Isle of Wight officials ignore recession

Published 11:11 pm Thursday, December 18, 2008

To the Editor:

Isle of Wight supervisors are sending our county toward bankruptcy, and no one is stopping them.

Where is the money going to come from to pay back the $7 million for a new courthouse we do not need? I don’t remember the people voting for that or for the flag poles and sign at the intersection of Routes 258 and 58 or for the Route 58 development, which they need to stop right now or it will be yet another step toward bankruptcy.

Who is going to pay for the officials’ pay raise when we are all losing our jobs or, if we are blessed enough to have a job, our benefits and pay raises?

The county officials want to keep our artificially inflated real estate prices up for our taxes. Our homes are now worth about 20 percent to 40 percent less than the county states they are, and if the county officials do bring our values down where they should be, they will just raise our tax rates, so they still get their money while we go without. They have to be voted out and made to stop spending.

They want to cut the hours of operation for the Dumpsters so working people won’t make it to the Dumpsters any more. They have to be open at least from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. They want to save a dollar in the wrong areas. We need the Dumpsters; we don’t need a new courthouse or signs or land they can’t use.

They should create jobs here and start farming the land and employ people to farm county land to make money instead of spending. Help us and live within a real budget, and keep our county rural, not suburban.

Mark Whaley

Carrsville