Help for our neighbors
Yesterday I saw on WCBI-TV a report about how our neighboring city of Kilmichael is still struggling mightily to recover from the April tornadoes that hit the little town. The report said that Kilmichael wasn’t going to get the FEMA assistance that it had hoped for. It was hard to watch the sadness in mayor Bobby Howell’s face.
My reaction was that I should make a donation to the Kilmichael treasury. Then I thought about it a little more and said to myself that I live here in Starkville, a city that is healthy and prosperous — much more than Kilmichael could ever be. Sometimes, I agree with how our board of aldermen spends my tax dollars. Sometimes I don’t. But, I would certainly have no problem with the city of Starkville using my tax dollars to make a donation to Kilmichael to help it out in its time of need. Maybe $7,000? That would be a thousand dollars per ward. That’s just a suggestion for starters.
If the our board of aldermen saw it fit and proper to make such a donation, perhaps it could challenge Columbus and Tupelo to do the same.
And if the board says we can’t give away money like that, how about making it a 50-year loan at zero-percent interest?
Finally, Mississippi State University apparently raised over $100,000,000 in private donations for a couple of years in a row. Do you think MSU could also spare a few nickels and dimes to help out our neighbors in Kilmichael?
Danny Pang
Starkville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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