Letter to the Editor

City needs better management

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

To the Editor:

It's been some time since I've submitted a letter to the editor and I know in

advance my words will be ignored by those who refuse to listen to the citizens crying out for actions by our government.

A huge shout out to Barbara McAdoo for all the hard work she's put in trying to clean up parts of our city. I've seen her all over town, working in this heat, and doing what should be the responsibility of the people who are actually getting paid to do this. Barbara cares. I'm not sure who is responsible to clean up the streets but they shouldn't be taking care of personal properties when public properties suffer for it. Personal properties should be the responsibility of the land owner and Code Enforcements job to ensure they are maintained. We all know, code enforcement has failed completely.

Elroy Brown is in charge of Parks and Rec but he never accepts responsibility for any of his failures. He has a full time assistant. Why? Can't he see what needs to be done and assign his workers certain task without the aid of an assistant. Someone told me he had two assistants...don't know if that's true. The lights at the park hasn't worked since the first month they were installed and the water is still dark green. Fix the lights...stop people from feeding the geese...and install a spillway at the southeast corner of the pond. Problem solved. Get rid of your assistants and hire someone who can work in their place. Code Enforcement needs to get out on the streets and get these yards cleaned up and those condemned houses torn down.

Combine the budget for the ball fields and golf course and you can probably save more than you can imagine. The city is losing about $200,000 a year because they aren't making a profit on the ball fields. There's concessions...advertising signs...and ticket sales, that is not being turned into the city. It also cost every kid who signs up to play soccer or baseball. They don't get to play for free. The grounds crew can be combined with the golf course ground crew and save a lot of money.

Why is it when the golf course comes under fire for its budget, Elroy Browns name never comes up. He is in charge of parks and rec but never gets the blame when the Mayor or City Council sees something they don't like. Maybe it's because Mr. brown is a personal friend of the Mayor and can do no wrong. The Mayor and City Council can always find something negative to say about the golf course which gets head line news and then becomes public opinion. Instead of talking about shutting down the golf course, you should find a new Director for Parks and Rec., find a new director for Code Enforcement, and take over managing the ball fields.

Start doing the right thing instead of complaining about something when you have the power to do something about it. If your department heads aren't doing it right, change it.

Please stop the violence. My heart goes out to the families that have lost a loved ones due to violence this year. I have no answers for this growing problem other than prayer.

William Masterson