OFF THE CUFF Things are really in a mess

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

After watching the inspiring rescue of miners who spent more than two months in a mine in Chile, a turn over to the Larry King Live show surely would continue the uplifting words that were being spoken worldwide by every conceivable source.

Wrong. Instead of an upper I was treated to a real downer as the host’s guest spent who knows how many minutes railing against the mining industry and all its evils. What a bummer. Just Michael Moore of the same.

Now on to better things (?).

Things are really in a mess, aren’t they? I suppose there has always been messiness but somehow Gravette has been subjected to more than its share lately, something that has basically been avoided for many years, at least to the degree of dissatisfaction that seems to be gripping our little city.

Case in point: The sewer project cost. How in the name of common sense can Gravette’s 800-plus sewer users be expected to pay a $6 million-plus bill to eliminate a negligible amount of phosphorus and nitrates from its sewer system? I can understand a loan, even at a not-discounted interest rate, but I cannot understand how absolutely no grant money is available to offset at least a portion of the cost for this state/federally mandated project.

Americans are more and more being saddled with those high-falutin’ mandates without reasonable options of meeting them. This in the face of those hundreds, yes possibly thousands, of earmarks that go for such stupid projects as studying about the mating habits of polecats atthe North Pole. Really, that is an exaggeration but I know you’ve heard of many of the so-called “free” allocations to persons, institutions, places that we are all paying for. How about a $15 million bike trail from Fayetteville to Bentonville? Of course it’s nice, but . . . .

Perhaps, as a city, we just didn’t squeal loud enough to our senators to include an earmark for Gravette. After all, Gravette’s citizens are just as important as a group of college students going on a trip to a foreign country to boost its economy with their presence. Judging from the number of grants, gifts, freebies our federal Washington crew has been announcing for Arkansas, mostly elsewhere in the state, doesn’t it really make you wonder?

Hey, how about tacking a couple of million for Gravette on to the next military appropriation bill, which seems to be a guaranteed way of getting approval on the backs of our service personnel’s needs. Shame. Shame. Cluttering military expenditures with such other earmarks.

One more rant this week, and a promise I’ll try to be positive next week. You notice I said try.

Another comment about the demise of the Gravette gas station because of a gasoline spill. Now we understand that it may require excavating soil perhaps from a block to clear the site of contaminants that during the past nine months have probably dissipated to the point of almost nonexistence. This scenario has been drug on for almost a year when really all that has been accomplished is forcing a firm out of business by inaction. Let’s call the president of Chile. I’ll wager the situation could have been solved amicably and frugally in two months time. Whatta you think?

Opinion, Pages 6 on 10/27/2010