By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Letter: BOC continues to lack vision and leadership
Placeholder Image

Dear editor

Trust is defined as reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing. When trust is lost, it brings on emotional scarring that typically impedes the trust of such person or thing that caused the damage to begin with.

Take a moment to notice the word “impede.” This is a very important word. It does not mean that is impossible to regain trust, it simply means that trust is slow to return. This is one of the benefits of the human condition in that once trust is lost that it can be brought back, usually with the one that has lost trust has made motions to regain said trust.

So why, you might ask, am I talking about trust? Because it seems as if many of our friends and neighbors have lost trust in the Board of Commissioners. Our county has seen crisis after crisis from this board since they began working together almost two years ago. Perhaps we, as a group of citizens, expected too much from this board when they took office. It is my opinion that this may be only slightly the case.

While expectations were high, I think that our community was looking for leadership from this board to make changes that would let the rest of the world see how truly great Newton County is. What we have witnessed instead is a lack of vision and leadership from this group of commissioners.

At the last meeting, I jokingly asked one of the commissioners, “What crisis is on the menu tonight?” Little did many of those in attendance know that the pay of county deputies and the Bear Creek Reservoir would end up turning into the next crisis that Newton would have to weather.

A group of deputies were in attendance at the meeting. They pleaded with commissioners to help the Sheriff’s office to pay their deputies more because they were losing good officers to higher paying municipalities and counties.

Following the deputies’ comments, Wesley Dowdy took to the podium to discuss the failings of the Bear Creek Reservoir. It seems as if the county, either through the general budget or the water fund, has spent an extraordinary amount of money on a project that may not be granted, or even necessary. The message of the people that were at the meeting was a unified voice of the people saying, “Stop spending money on things that aren’t necessary and spend money on the things [deputies]that are vital.”

Now, I do not think that there is a chance of this board actually listening to the people, but if they listened they would immediately halt the money for the Bear Creek Reservoir and move that money to help stop the needless loss of deputies from our Sheriff’s department. My hope is that I am wrong about whether this board will do what is truly needed here.

It is such as simple solution, but with a lack of vision and leadership this simple solution will be ignored and they will press on with a project that will become the latest quagmire in our great county. If, however, this commission stopped all funding to the project and redirected those funds to our safety officers it would probably go a long way to gaining that much needed trust that seems to be so elusive to this board.

Aaron Brooks