Dear Editor,
City Council members are elected to help carry the burden of local government for their fellow citizens. Adding millions of dollars to an almost paid debt seems an odd way to help carry a burden. Adding onto an existing bond, consolidating, or even a totally new bond issue may be legal, but doesn’t seem very ethical without input from our citizens. If we, the community, have no say in the matter, some of us reading this letter will be dead and gone by the time the full debt is paid, and we will have shouldered our children with the load, and our streets will still be full of potholes by then. The citizens should vote on increasing our bonds unless it is an emergency. This is not.
I suggest we have a reputable firm not connected with the city do a structural study of our present building, and let’s see just what we have, and if it can be fixed. We need a landscape firm to show us how to divert the runoff water from City Hall; perhaps using retaining walls and French drains. The point is – instead of crying “the sky is falling,” and running off to pour millions of dollars into another old building; why not explore other options and costs first? I want to know what we have, and what repair or upgrade possibilities there are before we haul off and perhaps go into unnecessary debt. Don’t you?
With the economic downturn in our area, we need to take a much more conservative approach to resolving this issue by focusing on needs, not wants.
Jo Olive
Fairfield, Texas
Click here for news coverage of the proposed bond by Fairfield City Council.
