Dear Sirs: When you hear (Covington Planning Director) Randy Vinson say, "We need to do this," what he really means is that we have to come up with more funds to justify his job and add to his personal assets.

There is certainly nothing wrong with entrepreneurship, but why is it so dependent on taxpayer dollars with this group? The latest farce is to use taxpayer dollars to build a multi-story facility at Walker's Bend for the purpose of housing, catering, rental space for meetings and a job training center. What about the new high rise and the school for training we are opening like the one that failed in other counties, and all the other meeting rooms, some public, some private around the county? Do we need more?

When you do the math, there aren't enough grants or money on hand to finish the project. Vinson wants the county to guarantee whatever additional funds are necessary will be provided by the county. It is not only the project itself that scares the tar out of most of us but the ‘whatever' additional funds part that gets under our skin.

OK, he wants a water line to be "Used only south of Washington Street." Guess who could really use some water upgrades for future development south of Washington Street? The answer to that question would be RDF, the current owner of the old Ponderosa 97 acre tract which just happens to be ‘south' of Washington Street adjacent to Walker's Bend. And as a footnote, hey let's spruce up Walker's Bend at taxpayer expense so when we are developing the RDF property we won't be next door to an eyesore!

According to the Georgia Secretary of State's webpage, reference numbers K932360, the names on the RDF corporate officers are Robert R. Fowler III and Randy Vinson. Amazing eh?

If the city and county (And all the other public funded entities he wants to pay for his grand plan) buy into this black hole, the citizens should finally get it. The largest expenditures of public tax dollars today and in recent years have been spent to enhance the assets of the few and not to advance the public good for the masses. I can give you a very, very, long list.

Any public official who uses his office for personal gain should be terminated immediately if not sooner. Although this is probably not enough for these types of people to learn their lesson, it's about all we can do at the moment.

Samuel M. Hay III
Covington