Dear Editor,
The short list of misguided usages of our taxes goes well beyond what I referred to (re: “Network of paths and trails is taking us nowhere, News Letter Journal, September 21, 2017, page 2).
I don’t need to go further, because it’s just the premise of what happens when people spend other people’s money. It is certainly about a budget, and why communities such as Newcastle have such problems. Our streets are in a state that we could get pulled over for drinking if you miss most of the holes. Our waterlines are shot, with leaks and breaks everywhere. Our sewer lines are ancient, and in dire need of replacement.
The city no longer wants to fix or repair Upper Cambria Street, and the majority of the north side of Main Street, moving with the train vibration, will suffer the same fate.
A child could figure that a bentonite/shale base dictates a total lack of stability. Take a drive on our side of Main Street to prove any and all of this. Water is only an excuse, and a cover-up!
On the tax statement I made, drive around town and count all the new homes being built. Don’t worry, you won’t have to take your shoes off to get the number. Now go outside our city limits, and see what I said is total truth.
If we would do some serious thinking about what projects are needed, you only need to go to the clinic. Maybe it’s about time to build a crosswalk from the clinic to the hospital.
How about us taking care of those people that are dedicated to taking care of us for once! I personally am tired of watching them dodging traffic to get from one side to the other. It would be minimal expense, and it would be a major help. I am sure the state would go along with it. We all know how they love to spend money insuring our beloved tumbleweeds make it from one fence line, across the road, to the other.
We need to do some heavy thinking about what we are going to spend money on, and quit this “crony” attitude. I personally think we desperately need council persons from the districts, as it was prior to enacting what we’ve come to now, but we have to get involved!
City employees need to live in the city, because what do they care otherwise?
—John R. Larsen