Fighting The Good Fight: Conversation with Dane Scalise

Reuel Sample:
Welcome to the NHC GOP podcast. I’m Reuel Sample joined by Dane Scalise. And honestly, my friend, looking at your website, you exhaust me just by all the things that you’re into. Uh, you’ve got family going on, you’ve got your own business, you’ve got, uh, things that you’re doing with the county commission, and you’ve got a brand new puppy. I have no idea how you do it all. Welcome to the podcast.

Dane Scalise:
I am so grateful to be here. Reuel. Thank you very much for making some time for me. This is exciting. I love the opportunity to talk about what’s going on in New Hanover County, talk about the things that are important to all of us. And, uh, you know, we’ve got a lot going on right now. So I think we’re going to have some fun today.

Reuel Sample:
We’re going to get right into it. You are running for county commission? Yes. You are finishing off a term that that was vacated. Uh, and so you you are running now, this is a great, uh, great way for people to get to know you a little bit, but let’s jump into one of the really big things that’s happening, because it’s actually an outgrowth of the Democrats disastrous border policy. And that is, uh, an attempted closure of the Career Readiness Academy at Moseley with a plan to place a newcomer school. But there’s so much more going on. So tell me about that.

Plans For A Refugee Center Disguised As A School

Dane Scalise:
This is a really big deal Reuel, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk to all of your viewers and listeners about this item. This is really one of the most critical items that we’re facing right now. And the reason that it’s so important to talk about it is there’s a concerted effort by New Hanover County schools, the administration in particular, to conceal this matter from the public because the simple reality is the public, once they find out about it. And that’s what we’re working on right now. Once they find out about this plan, they’re going to be an uproar about this. This is not something that the public wants, and it is partially. My responsibility, uh, maybe primarily my responsibility of all of the things that I do to make sure that this issue is one that gets highlighted because my goal is to stop this, stop this immediately. So let me give you a little bit of context about what’s going on. There is a school that we have in, uh, New Hanover County. It’s called, as you said, the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley. It’s in, uh, Mosley High School. And basically it is, uh, a school that is, uh, custom tailored education for our local students who need special learning. Okay. These are folks who have various needs. Maybe they are, uh, suffering from some sort of learning disability. Maybe they’ve had a difficult time in their childhood because of parental, uh, lack of involvement. Or maybe parents who didn’t make some good decisions. Any number of things. But it’s been found, and they will tell you that this school where they get a little bit of extra love and attention from the teachers there, has been excellent for them because it gives them that extra thing that they need, that attention, that they need that extra time that they need. And it’s important for us to look out for folks who have additional needs. Right?

Reuel Sample:
It’s it’s it’s for students who don’t fall into the normal patterns of, of going to classes and everything else.

Dane Scalise:
It may be disruptive for them, it may be difficult for them, but it also is disruptive and difficult for the students that are in traditional learning environments to have them in their classroom. So the idea is to provide an environment where these individuals have an opportunity to get the learning and opportunities and, and extra attention that they need to succeed and then become productive members of society, because that is the goal, right? I mean, all right, you’ve had these difficulties in your life, but we’re going to teach you, we’re going to train you, and we’re going to give you the resources and knowledge that you need to be able to be successful in the world. So this is a very good goal. I’m glad that we have it in New Hanover County. Well, let’s back up to 2020. Let’s back up to 2021. We’ve got a school administration that started exploring the concept of bringing a newcomer school into New Hanover County all the way back then. I want to give everybody a little bit of a primer on what a newcomer school is. A newcomer school is is not really a school in the conventional sense. It’s, uh, it’s more akin to a migrant resettlement and assimilation facility. Okay. Uh, the mission of this facility is not to educate students in the traditional sense, but to help the immigrant and refugee families that are relocated to that community to to better integrate, so they say, into the local community. And it’s nothing like Mosley. It doesn’t exist here in New Hanover County. It doesn’t exist anywhere here in southeastern North Carolina.

