McNiel complains
It would probably be a lot simpler if I were a lot simpler than I am. I have been told by several people that I over think most things. Most of the time it is just simple issues that should be quite simple to fix but then again, nothing is ever as simple as it should be.
I saw an old mattress on the side of the road one day when I was in my truck, so I picked it up and hauled it to a local dumpster. The next day the law was there threatening to give me a ticket if I did not contact the guy and pay him for using his dumpster.
When you see debris along the road that has been there for a few weeks and you call the road department about it, you have to wonder why they get upset at you for calling them. Then, when you see that they have finally gotten out and mowed the right of way, you have to wonder why they didn't pick up all of the downed tree branches and debris before they mowed right over the top of them and left them laying where they lay.
Before the new grocery store moved into Pea Ridge I told the mayor and the city council that they needed to make sure that they were not going to put in any of the self-check-out cash registers before they let them set up shop but no one listened to me so now they have practically every register as a self-check-out. I do not buy much there when I can help it.
With this world wide epidemic that is going on, the schools are all shut down so the question is, will we taxpayers be getting any of that millage money back?
The mayor now has the unfettered authority to spend up to $20,000 without seeking the city council's approval.
And since the school does not get to have a graduation, the mayor took it upon his self to authorize the city road crew to waste several thousand dollars putting up all of the graduate photos along the road. In a few weeks they will have to go back and take them all down again. It might have been a good thing, but it was your and my money that he spent getting it done. He said it was for the community. He said that he did not want to discuss it with me.
Mark my words, in the very near future the Pea Ridge city council will be asking all of us simple uneducated citizens for an additional tax increase so that they can come up with additional ways of wasting more of your hard-earned money. They will come up with another way to tug at your heart and make you feel sad enough that you will happily be willing to tug more of your money out of your pockets or purses and give it to them.
Boyd B. McNiel
Pea Ridge, Ark.
Editorial on 05/20/2020