Open letter to Lee Reimer, Peck’s Markets:

I am writing to let you know that we are very saddened over your decision to stop selling The River Reporter in your stores. The article they wrote on the demonstration was fair and would not have stopped me from shopping in your store. However, when you try to censor the free press, then you have gone over the line. I am sorry that you would behave so badly. For heaven’s sake, we are all neighbors here. I hate to drive for half an hour to get groceries, and I want to patronize our local businesses and help my friends and neighbors. We need to stick together in our community. Please wake up and do the right thing. I will not shop in your stores until you carry our local newspaper.

A slap in the face of the taxpayers

I am writing to express my extreme displeasure with the raise the Sullivan West School Board has approved for our school superintendent. I think back to the days before the merger when the superintendent of schools only made about $60 to$70,000. Those individuals not only were superintendent, they were oftentimes the building principal as well. Thus they had to deal both with overseeing the business aspect of the district and with discipline problems, teacher evaluations, contract negotiations, curriculum development, parents, etc. Mr. Derry was already making over $149,000 to do just the job of superintendent.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average income in Sullivan County is only $36,508. With the newly approved raise, Mr. Derry will be making more than a member of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. Maybe the board didn’t realize this, but we the people certainly do. I don’t think it is prudent in our district’s current financial crisis that we pay our superintendent more than our nation’s Congressmen.

To make matters worse, the board, on Mr. Derry’s recommendation, has decided to close two of our school buildings, resulting in less work and stress for the superintendent. And they have also decided to hire an assistant superintendent and pay that individual $90,000 per year to help Mr. Derry accomplish less work. The reason the board gave us for not filling the position when it became vacant a few years ago was that we could not afford it. Are we any better able to afford it now?

This move is yet another slap in the face to the people who elected the Board of Education, the people they are supposed to represent.

(I would like to say thank you to Mr. Shawn Bailey, the only dissenting vote on this resolution. Note: Angela Daley was not in attendance.)

Greatness in small things

I suppose it is inevitable to be disappointed in the written epitaphs of those who hold a special place in our lives. Those who did not know Ray Avery, who were not touched by the man, would quickly read the biography in his obituary and move on to the next page. Those of us who knew him as a friend, as a confidant, as a fellow businessman, are not so quick to turn that page.

Ray was my idol in a little town that treated me so well. He paved the way for my success by succeeding before me. He was an old-fashioned businessman who valued a handshake over a contract yet was astute enough to cross every “t” and dot every “i” when necessary. His every visit to Bob’s Kwik Stop gave me a sense of quiet approval whether deserved or not. His presence in my store was enough to satisfy me and carry me until the next visit. I will miss this great man who left his big mark on a small town.

Smoke and mirrors

Faced with ever lessening support for the Iraq war—now well below 50 percent—President Bush went to a military base in North Carolina to give a prime-time pep talk to the American people, yet again failing to outline a realistic plan for ending the occupation. Indeed, a few days before, Donald Rumsfeld said we may have to remain there for six to twelve more years.

After three years of dishonesty (okay, outright lies), George is short on credibility. Who can believe someone who first cries “WMDs,” then changes his tune to “evil dictator” and now “terrorist” (35 times in this speech)?

Appearing before a captive audience at a southern military base, he didn’t even project an image of a courageous Commander in Chief. I suggest next time he address Gold Star Families for Peace or invite the members of MoveOn.org to a town hall meeting. But then he might have to face someone calling out “No Blood for Oil” or someone from Code Pink unfurling a banner that reads “Support the Troops—Bring Them Home.” The White House would risk having the scripted event upset and a humiliated president on national TV. The next day the political cartoonists and comics would have a field day, and no amount of smoke and mirrors could counter that.

An open letter to the Town of Bethel

How appropriate that statement is in Bethel today with regard to our current highway system. Every morning you leave home and see your fence that got damaged by the plows during the winter and then drive down a road full of potholes, and the first words you utter to the outside world are “Damn that Lynden Lilley, I ain’t voting for that SOB this time”. You know what? I understand that.

However, in the interest of fairness, I need you to try and understand some things too. Bethel has almost 150 miles of paved roads or 300 lane miles. The highway department is, and indeed has been for many years, woefully underfunded to accomplish the tasks that are required of it each year. Fifty years ago my great uncle Willard Lilley was your highway superintendent. He had about 26 men working for him. Almost 20 years ago, my uncle Jerry Rhyne had 20 men in his crew. I have 14 full-time men in mine.

We now have more miles of paved road than ever before to maintain. Your highway department is responsible for plowing and sanding the roads, trimming trees, changing culverts, cleaning ditches, paving and sealing roads, removing rubbish and dead animals from the roads and a dozen other jobs.

We have one old Gradall that was purchased from a salvage yard about six years ago to clean the ditches for 300 lane miles of road. Almost every time this machine goes out to work, it comes back to the shop with a new problem. We are running a repair shop when we should be running a highway department. There is one backhoe to maintain all the culverts in the town, both private driveway and road culverts.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Your reaction to all this is of course, “How did those dopes in office let us get into this condition?” Well there is plenty of blame to go around: the town boards of the past, former town supervisors, former highway supers, me as a former councilman, and you, all of you who never show your face at a board meeting.

Let’s start with me first. I will be Billy Sunday’s bad example for all the board members, past and present. For ten years I sat on the town board and agreed with the supervisor and other members when a budget was proposed that had little or no tax increase.

Sounds great, don’t it? Sounded great to me too. The people are gonna be happy with this one. You were too, and so was the board amid much slapping of backs and grinning. Well, what should have been done to provide money to replace aging infrastructure? Taxes should have gone up.

Now you say, “If you jerks on the board raise my taxes, I’m gonna vote you out of office.” Did the boards make the right decision for the future of the town? Hell no, and now it is coming back to bite us. However, in defense of elected officials, I will say they work hard to get elected to their jobs and don’t want to be thrown out of them. Do you want to be thrown out of your job? So now we see where the board has failed you.

Now for your failings. When was the last time you showed up at a town meeting to keep informed? For 12 years I have worked for you in government and I have seen the same 20 faces at meetings month after month, year after year. If you came to a meeting every so often, the board would have a forum to explain why things need to be done. I know why you don’t come. You can’t make a difference; they will do what they want to anyway. You have no time. They’re all a bunch of crooks anyway.

However, the blame game is not the point of this letter to you. Where do we go from here? The new board must look into bonding money to repave roads that are in deplorable condition. That describes most of our road system. The town must be able to pave at least 15 miles of road a year and seal the same amount to be able to complete a cycle of 150 miles every ten years. Even that is inadequate. But it is a beginning.

The highway department must be allowed to replace aging equipment and purchase needed new equipment. New positions must be created to get the work force back up to where it needs to be. If nothing is done to fund the highway department this year, our roads will be devastated by next year. I urge you, the residents of our town, to write letters and come to meetings and demand that something be done to improve our roadways.

In November, we will have an election, and I will ask for your support. I would like to be able to bring the highways up to a decent standard, but with the current funding levels that will be impossible. If you choose my worthy opponent over me, he will be faced with the same impossible task as exists now. It has been a rewarding albeit sometimes frustrating twelve years for me and I thank you for your support in the past.

(Lynden Lilley is the highway superintendent for the Town of Bethel.)