Dane Scalise:
It does, however, exist in Guilford County. That’s where Greensboro is. So in 2009, Guilford County was the leader on this issue. They said, we’re going to set up one of these newcomers schools, and we’re going to become, uh, sort of a beacon for these families to come to Greensboro, to come to Guilford County. And we’re going to help them. And it was wildly successful, so wildly successful. I found a WUNC article that’s an NPR affiliate out of Chapel Hill, where they describe that after this first school opened that Guilford County experienced. This is a direct quote, a rapid influx of immigration. And another quote became a hub for refugee resettlement. So now you’ve got a very successful concept in the sense that you created this and I mean successful obviously in the following manner. You wanted to create a beacon for refugee families. You created one. It worked so well Reuel that back in October of last year, they opened up another one and Governor Cooper showed up. They rolled out the red carpet. There was a big production about this expansion of the new The Newcomers School concept in Guilford County. And okay, fine, maybe that’s what the people of Guilford County want. I’m not I’m not sure I don’t I don’t live there. I don’t represent the people in Guilford County, if that’s what their people are telling their elected officials, their elected officials are doing it. While I disagree with it, I mean, I guess they can do it. I don’t think it’s a good idea, obviously, but that’s what they’re doing.

Reuel Sample:
More of all of that in just a second. Bidenomics is hurting everyone. The high cost of fuel, the high cost of groceries, even insurance rates are going up. So we are begging you if you have to make a choice between taking care of your family and giving to the GOP, please take care of your family. However, if you can spare it, we ask that you join our 15 for freedom program. That’s $15 a month for 15 months will help us get Republicans elected to the county Commission and the Board of Education here in New Hanover County. Put a Republican in the governor’s seat and take back that White House. That’s 15 for freedom at NewHanoverGop.org/15. Please consider joining us today. We need you.

Dane Scalise:
Here’s the reason that it matters to us. Just a couple of weeks after that big rollout with Governor Cooper, our school administrators took a trip down to Guilford County, and they said, we’re going to check this thing out. We’re going to we’re going to see what’s going on around here. That was on November 17th, 2023. We have Thanksgiving. They come back. They inform the school board. We’re going to be closing down Mosley, and we just want to let you know that we are going to be. I’ve got one of my sons going to me right here. Hey, buddy. How are you doing? I’m doing an interview right now. Yeah, he just got back from. He just got back from wrestling. So very, very cool stuff.

Reuel Sample:
Outstanding.

Dane Scalise:
Uh, hey, guys, can you hold on one second? I’ll talk to you in a little bit, I promise. Love you completely. But I’m talking to my friend Reuel. Okay. Thank you. Um, that’s that’s good stuff, right? I mean, as it turns out, you know, I’m a family man on top of all this other stuff. Why do I care about this? I care about it because of them Reuel. I mean, yeah, I’m talking about this stuff because it matters for my kids. It matters for everyone’s kids in New Hanover County.

Reuel Sample:
So to go back. So to go back is that when we talk about administration, we’re not talking about the elected board members.

Dane Scalise:
We’re talking about not the elected board members. We’re talking about Doctor Charles Faust and his staff.

Reuel Sample:
And they went to.

Dane Scalise:
All I don’t know who all went to Greensboro, but I know that they put it into their report that they sent emissaries to Greensboro to check the school out on November 17th, and then just.

Reuel Sample:
Charged up.

Dane Scalise:
They came back, charged up, and they said to the school board, we’re closing down Moseley. And then two days later, they sent out an email or a letter to all the Mosley kids, and they said, we’re closing down your school. We’re forcing you to move to another school. Now they’re saying, because we just had a joint county school board meeting last Wednesday, today is the 23rd of January. This was last Wednesday. That that’s just one of the considerations is to close Mosley and open this newcomers school. But you tell me whether you think that that’s a consideration or that’s their plan based on the timing that I just laid out for you. And it turned out that they admitted that they had actually been considering this option. And again, I’m talking about Doctor Charles Foust and his administration. His staff have been exploring this idea since 2021. This is not a new idea. You don’t explore concept for three years just to maybe be doing it. This is the plan. The plan is to bring this school into Mosley, a concept just like the two that they have in Greensboro that have become so wildly successful that WUNC, that NPR affiliate said this has become a hub for refugee resettlement. Again, a direct quote to those folks. I do not want New Hanover County becoming a direct hub for refugee resettlement. This is something that I am confident that the people of New Hanover County, not just Republicans, Reuel, not just unaffiliated voters. I genuinely believe that our friends who are Democrats do not want New Hanover County to become a refugee resettlement county. There may be some that do, but the majority do not. And this is an issue that we have to stand strong on, and I am standing strong on it.

