It’s sort of like a high school student who didn’t follow the directions to complete an assignment – that’s the way one caller likened the situation that Vance County finds itself in with regard to earmark projects in the new state budget.
Vance County is one of three counties among the state’s 100 counties that received no money for special projects. On Monday’s Town Talk, John C. Rose heard from several callers who offered their perspective on the issue.
“If you took our list of needs in Vance County and compared it to any one of the other 97 other counties that received money from this appropriations bill, you would see that our list of needs grows a lot longer than most,” one caller said.
“My family stopped buying the city water over two years ago – ever since we started having issues at the treatment center. We pay our water bill every month, of course. But we don’t drink it and we don’t cook with it. In essence, this household pays for water twice.
“I can’t think of a bigger failure on the political front in my lifetime,” he continued. “I probably won’t see a failure this big anymore.”
“We missed our opportunity – big time.”
Other callers offered similar sentiments and said more than state politics, local officials should be held more accountable.
“I think that it had nothing to do with politics,” another caller stated. “There are people that are supposed to keep up with all that stuff,” she said. “Grants and all the things that come to Vance County (have) to be applied for…that was a big, big oversight on Vance County personnel. “They don’t just give (money) to people who act like they don’t want it,” she added.
“I put all the blame on Vance County,” she said.
One caller said everyone in Vance County should be upset about not getting our share of money in the state budget. “We need the money – it is just crazy that we’re not getting this money.”