Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Who's making these crazy decisions?

To the Editor:

Never have I considered myself to be bright but more on the low end of average intelligence. Recently, I have seen changes in the area and find myself totally baffled and struggling to make sense of the small world around me.

A while back, stop lights were place on bridges leading into Newberry. In the five-plus years prior to that change, I had never seen more than two or three vehicles on either bridge at any one time. I live in Bloomfield and work in Washington. Now with these two road blocks in place, I regularly see convoys of large trucks backed up waiting to cross these bridges, all at one time.

If the goal was to reduce the weight on the bridges at any one time, they really missed the target. The only way that it could be worse would be if there was ever bumper-to-bumper traffic, moving in both directions at the same time in that area. I can't imagine a way for that to ever happen.

The stop lights represent only a short delay, but in a struggling economy, I can't hardly stand to contemplate the cost of those stop lights to taxpayers or money being spent in such a way. Though the trip has been longer, I have been going to Washington via Loogootee, to avoid the frustration of seeing poor planning at its best.

The latest complexity to boggle my simple mind is this new gravel surface on our highways. Last year we finally had our driveway paved -- but now when I leave my wonderful paved driveway, I find myself on a gravel highway. The genius who thought this was a good idea ought to be horse whipped. (Would have said shot but too many willing volunteers might have taken this too literally!)

We moved here from a childhood/life in the city -- really enjoying the clean air. Last night after mowing my yard, my mower and I suppose my lungs, were coated with a fresh, new, layer of white powdery dust.

How often will we have to wash vehicles now? What about air quality? Not to mention lost traction. As these clouds of dust settle into our houses, what will be the other side effects of this dust coming into our homes? Breathing problems, compiled by seasonal allergies -- sure does make it tough to enjoy clean, country living. We would expect such an issue with our small county roads -- but our highways!

What's next -- maybe toll booths on all bridges leading out of Bloomfield? Just think of the revenue and the boost to local businesses. We could keep more of our residents in town to do their spending/shopping.

Or maybe eliminate the speed limit in Linton. Maybe we could attract NASCAR officials into moving a major race into the Linton Park. (Just kidding -- government officials please no more great ideas!) You're killing me! Really!

John Petho

Bloomfield

Thanks for making festival a success

To the Editor:

This is a thank you to all who helped make this year's Newberry Festival a big success.

We had a great crowd to hear country singer D.J. Miller and after that we had karaoke contest.

Saturday we had music by Garland Figg and Ugly Knees Karaoke, Wacky the Clown entertained the kids with balloons, and there was a kids peddle tractor pull.

We want to thank Greene County Sheriff Terry Pierce and the officers that helped with traffic, and the Bloomfield American Legion Post 196 Color Guard for their help.

We want to thank everyone that entertained this year also would like to thank all our vendors for coming and all of the ones that donated their time to work in the festival booth and help with the cleanup.

We want to thank the ones that donated money to the Newberry Festival which without their help we just couldn't do what we do.

We want to thank all the cars that came to the Newberry Festival Cruise-In this year and hope there will be a bigger group of you here next year.

Winners of the drawing items were follows:

50/50 drawing - Amos Musselman

Holiday World tickets - Megan Gainey

Rug cleaning system - Sherry Mitchell

Rocker - Ivan Long, Sherry Clark

Baby Blanket - Tracey Chambers

T-Shirts - Candice Nail, Amos Bowersock, Bob Brookshire and Glenda Tatro.

Little Miss winner was Erica Myers

Parade winners: Lyons Girl Scout Troop 1490 - Youth, George Helms - Best Tractor, Bill Bummett - Best Antique Car, Odon Christain Church - Best Float, Methodist Church - Religion, Trail Dusters Saddle Club - Emma Emily and Anna - Best Group, Crane - Miltary.

We hope that everyone enjoyed their time with us as much as we enjoyed our time with them and that they will continue to come back every year.

Just a breif note to all, next year's dates will be Aug. 19-20. Look forward to seeing you next year.

Judy Moore

Veronica Ault

Melissa Harding

Tama Allen

Bob Barker

Newberry

City, county employees did a good job

To the Editor:

County and city employees need to be thanked when they sincerely go the extra mile to help taxpayers.

I want to extend a special "thank you" to Brent Slover and the Linton city utility employees who recently resolved an emergency utility service issue during extremely hot weather.

I would also like to thank Steve Lindsey, other Greene County commissioners, Mike Hennette, and Marilyn Hartman for their help in getting a roadside drainage problem corrected on County Road 200 S. The problem was a result of work done by an out-of-county contractor and finally corrected by the contractor when county officials contacted them.

Wally Swaby

Linton

Thank you GCDW, Ferree for help

To the Editor:

The Trinity Lutheran Church would like to thank the Greene County Daily World and Timberly Ferree for writing the article about our rummage sale. The sale was a huge success.

We feel we were certainly blessed with so many people from our community and the church who gave nice contributions.

We feel that since we were giving 50 percent of our proceeds to the Civitan Clothe-A-Child project, people who were able to give, gave generously and we thank you.

Genny Schroeder

Linton

Thank you for

helping with pool

To the Editor:

A big thank you for a job well done by our Bloomfield Pool manager Beth Plummer and the lifeguards.

From the gang on the north side of the pool. Hope to see you next year Beth!

Janie Emery

Vickie Wilson

Jane Scott

Kelli Cosgrove

Jane Helms

Bloomfield