Reuel Sample:
There are so many issues on that, uh, uh, procedural wise, is that, uh, you know, it’s the Board of Education that makes policy and this is indeed a policy change. Uh, and for the administration to do that is just, is just it’s just outrageous. But even more so is that once you start bringing uncontrolled immigration, once you start bringing uncontrolled refugees into an area, then you lose control of the area. And and there’s we are a nation built on immigration, but we’re a nation built on controlled immigration and bringing people in and, and and not separating them, but throwing them into that melting pot to, to knno American values. And this is not what’s happening here.

The Problems of a Refugee Center for New Hanover County

Dane Scalise:
No, it’s not Reuel. And it’s not just that there’s a practical component to it, too. I’ve said numerous times that I try hard not to trend into territory. That’s not my policy directive. I mean, this is in many ways a school board policy directive, but it becomes one as a consequence of bringing in a new population of people that are going to impact school capacity, traffic, infrastructure, the availability of housing. We can go down the list. There’s a lot of items that this has a direct impact on. And the county government is the purse strings for the school board. And so if they’re planning on funding something like this with the money that I’m going to authorize, I want a very clearly say, now, do not put this on your proposed budget and do not go to the federal government, because I’ll tell you, that’s part of the end around that happens with these things. They don’t get it from the local government. And they say, oh, sorry, the running of Moseley School. Oh, we’re not getting a good ROI on that return on investment. Uh, it’s so expensive. I’m not sure that I believe that relative to what I’ve seen. But what they use that for is to then say, but don’t worry, we’ve got this federal grant that’s available that’s going to help pay for this. Well, I am making clear right now. We will not be doing this under my watch. I don’t care if the federal government is paying for it. I know that our state government is not going to pay for it. I know that our elected leaders in Raleigh would never authorize something like this Mike Lee, Ted Davis, Charlie Miller, they’re not going to allow something like this to be funded through the budget.

Dane Scalise:
But my role as county commissioner to help pay for the school system, you better believe that this will not be one of the line items that we’re paying for. And what I want the school to hear early and now, before they even make a submission, is tell Doctor Foust. No, tell him that we need to keep Moseley open. We need to take care of the students who are here right now in New Hanover County, which, by the way, the school Moseley is helping kids of all varieties, including children who are Hispanic, African American children. Of course White children, all of the kids. But those are the kids who live here now. Those. That’s my charge. That’s the school board’s charge is to take care of everyone who currently exists and lives in New Hanover County. Not to even consider the notion of bringing in. I am an empathetic person. I love all people. People are all children of God. Most strong believer in that. But I also know that there are 8 billion people in the world, and we cannot take care of all of them in New Hanover County. So from my platform, from my vantage point, I am going to speak loudly and often about this to make sure that everyone knows. Not under my watch, no newcomer school under my watch, no refugee resettlement facility under my watch in New Hanover County. And I think we’re going to.

Reuel Sample:
How many people are we talking about when when they start talking about bringing in refugee and creating? You know, they call it a welcome school, but it really is a refugee school. What?

Dane Scalise:
And it’s not just for children. It’s a refugee facility for families rule. They even house families in this facility. Okay. So we’re talking about people of all ages from wherever. And people may assume that it’s just coming from south of the border in the sense that it’s people who are of Hispanic origin. Not true. It could be, but it could be people that are coming from all over the world. We know that there is an unchecked crisis that is happening at the southern border right now. Yes, the Biden administration is totally derelict in its duty to protect our border and is allowing literally millions of people to pour across the border with no checks, and they’re trying to go somewhere. What I’m saying is not New Hanover County. No, absolutely not. And it’s a sensible position. I’m confident that the public agrees with me on this. You go to a place like Brooklyn. Of course. It’s a bunch of folks who don’t necessarily agree with me on the issues, but whenever they hear that they’re moving children out of an existing school, that they’re going to have to be homeschooled, that they’re going to or have remote learning so they can move migrant families into the school. Whenever our airports are completely full of people that are being relocated from around the country because they’re pouring across the southern border, that is a real crisis. And so I am saying loudly, clearly, and I’m sorry to be so passionate about this, but this is really important Reuel not in New Hanover County. I have one thing that I’m really passionate about right now, and that’s making sure this does not happen. There’s a million things I’m passionate about, but this to me is crisis number one. Priority number one.

