
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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Opinion

Fielder’s Choice
By Barry Burleson

Baseball, barbecue

It was good to see high school baseball back at Sam Coopwood Park Thursday afternoon.

With camera in hand, I attended the Holly Springs versus Byhalia intra-county matchup on the diamond. The Hawks are playing baseball after a several-year absence.

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Close to Nowhere
By Linda Jones

Presbyterian seder supper

Last Wednesday evening, my friend Jane and I were privileged to be among the non-Presbyterian/Episcopal guests at a seder supper, presided over by a real “rabbouni,” (teacher) Rabbi Katie Bauman of Temple Israel in Memphis, Tenn.

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The Preacher’s Corner
By Rev. Dr. Milton Winter

God bless the men laying the concrete

I am glad to see the work crews installing curb cuts around town so that wheelchairs and scooters can access the sidewalks. I am glad that, even in a recession, money can be found for this, because whenever people can be more active, everybody prospers.

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Letters To The Editor

Thank you:
Dear Editor,

Thanks to all who participated in the benefit car/truck/bike show at the VFW, and a special thanks to those who helped make it possible.

Thank you very much,
James and Teresa Potts

Thank you:

On behalf of our daughter Shelly Sharpe, we want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. Shelly recently went through a scary medical condition but is expected to make a full recovery, however leaving behind a huge medical debt.

Thanks to local support, fund-raisers have been set up in Holly Springs at:

• JBs, on the square, April 10, 2 p.m. until. There will be a crawfish boil, live auction with items during the day and night, live music by Joey Boone and Zack Mac.

• 705 Highway 7 South, VFW and Clydesdale Christmas Store, April 17, 12-5 p.m. Barbecue and ribs, auction, live music, pool table and flat screen tv to be raffled.

Come join the fun and support this fund-raiser. For more info. call 662-629-0007

Thank you,
Bill and Sherry Janssen

WIN job center:

Several months ago a few concerned citizens and two elected officials began to discuss the need for job readiness and job creation in our community. The existing agency, whose task it was to address this problem, was experiencing problems both financially and politically.

Over the last few months the quest to solve this problem has gained momentum. Leaders from Marshall County, Benton County, Holly Springs, Potts Camp, Hickory Flat, Ashland, Byhalia, and Snow Lake Shores, engaged in discussions with Senator Bill Stone and Representative Kelvin Buck. Rep. Buck and Sen. Stone contacted MS Dept. of Employment Security (MDES) to explore the possibility of acquiring a WIN job center for this community.

After much hard work, it appears that our efforts have been successful. This undertaking illustrates the outcomes that are possible for this community when citizens and leaders work together with a common goal. Let this be a model from which we work to build a greater community.

“If nothing changes, nothing changes.”

Conery M. DeBerry
Marshall County Citizen

City planning:
Dear Editor,

The front page of your April 1 edition contained an article entitled “City considers strategic plan.” I fear that nothing good is liable to come out of that consideration.

If we want to make this an economically healthy city, the solution is simple. Keep taxes low to attract businesses; provide an educated work force to attract businesses; and ensure a crime-free environment that will not scare businesses out of town. No matter how much we spend on city planning, it will not accomplish those goals.

Bureaucrats are people who can tell you in minute detail just why it is that something cannot be done. They are not too good at actually doing things. The main gate of the cemetery has been closed for so many months that no one remembers just how long ago it was that the gate tower was damaged.

We are about to welcome Pilgrimage tourists to town with a detour sign sticking out of an old automobile wheel at the main entrance to a historic tourist attraction. Why? Because bureaucrats wanted to talk about whose court the ball was in, rather than do what was necessary to fix the gate.

Our schools are a disaster, turning out large numbers of the unemployable. Why? Because bureaucrats want to shuffle their papers, fill out their forms, and micromanage schoolrooms from a distance.

Every week the newspaper has a long list of crimes investigated by the police. some of those “crimes” are resolved quickly — people driving drunk, fighting on the street, etc. Burglaries and thefts are another matter. The uniformed bureaucrats fill out their forms and file them in appropriate places, but not much happens after that.

With this kind of experience with government, do we really want that same government planning the city’s growth? I’m sure that an expensive consultant’s contract would produce beautiful color drawings of factories, and malls, and parks. If no one wants to actually build the factory, however, it is not going to get built; and until the city has low taxes, safe streets, and an educated workforce, no one is going to build a factory.

In passing, it should be observed that building a factory with city money and luring a business to use it with the promise of five or ten years of low or no taxes, is not the way to attract industry. What you will attract is someone with a mobile business who can easily move on to the next tax haven when his sweetheart tax deal expires.

The way to attract and keep businesses is to reduce the city’s payroll, keep the taxes low for everyone, reduce crime, and actually educate the children (as opposed to throwing huge bundles of money into the maw of the education beast).

It is to be hoped that cool heads will prevail, and that the central planners will not get any firmer grip on the City of Holly Springs than they already have.

We need to just say “no” to the expense of city planning.

Very truly yours,
J.R. Dunworth

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