Citizen Forum

Editor:

I used to think fall was the loveliest season in the Ozarks. But this fall, wholesale slaughter is taking place along Mundell Road.

It's worst at night, starting around 10 p.m. Staccato shots ring out along the ridges, echoing through the hollers. Camo-clad poachers in old pickups with powerful spotlights blind their prey then shoot as fast as possible in order to kill or maim as many as possible.

Neighbors in our small subdivision awake to dead and dying deer in their front yards, some with their tails and nuts cut off. No attempt is made to make use of the meat. This is simply killing for the twisted thrill of it.

Law enforcement acknowledges there is a problem, and Fish and Game say they are dismayed. But there's nobody to do anything about this.

One woman said to me she'd read that many people are killed by deer each year. Apparently, a few residents of Grassy Knob read the same article. They called a quick meeting, and rather than conceiving a thoughtful plan to cull the herd, created 50 new doe tags for the area this year accompanied by some toothless stipulations they naively hoped would protect residents and rein in the yahoos who can never get enough of killing.

What they wound up doing instead was to invite every lawless, unhinged psychopath for miles around to shoot up their neighborhoods. This nonsense will stop only when somebody gets hurt. And, if nothing is done, that is a simple inevitability.

(Name withheld for fear of being "accidentally" shot)

Here's the deal

Editor:

Our Auditorium will never make a dime.

No Auditorium will ever make enough money to pay for itself. Furthermore, that's not the point of having an Auditorium.

The point of an Auditorium is a payback to the taxpayers of a town. It's a bread and circuses kind of deal. You know. It's the Roman Coliseum without the blood and gore of feeding people to the lions. (We save that kind of entertainment for the City Council and Commissioners.)

The point of having an Auditorium is to have a good time once in awhile.

Maybe, as a town, we're just flat not interested in that kind of good time.

Maybe we're just too tired to get off the TV couch, which, by the way, was once used to make room for friends who dropped by to talk hogs and dogs, and gossip.

Yeah, let's be honest, those days are gone, and we really don't want our 900-seat Auditorium, except for high school graduations and such. Otherwise, it's just another miscellaneous tourist attraction.

But before we shuck this old friend, let's take a citywide vote, and let's argue (in the best sense of that word) about what we, as a town, want to do with this 79-year-old landmark.

Bill Earngey

Professionalism, integrity and progress

Editor:

The fight is over! Each candidate to their separate corners!

I have been a Democrat my entire voting life (and I am old!). I voted for my first Republican when I relocated to Carroll County. My instincts were to vote for the "candidate" whom I thought would best serve me and the new county where I chose to live.

I find it difficult to admit that as a Democrat I have been appalled and embarrassed at the lies, innuendos and personal attacks made by "my" party during our local elections.

It is a sad day when the only way to win an election is to convince the voting public how "bad" an opposing candidate is rather than what makes you a "better" choice, especially when your platform is based solely on false information.

I would like to thank all of the local voters who put politics aside and voted to keep the professionalism, integrity and future progress of the Carroll County Sheriff's Office alive for another two years.

A vote for Republican Carroll County Sheriff Bob Grudek was a vote that now ensures you the highest standards of law enforcement.

Pamela Grudek

On the road, again

Editor:

I would like to reply to Albena Link's "Taking the low road to high office."

She refers to me as the former road foreman with the chip and seal on my "road to nowhere" with only four houses. I only wish this was true and it was chipped and sealed. Evidently the County Judge and current road foreman believe it is chipped and sealed also as there has not been any maintenance on it for the past two years.

This is not a dead-end road. It has 40 houses, 42 poultry houses and five businesses on it. I am sure the tax revenue from this road far exceed the revenue from hers and she states her road is chipped and sealed.

I have had to use my personal equipment to get feed trucks in and out to my poultry and cattle operations. The past storm blew several trees across the road and because we were unable to get the county road department to come out, neighbors and myself spent a weekend clearing the road.

She states the property owners in her area paid for the work done on their roads. In checking with the treasurer they have no record of receiving payment for this work to date.

I probably know better than most the problems in maintaining the 2,000 miles of county road. I tried to see that no favoritism was shown (and my road is not chipped and sealed) and service was distributed equally throughout Carroll County. Evidently my work was satisfactory as I was road foreman to four County Judges prior to Williams.

I had nothing to do with the original ad and do not appreciate being dragged into something that does not concern me in any way. I had nothing to do with her election and had no interest in the results until this article. Now I can only say "Congratulations Frank Renner! Good job!"

Wendell Coatney

Berryville