To the editor:

After reading my paper this Wednesday I wonder if this community is more about quantity than quality.

We are discussing ways of bringing lots of people into town to spend money for a short-term gain, yet not one word of how to provide a better quality of life for those of us living here.

Not one word was mentioned about solving issues that are causing us to lose people who are working here. It is no secret that we have problems on this front. K&M Tire recently bought out Becker Tire and it looks like they are moving to western Kansas. We are also losing many of our police and fire department members to other communities because they offer a much better retirement package.

Why are we not trying to solve these issues instead of trying to bring in more people for recreation instead of trying to improve the quality of life for those who live here? A new police department building is not going to keep trained officers here when they need better benefit packages to plan for the future. These people have to look ahead to their future and retirement. We built a new building for the fire department and yet they are still losing good, trained firefighters to other departments that are offering better retirement packages. Our police department is spending money training officers, only to lose them in a year or two because they can get better benefit packages other places. Even the sheriff’s department offers a better package so some are moving over there.

Is it really necessary to move the city offices over to 10th Street when you already use the building now for meetings? With all the traffic on 10th, it is easier to access the office in its current location. Besides, we already spent lots of money for the building on East 10th. Did that improve the operation of our water department? More people are mailing in their payments to avoid the traffic on 10th Street. 

I think it is time to contact your council representative and ask them to consider quality over quantity. I’m not against these projects — I just feel that we have more pressing issues. Like making this a better place for those who live here instead of always wanting to bring in more people for a short-term visit. It is costing us 28 weeks of pay just to train one officer, before they can even be put out on the street to work patrol on their own. Think of all the money we have lost over the years because this issue keeps getting put on hold. Look at the businesses that have moved out of Great Bend due to finding better communities that will work with them.

We need to think quality rather than quantity. They say the squeaky wheels get the grease. Maybe we as a community need to make a little more noise to get quality back into our community. Call your council person and ask that we get our current problems solved to make this a better community.

Marge Bieberle

Great Bend