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I couldn't get the front page picture that came out in the Friday paper off my mind, and what the picture itself said to me. The picture showed Ashley Bell and Billy Powell out among the people attending the hearing concerning the proposed tax increase for Hall County.
The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" came to mind. It shows these commissioners actually caring about the people, mixing with them, listening to them.
Another thing that came to mind is that true leaders, lead, I believe that is what Tom Oliver is trying to do. True leaders have to put forth unpopular ideas when faced with hard facts. Tough decisions have to be made, like raising taxes as the best answer to the problems the county faces now.
Sure, we wouldn't be in the predicament that we are in now if some very bad decisions had not been made in the past. Decisions like at the first of the year when certain commissioners, who were so new they couldn't have known what was going on, wielded their newfound "power" to fire key people who were helping keep the county afloat. Thousands of dollars went down the drain when high-priced people were brought in from outside to do their jobs, not to mention the severance pay that went to folks who no longer had a job.
As long as the county has people in office who really don't "give a hoot" about the future, as well as the present, we will have to face some hard decisions.
God help us; as long as we have true politicians in office, we will have people who are more interested in feeling their "power" and do not care about all of us "little people."
We do not need to cut down on services like fire department, paramedics, police, education, libraries, etc. There are so many natural disasters occurring all over the world, and we do not need to be underprepared. We never know when it will come our time for a disaster.
We need to do what any family has to do in hard times: Look for more efficient ways of handling money and trim what we reasonably can. Stop bringing in high cost people to do jobs that can be done as well or better by Hall County people.
"Just say no" to wants and "yes" to needs. That rule works in homes all over the land, I don't see why it couldn't work in businesses and governments.
Evelyn Swann
Flowery Branch