Letter to the editor

Scrutinizing government spending

Scrutinizing government spending

We have all heard of separation between church and state, but now it looks like we may need separation between Pea Ridge city government and the Pea Ridge school administration.

The school superintendent and the city mayor have been having private discussions about building a new building on one plot of land which will accommodate both the city hall and the school administration.

When I first heard about this, my first thought was what if a known felon or murder, rapist, pedophile has to go to city hall to do legal business and there were people at the school administration who had brought their children with them. Many of these people are required by law to stay away from children and school property.

Another issue is, what if the city clerk has to go somewhere and they ask the school secretary to watch the phone and take care of city business as it arises? I recently spoke with the mayor and he said that the two offices would be completely separate. However, I just read that the mayor told the newspaper that they might have a secretary that could be shared. Well, which is it?

Our new chief of police said that both of the new offices will probably be required to be built with bullet proof glass since federal money will be used to build the new building.

According to city clerk Sandy Button, the city needs to expand. The courtroom is too crowded. But, didn't the city just renovate the court house a few years ago? Here is an idea. Hold court more than two times a month? That problem of overcrowding is solved.

Both of these governmental establishments are unhappy with the buildings which they now have so they want to spend more of yours and my tax money and build themselves even more extravagant accommodations.

Maybe if they were more frugal with "our" money in the first place, we would not need to be scrutinizing how they spend our future tax money in the second place.

Several years ago, the roof leaked on the school and since someone failed to pay the insurance premium, we (the taxpayers) had to pay for the repairs. How many other wasteful things have the taxpayers had to pay for?

When Weston Street was expanded, the city paid for sidewalks on both sides of the street. How many people do you know of who can walk on both sidewalks at the same time? The city used to use the building which is connected to the fire station for voting and other uses. Now that building is not being utilized very often anymore. The city now has an empty room which was the former library but now it sits empty 99 percent of the time. What will they do with the current city hall and court house when they build a new building? Will it become abandoned as well?

I believe this is an issue of want over need.

Boyd B. McNielPea Ridge, Ark.

Editorial on 07/15/2015