Editor, Times-Union: It has been said that the Silver Lake Police Department may be closed due to lack of funds. A person from Wabash told this at my husband's workplace.
Why is there a lack of funds now when both the police and fire departments were able to be funded before the town received tax money from the lake area? Since receiving more taxes, the council has twice requested extra money from the township for the fire department and now will possibly close the police department. It seems the clerk and council will not make a budget to support the emergency services of the town, rather they over-budget some expenses and spend money on unnecessary expenses, or if they are necessary, cost is not considered. Water and sewer do not operate on a budget as the town does, but here again spending should be limited to necessary expenses and cost should be considered.
Town records show these purchases: Street paving- $106,157 in 2004 and 2005 plus at least $63,958 for 2006. Paving has been done on streets that were not in need of repaving. Sidewalks - $49,634, mowers - $7,119 and $450, chipper- $6,290, vacuum cleaner - $275, air fresheners- $396.27, office supplies - $6,790 in 2004, $13,889 in 2005 and $1,510 so far in 2006; $22,189 has been spent for office supplies of which at least $10,724 was new computers and software related. On Aug. 11, 2004, the Times-Union reported the council allowed up to $1,000 to replace the clerk's computer, but she spent $3,220. Now the clerk is requesting software to prepare sewer liens that for the past 15 years have been done by hand. New phones, copier and fax machines also have been purchased.
The 2003-2004 audit cost $9,392 versus approximately $3,500 for the 2001-2002 audit. I believe the increase was due to the poor record keeping.
Paving has been over-budgeted by $176,073. Street lights, a fixed rate, are budgeted for 2006 at $30,000. The cost in 2005 was $16,765 and in 2004, $15,785. There are other items that have been over-budgeted, but not to the extent of these two.
Funding of emergency services should take priority over some of these other expenses. Hopefully, this will be taken into consideration when the 2007 budget is made. This is our tax money and we should have some input on how it is spent. Anyone attending a budget meeting probably will be told by Stanley Williams that he's not interested in what you have to say, which is what I was told at the Sept. 14, 2005, meeting.
Brenda Wadkins, via e-mail
Silver Lake
An Opinion
Editor, Times-Union: Having been born shortly after WWI in the "solid South" Georgia, I remember hearing our President FDR say, "We have nothing to fear except fear itself." As a kid I was impressed with that bit of truth. While still young in Bremen High School we were taught the words of a great American patriot - "United we stand. Divided ..." (I can't bring myself to write the word because I love my country so much!). But fall we will unless we cast aside our political pride and pull together again!
Here we are in 2006, about as divided as I can remember on issues that seem to me so very clear that should be accepted with no hint of division among us! Like marriage being the united of one man and one woman in holy matrimony. And, the Ten Commandments, of which every civilization in history has some version. And the stupid debate about just when human life begins! Come on, folks! Or, as my hero Abe Lincoln would remind us, "Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people" (Exodus 22:28). Don't you wish our politicians today would read the same book Mr. Lincoln read and digested? They have never read it or they choose to ignore it - either of which is perilous.
Friends, can't you see that the "weapons of choice" of the "terrorists" are fear and propaganda? (They put about 10 percent facts in the mix or we would not fall for the 90 percent that are plain lies!)
Unless we Americans "wise up," our terrorists enemies will not need nuclear weapons to destroy us. We'll destroy ourselves! Theirs is a religion of fear and hate. Ours has been "a faith that expresses itself through love" as it says in Galatians 5:6, NIV.
The war against "terrorists" could have been won a year or two ago if we had been smart enough to pull together!
With a sincere hope for unity like we had in WWI and WWII,
