Van Sickle Runs again --

Remember John Paul Rodgers, the former Grand Dragon of Fl, who served on the Lake Wales City Commission?  Well, one of his long time supporters, Jack Van Sickle, is back.  Here is a copy of a letter I sent to the Ledger.  I’d appreciate getting the word out

Semper Fi,

Rich

Major, USMC (Ret)

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Van Sickle runs again

By R. Earl

Major, USMC (Ret)

Former Mayor Jack Van Sickle, a long time supporter of John Paul Rogers, (Rodgers was a lifelong member of the KKK and was the former Grand Dragon of Florida), is now, once again, attempting to seek the position of Mayor of Lake Wales. 

This is an outrage since the citizens of Lake Wales spoke, no shouted, by an 84%, to remove Jack Van Sickle from Lake Wales City Commission service.

How can this be you ask?  After all, the largest voting turnout in the history of Lake Wales demanded the ousting of Jack Van Sickle from city government by 84%.

In a Ledger article announcing his cadency for Lake Wales Mayor, http://www.theledger.com/article/20130215/NEWSCHIEF/130219583, extensively mentions his on-going health challenges yet barely mentions why the people of Lake Wales voted him out of office in the first place.

Let’s recap Mr. Van Sickle’s record:

·      Jack Van Sickle, a long time supporter of John Paul Rogers, a known Grand Dragon in the United Klan’s of America the most violent and largest Klan organization of its time. Van Sickle has equated John Paul Rogers’s affiliation with the Klan to that of someone having had several speeding tickets in ones past.  Really?  Do you know that Van Sickle’s supporters CHEERED when he made this comparison!

·      During his tenure as Mayor, over $600,000 dollars was stolen from Lake Wales city funds; Van Sickle was a person of interest in the case – this case has yet to be solved.

·      Van Sickle increased the City of Lake Wales’s Debt from $25.5 Million Dollars to over $35 Million Dollars

·      Van Sickle’s plan to pay off $2 Million Dollars (from the Cities Reserve Fund), not only drains the drains the reserve fund but does little to pay the interest on the current 35 Million Dollar deficit. At the end of 9 years the City will be facing over a $50 Million dollar deficit, just on interest of the $35 Million alone.

·      To give you an idea how ‘fiscally conservative’ Van Sickle is, he wasted over $200,000 dollars on a project that surveyed a parking lot of which nothing could ever be built there. 

·      Van Sickle did NOTHING to address the failing infrastructure that includes the City’s sewer system that constantly fails and overflows into the streets and resident’s homes.

·      In over 8 years of Commission service, Van Sickle did little to address the worsening economic situation that the City of Lake Wales has been facing for many years.

·      Van Sickle, like his buddy John Paul Rodgers, are betting that the people of Lake Wales have short memories and that new comers to the area remain totally uniformed about his record and questionable affiliations with members of the KKK and the former Grand Dragon, John Paul Rodgers. 

·      Van Sickle went to great lengths to explain his health challenges YET has never apologized for his long time affiliation and support of Grand Dragon John Paul Rodgers. 

Lake Wales needs real leadership and not a continuation of the ‘Good Ol Boy’ network.

Vote for Eugene l. Fultz, a REAL leader with experience that Lake Wales needs.