Reuel Sample:
Yeah. And you, you said it earlier. You you control the purse strings, the purse strings of the school board. That relationship with the county commission and the school board is sort of a complex one is that is that there’s there’s all these things going on. Uh, so we’re going to keep an eye on that. And I know that you’re going to keep an eye on that. And, and, and make sure that, jeez, Louise, we don’t want to become a sanctuary city. We don’t want to be a sanctuary again.

Dane Scalise:
Well, just in some my position is very straightforward, and this is already getting news coverage all over the place. So I think people are going to be talking about this by the time that they see this. They’re going to be aware and this is going to help get the message out in a big way. But the messaging is very simple. We have a population of existing citizens and students that are being serviced very well, taking care of educated by the Moseley Career Readiness Program. We ought to focus on them, we ought to prioritize them and to even consider bringing in a refugee resettlement facility in its place is a critical error, and I call out all of the elected leaders to recognize as such. I do want to just point out real briefly, I brought a resolution to this effect at our last county commission meeting. And some of the commissioners, they don’t necessarily have the same views as me. They don’t necessarily have the same party as me. They said, wait, wait, we need to talk about this first. This is a big issue Reuel. We don’t need to talk about this. What we need to talk about is saying no. And that’s the end of the conversation. And we can say no and let it be the end of the conversation. Until we do this, the public is at risk and I won’t stand for it.

Reuel Sample:
Let’s pivot a little bit. Uh, one of the things that, uh, we down here in southeast North Carolina continue to worry about is the quality of water and, yes, chemical plants and everything else that is going, uh, to hold. Folks accountable. Let’s talk about your successful efforts to object to the EPA allowing Chemores to to basically start operating again.

Holding Chemical Companies Accountable for Polution

Dane Scalise:
Yeah. So here I’m really proud about this one. This is again, this is an issue that cuts across all aisles lanes. I don’t care who you registered as. People want and deserve clean water. It is a simple fact that Chemores poisoned the Cape Fear River. They did so knowingly, and they did so without telling us for a very, very long time. And thank goodness that we had leadership. I’m going to say this numerous times, just because I think it’s critical that we had leaders like Michael Lee, like Ted Davis. That recognized and found this and said, we’re fixing this. That helped to bring in a $50 million filter that now in New Hanover County, if you’re hooked up to CFPUA, you don’t have PFAs in your water anymore. That’s a very good thing, but it doesn’t stop there. Most recently, Michael Lee, Ted Davis, Charlie Miller, they brought back infrastructure money to New Hanover County that is now being made available to bring CFPUA out to people who have private wells. And so we’re bringing clean water out to every single part of the community. And this is truly an excellent and necessary function of government. I don’t like spending the people’s money, but whenever it comes to something like this, this is something that the government needs to lead on. It needs to lean on providing people clean water. So we’re fixing the issue. I want to make that clear right up front. I don’t want people to be afraid. There has been a problem, but we’re fixing it. And for most people, it’s already fixed. You got clean water in your house. But what do we do about the ongoing issue with Chmores? Well, it doesn’t seem that they’re ready to be quite done yet. There was a report that came out in, I think it was October or November 2023, that Chemores was planning on bringing 4 million pounds of PFAs Gen X recycled material through New Hanover County ports, driving it up or training it up to their Fayetteville facility, their Fayetteville facility.

Reuel Sample:
It was coming from overseas. It was being manufactured overseas and coming through our ports. Yes.

