A lot more ‘lot checks’ needed to beautify city
Long ago, I worked at a local fast food business. One thing that I remembered was having to get a lot check. For those who do not know, a lot check is picking up the trash, no matter how large or small, on the property of the business. This was not something that was done once a day. Instead, it was done multiple times throughout the day. Sometimes it was fun, and sometimes it was not.
I have come to realize the importance and value of this practice. Not only does it leave an impression on the customer, but it sets an example to the community on what is acceptable behavior. Drive down any road in Chattanooga or our surrounding cities, and it is clear that we need more lot checks and street checks. I know that this is not the solution to our problem, but it would be a step in a direction of positive change.
Chattanoogans, we are out of control. Our town is ugly. This is not who we are. Businesses, please do your part and set an example. We all need to take some responsibility in making our cities beautiful.
Angela H. Farley
Georgetown
‘Powers that be’ need to answer key question
While county commissioners, members of the school board and Superintendent Bryan Johnson pat each other on the back for slipping through their plan for Hamilton County Schools, some of us with children/grandchildren at CSLA are wondering what happened to the promise two or three years ago that CSLA was “next” on the list for a new building.
Instead, the “powers that be” decided that CSLA students and staff will be moved from a 68-year-old building to a 58-year-old building in two or three years. What is the cost difference between rehabbing CSLA and rehabbing Tyner Middle School? Who will benefit from the prime property on which CSLA sits?
CSLA draws children from all over the county, so it has no representative on the school board or the county commission to advocate for them. With a school in that condition, all the members of the school board and the county commission should be looking out for it Let’s not forget that each one of those members are elected.
Loretta Lankford
Much not to like in Trump spending plan
President Trump, supported almost unanimously by the Republican Congress, proposes to cut nearly $1.5 trillion (yes, that’s trillions with a “t”) from Medicaid and Medicare spending over 10 years.
Meanwhile, Congress has passed a plan to spend more than $700 billion next year alone on national defense, an amount equal to the defense budgets of the next five largest nations combined. And for all that, what do we have to show for it? How about the fact a tin-pot, third-rate, backwater nation like North Korea has us shaking in our shoes.
He also proposes a “beautiful” wall that could cost from $8 to $40 million to separate us from those crazed rapists and drug dealers in Mexico. This, even though some experts say this wall would have virtually no impact on illegal immigration into our country.
He proposes to cut the tax rate on big corporations and the very wealthy by substantial margins.
So, the generals get their tanks and invisible aircraft, Trump gets his wall, and the 1-percenters get a windfall tax refund.
Jim Griffin
Delano, Tenn.