Applauds city for cuts

I stayed up last night and watched the city council in special session pertaining to cutting the pay for city employees. The audio was poor, but that is what we seem to get. I applaud the Mayor and the entire city council for cutting their pay by 25 percent for three months. This is something I asked for in a letter weeks ago. They also cut the public works down to 30 hours per week. So if you have a small project you need public works to perform, it will take a little longer than usual. I still have a ditch needing digging from four years ago after I met with the Mayor, Casey Bush and Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin. I was promised it would be done. I’m still waiting, so please don’t hold your breath. This financial situation will get worse before it gets better. I hope they have seen the light and will not attempt borrow the $6.5 million for paving.

I hate this for the fire and police departments as once again these cuts will impact these departments the worst. There is a freeze on all hiring and all promotions, so morale will continue to drop as these heroes deal with this again this year.

The one item I did not see as I reviewed what the city was giving up is I never heard mention of the $7,500 per month J5, Jabari Edwards is getting from the city. I would be very angry if I were a city employee and he made that much money in the first place. But I would be infuriated if I had to give up part of my wages and he still gets his. I hope this was overlooked by our frugal council.

Less than one out of a thousand people in Lowndes County have been diagnosed with COVID-19. This whole thing has been overblown. I would suggest next time the government not get the state health department folks to give us the numbers. They have been wrong on everything. I would suggest they get a good sports bookie, and I feel like the results will be better.

As we watch businesses reopen please support local. Local businesses pay a lot of taxes you would not even imagine they have to pay. Local also provides many jobs to our people. Once local is gone all that tax liability will be passed to you.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.