in chase county or to coffey county. It is ridiculous that our town has the money to do some renovations at the fire department, and whatever the hell else our town spends money on, because we all know we are not getting our streets re-done, and the things that need to be fixed? How hard is it to budget? This is Independence Day, let us shoot fireworks. I want to know how the cops are going to be able to ticket everyone when they can't ticket all the drunk drivers, the people that killed the animals at the zoo, the petty thieves and everything else. I think that the 4rth of July will be really busy for the Emporia Police Department. I see so many people get away with so many things and cops drive right on by them and do not give the tickets out to those who deserve it. So instead of ticketing the terrible drivers or whatever else, they are going to cruise emporia all day long with gas being 4 bucks a gallon and try to find people shootin off fireworks. Good luck.!

June 26, 2008 at 10:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Wants bike lanes

Even though you can ride on the on right shoulder and it is okay, people still don't pay attention. So what would it hurt that they painted a lane? It can't cost that much to paint some lines. Give me some yellow paint and we can do it.

June 21, 2008 at 12:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Ability, probability

Bj~

I am not a fanactic, I am passionate about animals. My dogs are great.

June 21, 2008 at 12:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Wants bike lanes

I think it would be great if we had the bike lanes. Why not have a biking class that could be city wide. Drivers need to be aware of bikers and bikers need to be aware of bikers. So with that said, why not let us get bike lanes? We spend thousands of dollars on other things that might not be needed but we can't put in bike lanes? How much work would that be?

June 19, 2008 at 8:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )