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Enough is enough with Neighborhood Center

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Ralph, I really don’t know why I am surprised but when I hear how some the politicians we elect show how ignorant they are when it comes to business decisions and spending our tax dollars it always crawls up my spine.

Take for instance how, over the last four years, how West Memphis politicians have thrown tens of thousands of dollars down the drain attempting to reopen the Roberta Jackson Neighborhood Center, a dilapidated structure that should have been sold and torn down to make room for a brand new school that would have certainly been a tremendous asset to East Broadway.

Now, I don’t know how you feel, Ralph, about this fiasco that should be a total embarrassment to city politicians, particularly those representing that section of town, but to me it shows a total lack of fiscal responsibility when it comes to spending the taxpayers money.

Now I am sure your bleeding heart response to this is that regardless of the money spent this taxpayer subsidized community center is an absolute necessity for the low-income citizens, the elderly and the young people. And, I suppose you will spout off that whatever the cost this is a facility that is worth retaining and maintaining, a mindset that is typical of individuals such as yourself who believes that governmental waste is a figment of the imagination of those such as myself who view most politicians and bureaucrats as wasteful spenders of the people’s money.

For example, the United States Postal Service, the Veteran’s Administration and scores of other local, state and federal agencies.

Let’s debate this Roberta Jackson Neighborhood saga. Even today these local politicians remain indecisive as to making the center serviceable again. It seems they are beating around the bush, sort of speak, in deciding who they will award a bid to make more repairs on the building that has been boarded up since 2014.

Break-ins, vandalism and pure and simple neglect has amounted to over $200,000 in repairs, not counting another $40,000 in necessary roof repairs and the building is still needing additional attention due to mold problems and other issues.

I want to know how you can dispute the fact that what we are dealing with is a bunch of politicians who don’t know what they are doing spending our tax dollars on a pig in a poke.

As I said all along, Ralph, these politicians made a big mistake in snubbing their noses up to West Memphis School officials who offered to purchase the property with the intent of building a brand new public school that would have been a tremendous asset to this section of the city.

When it was decided to keep the old building, these clueless politicians would have been better off simply tearing down the dilapidated building and spending the money they spent on constructing a new building.

After all, Ralph, the money they have already wasted could have been put to better use, but then again, what do you expect from politicians who don’t know what they are doing?

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