Dear Editor,
I read with much shame the article about the pay our police officers receive. This has been a problem for many years. It did not just start. I have known many good officers who have left because they could make more money somewhere else, even in smaller towns.
I was amazed at the figures presented by Chief Smothers at the difference in pay here and and in other places even in Carroll County. So, what is the problem?
How would you like it, if in the morning, we did not have a Police Department or Fire Department, everybody quit and went elsewhere. Would you want to strap on a gun and patrol our streets at night, taking a chance to get shot by some one high on drugs? I would not. There is a shooting somewhere every day in this country and who goes? Police men and women go. They put their lives on the line every day to protect us. They deserve to be paid at least as well as men and women in towns our size or better if we want to keep good people.
There did not seem to be a problem to always find funds for the big lake every body is so proud of that the town poured millions of dollars in, until the state, thank goodness took it over.
There does not seem to be a problem to fund the Dixie for whatever is needed or wanted.
Why is there a problem for the Police Department and the building repairs for the Fire Department?
I have some very, very good friends on the City Council and I am not trying to make them mad at me. But the time has come to take care of the people who take care of us. It is past time to, fish, cut bait, or get out of the boat. This problem needs to be corrected and not in the future, but now.
Mac Blair
