YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street, and by the time you read this column (and I am sincerely grateful for both of my regular readers), I will have already voted FOR the re-purposing of the county’s one cent sales tax. I hope in the coming few days of Early Voting, or on Election Day, May 13, you will join me in support of the issue.
It is ironic the way the election process has worked out this time. The sales tax election was economically placed with the annual school election. Since the only school board races are in Nashville and Dierks, those are the only places where voters can go on Election Day. For Early Voting, all ballots must be cast at one place — the Carter Day Training Center on North Main in Nashville. This makes voting harder for citizens in the south part of the county.
The issue needs the support of the whole county because we ALL will benefit from its passage. And we would ALL suffer if it loses.
We repeat that this is not a new tax, but is the extension of one that was originally enacted by voters to pay off a loan to build a new hospital building. That loan will be paid off in December.
If we citizens pass the tax re-purposing issue, revenues will be spread ‘per capita.’
The county judge has supplied me with figures of an average year of that penny tax collection.
The figures are rounded up and are for a typical year.
•Nashville — $872,000.
•Mineral Springs — $228,000.
•Dierks — $192,000.
•Tollette — $34,000.
• Howard County (outside of towns) — $1,082,000.
In addition, Developing Howard County and Howard Memorial Hospital would EACH get $135,000. These institutions are vital if we are able to recruit more jobs and payrolls for our communities.
I’m going to predict that our county will respond positively, and will pass the tax issue.
There are always some ‘aginners,’ so the rest of us need to get out and vote.
I love what our mayor says: “It’s simple, really.”
The cities would decide for themselves where the revenues could be used. Paving, sanitation, water, etc.
The county could put the money to work via the county’s five volunteer fire departments; for litter pickup; for roads; for some form of animal control; or for whatever the Quorum Court desires.
It is simple, really.
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THE MOUTH WATERS. In order to celebrate Extension Homemakers Club month, the EH clubs of Howard County will host a Community Coffee on Wednesday, May 21.
The event will be in the EH Center on North Second St., across from the courthouse.
The public is invited. The coffee will be from 9-11 a.m., and I will give you one guess if there will be tons of delectables.
Thanks to EH club members for making our communities better places to live and raise families.
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CONGRATULATIONS to all who labored so productively on the recent spring opening of the Farmers’ Market, and on the annual Peach Blossom Festival. And the Easter events at practically every community in the county.
God bless volunteers.
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ANIMAL CRACKERS. Our John Balch is the newspaper’s resident bird expert. And bird-watcher.
He’s been making me sick with envy lately talking about sightings of virtually every species of birds that can live or pass through southwest Arkansas.
I can sit out for an hour on my patio and only see the wasps and houseflies that dance around my head and buzz my ears.
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MORE THINGS I LEARNED from the Universal Classroom of Life: I’m on two simultaneous diets. I wasn’t getting enough food on on one.
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WORD GAMES. Wink and Blink. They are exactly the same, but, yet, so different. One is intentional and one is a reflex.
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HE SAID: “How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” William Shakespeare, English playwright
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SHE SAID: “This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.” Hannah Arendt, philosopher and historian
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
