Are city workers exempt from rules?
My wife and I were among the hundreds of people enjoying the sunshine and splendor outdoors Sunday afternoon (Feb. 21) at Greenway Farm in Hixson. How disappointing it was to walk the trail along the creek and see six truckloads of cement debris dumped there — perhaps from taking down a wall around the tennis court. Why was it dumped there? Signs clearly posted say no motorized vehicles on trails. Perhaps city employees are exempt from city rules. Is more dumping planned?
DAN SANSBURY
Stimulus use has subtle message
An innocuous story with a subtle message. On Monday (Feb. 22) you reported on the construction of sidewalks in Chickamauga, this project funded by $1.1 million in stimulus money. The story was accompanied by a photo of three boys walking to school along a street which currently has no sidewalks.
I can imagine few better uses of federal money: people will be employed; concrete will be purchased; safety is enhanced; infrastructure is upgraded, and a million bucks is only a drop in the bucket.
And yet what is unspoken here is that these funds, as measly as they are, are borrowed funds — the million bucks wasn’t sitting in an account somewhere waiting to be spent.
And this money was in effect borrowed from the boys in the photo. It’s as if they handed over credit cards, the cost of the project charged to their accounts, with interest accruing over many years until finally both principal and interest must be paid years down the road.
It’s called mortgaging our future, and on a limited scale it’s necessary, but when this project’s costs are increased by a factor of 787,000 ($1 million times 787,000 equals $787 billion), it’s truly daunting.
GARY LINDLEY
Lookout Mountain, Ga.
Henry deserves to be re-elected
Commissioner Larry Henry should be re-elected in District 7. I cast my very first vote for Commissioner Henry four years ago. Let’s return Commissioner Henry; he deserves our vote.
MITCHELL ROSSELL
Why spend billion on embassy, moat?
Now, we all hear how the Social Security trust and Medicare are going broke. If that is so, how can the Washington wimps, with clear conscience, spend one billion dollars for a new embassy in London, complete with moat.
Comments anyone?
WILLIAM J. BURTON
Cleveland, Tenn.