Dane Scalise:
That’s right. So I mean, funnily enough, right. Some of these big multinational companies, they have their profit centers in Switzerland and the Netherlands, and then they ship the the excess recycled material to us to deal with that ends up in our water or has traditionally. Yeah. So it’s disgusting. It’s repulsive that these companies would even consider doing it. It’s more repulsive that our elected officials would allow it. So here’s what happened. The Biden administration authorized Chemores to bring that material through our ports. And they said, oh, sorry, we can’t do anything about it. Uh, the law sort of binds our hands on this issue. Well, I, I drafted a letter and I said to my fellow commissioners, we need to issue this letter that says to the EPA, uh, his name is Michael Regan. He actually used to be the DEQ, uh, director here in North Carolina under Cooper. Yeah. Um. Mr. Regan, you need to stop this. You have it within your power to stop it. It’s important. We’re demanding that you stop it. We issued that. I don’t remember what day that it was, but we issued that. And then six hours later, Governor Cooper issued a very similar letter to the EPA asking them to stop, uh, this importation of this recycled waste material, uh, more GenX, more poison.

Dane Scalise:
And funnily enough, uh, because if you look at the record, Governor Cooper’s letter was backdated like seven days prior, so that I guess if somebody were to look at it, they would say that his letter predated ours. But he didn’t actually issue it until six hours after the letter that I drafted came out. So, I mean, that’s just the that’s politics, right? But, uh, it should it shouldn’t be, but that’s politics. And then and soon after that, we had, uh, Tillis we had Rouzer we had, um, uh, Congressman Hudson from up in Fayetteville that issued similar letters, basically telling Michael Regan, we’re going to investigate you. And I really think that their letters help push this issue in a much bigger way, because Cooper’s letter, like our letter, you know, please do the right thing. They have a power up there to investigate him, to investigate what the background of this was. And, you know, ultimately very soon after that, they put a pause on it and they said, all right, we’re going to reconsider. And so I said, don’t, don’t just stop now. We need to push harder. So we had the people outreach. We outreached we called, we complained, and lo and behold, announcement made. EPA was withdrawing the authorization to allow that material to come through our ports, and it would not be allowed into the state of North Carolina.

Dane Scalise:
It’s things like this that I didn’t realize that I was going to have the ability to impact change on. What does a county commissioner people don’t even know what a county commissioner is, but a county commissioner is somebody who, if they’re paying attention, they can stop the EPA from authorizing poison to be brought through our ports. I did that, we did that. I’m really proud about doing that. But it didn’t stop there. I’ve been advocating ever since I became a commissioner for us to hold the responsible, responsible. And a couple of weeks ago, we filed a lawsuit against Chemores, 3M, a bunch of similar companies who produce this poison material and concealed that it was poison material. For all these years, there have been damages. There are damages, there are lost lives. There are sick people. And they need to be held to account for that. Look, I’m a pro-business guy all day long, but business does not mean that you get to poison people without consequence. And it takes somebody like me, like New Hanover County government, to act in a way that moves the needle. So I don’t just want money, I do want money. I want to bring it back to New Hanover County from suing these people for and these businesses for what they did.

Dane Scalise:
But I also want to make a very loud and clear message to not just those companies, but any other company. We will hold you accountable if you hurt the people of New Hanover County. I’m coming after you with everything that I have, every tool that I have available at my disposal and what else should I be doing? This is exactly what my role is, is to try to help in this way. And you’ve got to get a little creative. You got to think about, how can I use the power of the government for good? And no one wants to use the power of the government? Hardly ever. But actually, this is something that I think Republicans need to sort of better grasp. Rule. I’m not an anarchist. I’m a proud, lifelong Republican. And actually it’s my role to properly use government. Government should be restrained, but it has objectives that it can achieve and this is one of them. So I’m very proud of leading on these two items. And we’re going to keep leading on these items. We’re going to make sure that the public’s water is clean, people are safe. And we’re going to hold those responsible responsible for their bad actions.

Reuel Sample:
We’re told that all politics are local and that often is referring to elections should be local. But what you just described is that politics are local, because the local politicians can often get things done in very powerful ways, because you folks are are right here. You’re drinking the same water as everybody else is, and there you are, literally.

Dane Scalise:
I mean, this is not a prop. I have it here. I mean, I’m drinking it right now, and I’m thankful to have the clean water that we now have because of people like Michael Lee and Ted Davis.

