Your Viewpoint Letters to the Editor

Wake up people before it's too late

By ED HOLMES
Brookeland

Civic Center in Jasper, is the most idiotic idea I have ever heard. What is Jasper going to do with a Civic Center, hold a bass weigh in for Bob Sealy?

Has anybody taken time to look at the shape this country is in and the direction we seem to be going? With fuel at an all time high the last thing we need is another sucking sound going into another adventure to debt. Elderly people are losing their housing because they can no longer pay the mortgage.

The government is loaded down with free give outs to those who know how to manipulate the system. Taxes in Jasper, Texas are killing the middle class, as well as the ones on fixed incomes.

Its time to wake up let us see if we can cut spending instead of setting ourselves deeper in debt.

Have we not learned anything from the JEDCO debacle. I just don't understand it something has to be done. Wake up people before its to late.

Take a break from funky priorities

By WINCY WALKER
Jasper

Last week's letter to the Newsboy, "It's time for Jasper to avoid greed, grow," hit the nail on the head. It seems we have an orchestrated effort on the part of a few locals to get their hands on tax money. So what's new? How many times have we seen that? Sometimes the names and faces change - more often than not, it's the same ol' bunch.

Without doubt, fishing tournaments are important to the area's economy, but one group would have us believe that Jasper will dry up, blow away, businesses will close and life as we know it will end if Bob Sealy doesn't get his $15,000 in cash plus "freebies" from the city of Jasper to hold his annual fishing tournament at Rayburn. Most Sealy "groupies" don't live within the city limits so the money would have to be given to the Chamber of Commerce before these self-proclaimed experts on tourism could get their hands on it. Apparently, they, not the Chamber, had decided who (themselves) should be on the committee to spend it. Thankfully, Monzingo, Adams and Barber looked out for the best interest of Jasper hotels/motels and people living inside the city limits. A civic center might be nice.

The self-proclaimed "experts" plus the "experts" on laying and maintaining water/sewer pipes and tapfees, (Wayne's World Realtors) blame the new city manager, Alan Grindstaff, for everything from not having good sense to knowing nothing about how he should be doing his job. Now Grindstaff is being blamed for the sorry condition of the streets - like they've all turned to potholes in just the past two years. At the same time no mention is made that Main Street has finally been resurfaced - both ends will be re-surfaced when the contractors get to it. Truth is, people who have lived in Jasper the past four decades would certainly not know from experience what it is that competent city managers do. It should be noted that many of the people who are complaining about Grindstaff and this city council, calling them "rubber stamps," are the same people who were ever ready to defend the wrongdoings of the past. Never a peep when federal and state laws were ignored and the city ordinance book couldn't be found. Never a peep from one of them when David Douglas both resigned AND had his contract bought out. The enablers supported it! Has that ever been done except in Jasper?

Competence matters. Conversely, if a program is well conceived and well run, money can be well spent, whether by bureaucrats or individuals. Grindstaff seems to be honest and competent- running the city well without getting "comp time" to attend city council meetings. That alone puts him well ahead of the past. Those with funky priorities should take a break and let the man finish cleaning up the mess he inherited!

Thanks to VFD

By JEANETTE PITTMAN
Jasper

I want to commend the Fire Department for their quick respons to a house fire in our addition. We appreciate them more than they know.

Fed up taxpayer

By GEORGE R. THOMAS
Jasper
I too am a city tax payer who is fed up with the freeloaders always wanting city money but not paying city taxes.

If communities like Ryall Acres or the Gilgal area have city water and sewer services they need to pay city taxes or fees. I have to pay for mine but why should I have to pay for theirs?

Why should the city hotel/motel tax be put in the hands of a few who live outside the city?

My guess is so that a few select tournaments (and individuals) at Rayburn can get all the funds they want at the expense of other worthy projects that would take place in Jasper.

As a city tax payer I also have to pay county and school taxes. I get nothing for my money. No services whatsoever. It is past time for these people who live outside the city to start going to the county to get their projects or services funded. They need to stop bleeding Jasper.

As I look around I see real changes happening for the first time in years. Streets are getting fixed, pipes are getting replaced, building is going on and in general I believe it looks like Jasper is actually growing.

I just hope that what ever city leadership who believes in staying this course has the strength and backbone to stand up to those who want to take us back to the past and to those who want to use city tax dollars for their own personal gain.

I know I am tired of paying for it. It has been high time for the elected city officials to stand up for those who pay the city taxes.

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