Dear Editor,
I knew Chuck wouldn’t miss a bash Myers opportunity so let me state why I voted no on giving the Crisis Center $1800.00 for moving expenses.
First we are in a depression where jobs are non existent and I don’t see the economy picking up anytime soon. The Federal Government is cutting back programs and working to get spending under control.
The State of Kansas is closing SRS offices and cutting funding to almost everything to get cost under control. We may not like cutting but the alternative is to raise taxes on those of us who still have jobs. The Crises Center is moving into the old Federal Building which will more than double the rent for the building and I believe they could have gotten more room somewhere else for less money than the old Federal Building.
I was told that the Crisis Center gets all of the operating capital from grants and in the day of cutting funding and closing vital programs and offices across the State I can see those grants drying up or being split up with other agency’s whose funding has been cut, and to make this move into such a grandeur building at this time does not make sense to me.
I made the comment about the traffic light because the city council voted down putting in the light because of having to spend an extra $18,000.00 dollars on the intersection, which by the way they knew going into it, and the dollar outweighed public safety.
If we are in the state where cost considerations outweigh the safety of our citizen’s then money must be tight and that $1800.00 dollars could go to public safety concerns.
What I said was if we couldn’t put in the traffic light for public safety then money must be tight and of course everything after Traffic Light was omitted.
We need more firefighters right now for public safety and we can’t afford them either.
Where does one draw the line and move public safety to the forefront of nickel and dime spending that adds up to major dollars at the end of the year. I welcome your comments 620-786-1351
Randy Myers
Great Bend

Editor’s note: Councilman Myers seems to suggest his action at the Great Bend City Council meeting has been misrepresented in the recent Tribune coverage. However, it was presented just as it happened at the vote. Myers voted in opposition to the motion to help fund the FCC move. He referenced the council’s decision earlier in the year, to not pay for traffic signals at Broadway and Harrison and by way of explanation he stated: “My problem is, we couldn’t afford to put in a traffic light.” And that was his only explanation for his opposition offered during the meeting. Reporting how he voted and his explanation for that vote is hardly “bashing” him.