Are You Interested?
Well, fellow taxpayers, again you missed another informative City Council meeting in our plush, elaborate City Hall that we all are paying for. It would sure do this councilman's heart good to see some community interest in how your city is being managed and tax money spent and/or committed for years to come.
You will be glad to know that shortly there will be six (6) shiny new police cars added to the existing fleet of 17 vehicles at the cost to us all of around $200,000, not including interest. Another councilman stated he had heard of no community support for this expenditure, however in the end he voted for it. I did not.
Add to this, another shiny ambulance with all the bells and whistles for an additional $140,000 we will all be paying for.
Our citizens should be made aware that an existing ordinance limiting department overspending without Council approval was bypassed by voting in a new ordinance permitting this expenditure. (Closing the barn door after the cows got out.)
But don't plan on a much needed four-way stop light at Arkansas Highways 72 and 94, that would cost too much to even consider.
You will also be glad to know that our city is now endorsing above mine and another councilman's objections, the taxation of all internet sales. This tie was broken by Mayor Jackie Crabtree voting for it. This will be coming soon, I assure you. Say goodbye to more of your dollars.
As the lone dissenting councilman, I voted against all five issues with my conscience directed towards the best interest of the taxpaying citizens at heart. This is the main reason I am writing this to you.
Please take the time to either write or call your city government officials to voice your opinions. I'd like to know if anyone really cares. I do, and I am representing YOU.
Council meetings are every third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. Please attend if you can. Thank you.
Bob Cottingham
Alderman Ward 1, Position 2
Pea Ridge, Ark.
Who has the gold mine?
Jerry Reed sang a song called "She Got the Goldmine." It's about him getting a divorce and his wife getting her "Fair Share." He wanted to be fair and give her what she had coming but he had no idea that she was going to get; "The Better Half."
I saw that the mayor of Pea Ridge made the television news the other day. It is my understanding that the mayor was, at one time, the president of the Municipal League. Apparently he and all of his upper staff went to Little Rock last week for a municipal league meeting with all the other mayors from all the small towns in Arkansas. No one with any real authority was left in town to run the city.
Now I am not sure what they did down there at that meeting but it is my understanding that when they got back the Pea Ridge City Council endorsed a referendum recommending that the state of Arkansas should pass an additional law requiring the collection of taxes on all of the products bought and sold in Arkansas on the internet so that the state and towns could legally collect all of that additional tax revenue.
In my opinion, taxes are a necessary evil. I pay my taxes. Every time I buy something I pay taxes. However, my question is, is it the mayor's job as the mayor of our little city, to push for additional taxes for the citizens of this town or for the people of this state for that matter. Is that really part of his job as Pea Ridge mayor?
I was talking to a man a while back and he explained to me that there were some students at the University of Arkansas who had done the math some time back and they had concluded that in a period of two years time, every single dollar that was paid in wages would eventually change hands enough times that they would create one additional dollar of tax revenue. Now then, if there is any kind of accuracy to this statement, you would have to ask, why would we need any additional taxes?
Have you ever wondered where the state would get enough money to be able to spend over 24 million dollars to build a single turnaround and overpass over the highway, let alone all the other stuff that is being built.
If there is any truth to what I have said, now you can understand why the government does not care how much tax money is being spent or wasted.
So now go out and do your civic duty and spend all of the money that you make so that your government can get their "fair share."
The reason that they want us to pay more taxes is because they make mistakes and spend over 5 million dollars installing steel cables on the highway and then just two years later they go and tear it all out again.
Boyd B. McNiel
Pea Ridge, Ark.
Editorial on 06/28/2017