Reuel Sample:
But one of the great things that, uh, that is happening because you are not being primaried is that you can actually start talking about issues like these that affect not just Republicans, but these are issues. I don’t care who you are, whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent, you want clean water for your kids, you want good education for your kids. You don’t want you don’t want, uh, an invasion into the county. And these are all things that that apply across the board. And so that’s one of the great things that you’re. Going to continue to do. Yes, sir. As you go into this next time as a county commission.

Reuel Sample:
One of the final things I want to talk about, there’s a whole bunch of things. And Dane, you and I are going to be talking a whole bunch for the next couple months. Good. The toll bridge. Yeah. Is that there’s a whole bunch of things going on with that bridge. There’s no question that that bridge is one of the major lifeblood of of our county. It connects us with our brothers and sisters across the river in Brunswick. It is a major source of commerce and revenue and travel, and the state is trying to do some things. What’s going on with this toll bridge that they want to bring in?

A Toll Bridge for Cape Fear Memorial?

Dane Scalise:
All right. Yes. Very important point. And I’m proud to say that yesterday at the county commission meeting, I made a motion to oppose the future imposition of a toll for replacing the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. And I was joined in that motion by, uh, chair Bill Rivenbark vice chair Leann Pierce. Unfortunately, the two other commissioners, Jonathan Barfield, Rob Zapple, they voted against that resolution. I’m not sure why. Seems like it’s a pretty clear message that we should be sending, that tolling is not the way to pay for this bridge. I think, though, that there’s a bit, a bit of confusion about what is being otherwise discussed with the WMPO. The WMPO is a body that’s affiliated basically with the D.O.T., made up of local politicians who helped to prioritize what we spend our apportionment of D.O.T. funding on. They have a vote coming up at the end of January. And essentially that vote is to prioritize the funding of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in its overarching scheme or priority list schemes. A bad word always of, uh, uh, the overall priority list of what we’re going to pay for in terms of Dot projects. So significantly, if we are able to check some boxes, fill out the paperwork in the right way, we can get money from the federal government and the state government in the form of a grant to pay for the entirety of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

Dane Scalise:
The reason that it’s gotten a little bit convoluted is that there are some people that have said the vote at the end of January is a vote for a toll. That is not correct. It is factually and legally incorrect. There is actually a subsequent vote that is required to implement a toll, and furthermore, the WMPO members have the ability at any time to withdraw their past approval and say this isn’t working out. The reason that that’s significant Reuel is that it allows the WMPO to explore all potential funding sources, while technically actually ignoring the toll option. This is one of those silly technical governmental things. I mean, do I wish that the government worked this way? Yeah, I wish it was different than that, I promise you. But working within the system in this context actually works to our advantage because we can, through playing the system. Even if we say openly, just like I did, I will never vote for a toll for the paying for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. We can still technically submit the paperwork, get funding from the federal government, get funding from the state government, 100% of the bridge be paid for. It needs to be replaced. Look, we’re getting ready to do a huge replacement, uh, or a huge repair project. It’s going to shut down the bridge for 4 or 5 months. It’s going to disrupt the flow of traffic. People getting to the hospital business, it’s going to be a disaster. And that’s going to need to happen every 3 to 5, six, seven, they say ten.

Dane Scalise:
Uh, look, I think this is the sort of thing that’s going to happen every few years. We need to come up with a solution for replacing the bridge. And the solution is this one. And here’s here’s the thing that I’m committing to everyone about. If there is some scenario where somebody comes back and says, well, you didn’t quite get enough funding, you’re going to have to put a toll on this. I’m saying to them clearly right now, no, if you bring a toll option to us as an ultimate resolution, you will be told no. Do you know who’s saying no? Across the board, every single elected Republican in New Hanover County. Exactly. Every single Republican in New Hanover County is saying, if you bring a toll to us, at the end of the day, we will say no to you. But the simple reality is we owe it to the people. We owe it to all of the people of New Hanover, Brunswick, the people who come and visit us to find a way to get this thing funded. And so if we got to play a little game to get the funding from the feds, from the state, let’s try. And you know what, if we come up short Reuel, then we say we tried. It didn’t work, but we’re not going to do it. If you’re going to tell us, we’ve got to have a tool.

