Asshat of the Day
It’s been quite a while since we’ve given one of these out, but I couldn’t resist today.
Some people are just selfish asses when it comes to helping out neighbors in an emergency.
Flooding and strong winds from Hurricane Irene over the weekend tore up Prime Hook Road through the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. The road is the only public access to dozens of homes along the Delaware Bay.
The only other way to reach Primehook Beach — also known as Shorts Beach — is through Back Bay Cove, a private gated community to the south.
On Sunday, community owner Sam Burke initially refused to allow residents and the Delaware National Guard to use his road. He explained that Back Bay Cove residents pay a premium for a private community and don’t want their road to become public.
So the answer to this problem – DelDOT is going to pay this bastard $500/day so that the residents of Primehook Beach can reach their homes and start cleaning up the damage from Hurricane Irene.
“I thought it was a bit chintzy, myself,” Burke said. “I think it’s worth more than that, but that’s what the state was willing to pay.”
There’s a special place in Hell for people like Sam Burke.
Yeah,standing on tippy-toes up to his nose in sewage.
When it comes to beach replenishment, I say charge him $10 million a day.
I’d destroy you guys at Monopoly.
Is this the same Merritt S. (Sam) Burke III, of walrus mustache, who was the rogue prosecutor who primaried Rich Gebelein in 1982?
Burke was long overdue for the Asshat Award.
MJ……
Quit bitching already……
Sam’s counting money
Agreed Twisted Rebel. MJ you would do the same if it was your property. Mr. Burke is a smart man. Just tell those folks at Primehook to slow their asses down when they come through Broadkill or the “Sheriff” is going to get them. EZ passes allowing them to drive through BK can be picked up at the store for a flat fee of $20. Thankyou and good day.
Actually, Chad, I wouldn’t do the same. Guess I was brought up differently than Burke was. Burke is a cheap bastard who is taking advantage of the situation and is holding his neighbors hostage. Shame on him and shame on you for defending him.
Profiteering during a natural disaster is appalling.
I wonder how he would feel if the road just outside his development washed out during the storm. My guess is he would demand the state fix the road and allow him to cut a road to primehook. For Free.
I just read the article in the Cape Gazette. Burke is despicable.
MJ: the residents of Primehook and reps from Del-Dot have known about the possible issues w/ their road for sometime now. There are many issues that lead to the washout(not just Irene); and it was just a matter of time. No one living in a private community wants their access to become public. (no matter the circumstances)Increased traffic can lead to people speeding, and the possibility of the area becoming vulnerable to crime activity. And let me tell all of you about our “neighbors” at Primehook Beach. They weren’t so nice to some BK folk about five years ago when a traffic accident shut down our road on 4th of July weekend for about five hours and the only way out was PH road. Who was holding their neighbors hostage then? Good for Mr. Burke to get something out of this,(possibly for the homeowners in the private community?) and the speed limit down here is 20mph!! MJ make sure you have your facts straight next time.
Chad, spoken like a true bureaucrat. My guess is that you work for DelDOT and see nothing wrong with wasting taxpayer money to enrich some miser.
It doesn’t matter what happened 5, 10, 50 years ago. This is about now! Your sorry-ass reasoning about two wrongs making a right is what is wrong with government and society.
The facts are the residents of Primehook Beach are being held hostage by Sam Burke who is ripping off the taxpayer.
Here’s a question for you: should a state employee really be surfing the Internet and blogs and commenting on blogs on state time? Yeah, it was easy to find you on the OMB website.
Right neighborly of Mr. Burke heh MJ?
Yeah, and his apologist Chad Betts thinks it’s OK since 5 years ago supposedly the people of Primehook Beach didn’t let someone drive on a public road. Don’t know how you prevent someone from using a public road, but I’m sure Chad will come up with some lame excuse.
or a shotgun.
Pootie mouth- I don’t blog when I’m at work and I’m off on Friday’s as I work a condensed schedule. So you know what you can do with your comment.
They weren’t so nice to some BK folk about five years ago when a traffic accident shut down our road on 4th of July weekend for about five hours and the only way out was PH road.
Well, Chad, the only problem with that is that Prime Hook Road is a public road. So your neighbors in Prime Hook proper don’t have anything to do with maintenance or access – that’s a DelDOT issue.
TNJ says there are “dozens of homes” stranded. Let’s say about 100, each with two cars. So that’s 200 vehicles, making an average of two trips – one in, one out – for a MAXIMUM total of 400 trips per day. Is that *really* going to inconvenience you and your snobby, rich, stuck-up, self-important gated-community neighbors so terribly much?
I’ve known Burke for years. Trust me, he’s a self-interested douchebag, and the thought of him doing this for anyone other than himself is laughable. I could be wrong, but I believe he owns property on the south end of Broadkill Beach, next to the state park entrance to Beach Plum Island. The last conversation I had with him, he seemed to relish the idea of controlling access, so I’m not at all surprised at this.
Having lived around here most of my life, I believe the Clifton family owns, or owned (farmed), a pantsload of property in and around Broadkill as well. If I recall, the feds bought Otis Clifton’s farm decades ago, and hired him as an enforcement officer. So, it’s no surprise that one of them is covering Burke’s butt.
Pootietang – how do I even know you pay taxes?
My agency is off-budget, which means we don’t use tax dollars to operate. But, if you send us your address (you can post it on here big boy), I’ll mail you the $0.00000001 that you contribute to a salary similar to what I make.
Name: Ima Teabagger
Address: 1 Idiot Troll Way
Not living in Delaware 00000
There, I fixed your address for you.
MJ…how about we end this!! First off I don’t work for Del-Dot. Great investigating though! Second, my first response was after work hours and the one yesterday, well it is something called vacation. I am no one’s apologist. NEWS FLASH::::Driving home yesterday I saw a Del-Dot sign that said PRIMEHOOK RD OPEN!!!!!! WOW IT IS OPEN ALREADY. Seems to me some folks may want to thank Mr. Burke for helping get the ball rolling on fixing their access. If it wasn’t for him sticking up for the rights of some people Del-Dot may not have been so quick to fix it. As far as tax payers money going towards the rent of the road…you haven’t had to pay any taxes towards this road before, for this is a private access. So you may want to erase your quote that there is a special place in hell for people like Mr. Burke. REALLY???? WAS THAT NEEDED???? NO! So case closed and if you have any more to say I am sure you can dig up my email since you seem to have a lot of time on your hands looking people up…lol I don’t hide MJ… I put my full name on things..Seems you deserve the “asshat” of the day….get a life and find something else to complain about..
Chad – you should take your own advice and get a life and stop using your State of Delaware Government email to comment on blogs.
And I stand by everything I said about Sam Burke and I’m sure many other people do too, especially the ones who commented on TNJ website. Plain fact is Burke took advantage of a situation to enrich himself at the hands of taxpayers. ‘Nuff said.
Bye-bye apologist. Your logic is as warped as your morals.
Why do I need to see a dentist, pootietang?
It was even worse the NG had EmT’s with them, but he refused them until the Fire Marshall threatened to use emergency laws to go anyway.