Reuel Sample:
So the vote at the end of the month, the vote at the end of the month is, is that and people need to understand this, is that people like you and others, the responsible ways that they that they need to vote yes so that they can go forward to explore all this different funding. But it is not a vote for the toll bridge. There is actually a separate vote for the toll bridge after that.

Dane Scalise:
And 100% true, 100% true.

Reuel Sample:
So that’s that’s what we have to keep in mind is that, uh, Dane is right. That government just works like this. It’s just an amazing mess.

Dane Scalise:
Definitely is again, Reuel. I wish that this wasn’t the way that it was. But whenever let me let me put it to you this way. Whenever I hear from my friend Senator Michael Lee Dane, I think I am going to be able to get this thing paid for. We at least ought to try. Can I tell you why I believe him? Because Michael Lee, Charlie Miller, Ted Davis brought $300 million to New Hanover County last year. That was money that could have gone to, uh, Cherokee. It could have gone to, uh, Guilford County. It could have gone anywhere. But it came here to New Hanover County. We got juice in Raleigh. We got major juice. We also have Senator Rabin. He’s right across the way. Senator Rabin is all into this. We got the Dream team and they’re going to do it if they can do it. And if they can’t do it, they’re going to come back and they say, hey guys, we tried, you know, we checked those boxes, we made our effort and we got to dump this thing because ultimately the only way to do it is a toll. And we already promised. They’ve all promised. Michael promised. There’s no toll that we’re going to put on the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. And we’re asking our citizens, please believe us. Uh, I get it. I don’t like trust in politicians. I hate being called politician. I don’t. Think of myself as one, but we are saying as clearly as we can clip this record, this Dane Scalise. New Hanover County Commissioner, I promise now and for all time, I will never support a toll to replace the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, but I do want to find a way to pay for it. And that’s what I’m going to work on. You have my promise that I am going to do everything I can to find the funding to achieve a replacement of this critical piece of infrastructure.

Reuel Sample:
And this is all to say that you are running for county commission.

Dane Scalise:
And I’m your county commissioner, and I’m running to stay your county commissioner.

Reuel Sample:
How can people find out more about you? How can they get in touch with you? Uh, for both these kind of issues and to support you with your campaign. So how can people get to know Dane Scalise?

Dane Scalise:
Uh, please go to my website. ElectDane.Com. e l e c t d a n e.com. I’ve got my email address listed there info@electdane.com. I want to hear from you. I want you to see what’s important to me. I’ve got it listed on my website, but I want you to reach out to me if there are things that I need to be working on, things like this refugee resettlement facility, things like clean water, we didn’t even get into it. But, I mean, I want to make sure that I’m putting good conservatives on boards and committees. Uh, I’ve got lots of conservatives that I’ve put on to boards and committees, and we need them. Our folks haven’t always stepped up to fill these critical roles, but they have been lately because we’re putting them on there. Exactly. If you want to talk about supporting law enforcement, you want to talk about all the things that are important to me. I want to hear from you. Please reach out to me. Uh, look, I got a family. You saw them or at least heard from them whenever they came in here. Why do I do this stuff? Because the future is for them. It’s for all the other people that are just like them. And it’s for you and me. Well, we’re here now. I want this to continue to be the good place that it’s been. But we’re always this close to it being otherwise. We had a scary proposition last year. We lost a lot of winnable races at City Council. If we lose the county two, I’m concerned about where New Hanover is going.

Reuel Sample:
Early voting starts February 15th. You’re not being primaried, but I imagine that you’re going to be out there talking to people at the polls supporting.

Dane Scalise:
Yes, I will be supporting our school board candidates. We got to get a judicial candidate into a position that’s being vacated by one of the Superior Court judges, and I think we’ve got good candidates all over the place. I’ll tell you, that’s one thing that I’m so pleased about. Reuel. We’ve got good people. We got good people running. Regardless of what happens in the primary. We got some people that are ready to win in November.

Reuel Sample:
You know what, Dane? I’m going to end this by, uh, saying what I said at the beginning. Boy, you exhaust me. And, uh, I’m I’m glad you’re there. All the best to you, Dane. And good luck.

Dane Scalise:
God bless you, sir. Thank you.

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