Letters (July 22, 2009)

An open letter from the jail committee

 

The members of the Marion County Public Safety and Law Enforcement Center committee would like to express our thanks for your input and support. Each committee member recognizes the serious nature of this issue, and we will do our best to represent the concerns of all county citizens.

We must address several issues relative to the existing jail, sheriff?s offices and 911 dispatch. No one on the committee wants to see the county spend more dollars than absolutely necessary. However, the county is in a no-win situation that will reach a critical state if we fail to take positive steps to rectify the inadequacies of current facilities.

Your elected commissioners have asked citizens of the county to volunteer for this committee and chose those who are serving. The committee has been charged with finding a solution for the commissioners review.

We have no power to raise taxes, to levy special taxes for any purpose or to decide if this question is to be placed on a ballot for Marion County residents to vote. We have authority only to bring to the commissioners the results of our study. There is no guarantee that the commission will adopt or act on any of our recommendations.

We are investing all viable options, including maintaining a holding facility and transporting prisoners to other county jails. We also have explored renovation of the existing jail but have found that the costs would be equal to or greater than than the cost of a new facility.

Another major issue is that to do nothing, the county faces probable legal action at a cost higher than building a new facility.

The State of Kansas does not have its own set standards for jails, which dictates that Marion County must follow federal guidelines of the American Correctional Association. To deviate from these guidelines leaves the county vulnerable to further legal problems.

Committee consensus was that we first should address the issue of how to pay for any new construction before we reasonably could determine what type of facility should be recommended. We unanimously agreed to limit the amount of required funding as much as possible and likewise to limit the time period required for Marion County residents to pay for any facility.

The question of separating facilities housing the sheriff's offices and jail from those for 911-Emergency Management Services has been rejected due to the close working relationship of these departments. Again, the existing building would require expansive rebuilding for any of these uses.

When we have developed more fully our recommendations, we will have county-wide town meetings to bring to our citizens a thorough explanation of the study. These meetings will offer residents a forum to ask questions and to express concerns.

We have been working on this project since May, have had approximately six meetings to date and know that our task is far from reaching the point of bringing our recommendation to the commissioners. Please bear with us and allow us to do our work thoroughly and with thoughtful study.

Feel free to write your committee in care of the county newspapers. Your letters will be forwarded for our review, and each will be read and thoughtfully considered.

?Burton Tidwell for the Marion County Public Safety and Law Enforcement Center Committee

 

We need to renew spirit of volunteerism

 

Residents and citizens of Marion County, in this time of great struggle within our economy we have lost many things. Some have lost their jobs and are struggling to survive and the rest of us are just trying to survive from paycheck to paycheck.

Families have two working parents and we are seeing a loss of volunteerism in our communities and around the county. Most are seeking part-time employment to help them through the tough times.

In the past year I have witnessed many of our Emergency Medical Service personnel having to leave the county for employment opportunities. Recently, we lost two EMS personnel to full-time employment opportunities outside of our county. While this pleases me to see our people get jobs in the field and advance their skills, it also leaves a hole for replacements.

In our smaller communities it has become increasingly difficult to find people who are willing to give their free time to a very rewarding service that doesn?t put a lot of money in their pocket.

Perhaps it is time to look at a full-time paid service in Marion County? By doing this we would lose our quick response times to some of our smaller communities. I am studying the most economic ways of accomplishing this and the options are not great.

The bottom line is that we need more young people willing to give us a few hours a month to serve their communities.

I have had the pleasure of teaching eight young students in the past year and they are now in the last stages of gaining their certificates. I hope to begin a first-responder class starting Aug. 4 that will allow young and old alike an opportunity to serve their community without a lot of the hassles to become an EMT.

First responders serve much like the EMT except that they would assist in care and then become the driver in a transport unit. This allows the opportunity to those who may not want to spend the extra time in classes to serve their community.

Anyone interested in becoming a first responder may call the EMS office for more information at 620-382-3271 and I will be happy to assist them. A grant allows us to teach the class at no cost to the student if applications are filled out in our office before the class begins.

EMS is not the only place I have seen this loss of volunteerism struggle. Many committees and activities struggle to find people willing to contribute free time to help a project or cause.

What is the answer to this problem and how do we create a solution? Everyone is trying to find the answer, but without much luck. Is it a matter of pride or a lack of confidence in ourselves to be able to help at a time when our communities need us most?

Everyone has become increasingly busy with the activities of our children and our families. Yet we struggle to find people interested in coaching and volunteering in support of those activities.

Finding people to serve on committees is increasingly hard. Many have found it unrewarding and have better things to do with their time so they simply drop it. Others become ?burnt out? and eventually leave the position when it becomes too burdensome.

The bottom line is that we need volunteers to fill these positions and we need more people to step up and fill a position within their community. Serve on one committee for a cause that is near and dear to your heart?something that will make you feel good about yourself and help those who need you.

We have become a great nation by supporting each other in worthwhile causes and now is the time to return to our heritage of a giving nation.

Steven Smith

Marion County EMS director

Marion City Council member

 

Why can?t county see ?no? means ?no??

 

You can?t miss the subtlety of the Marion County commissioners as they attempt to loll us into their new jail project.

The commission obviously thinks we?re stupid. They couldn?t get the jail issue past the voters, so they go about imposing their will while they cower behind a committee comprised of the same old county elites who won?t even take credit for their own words in the press.

What can?t the commission and their committee understand about ?no??

The commission has long since distanced county?s needs. If we are going to survive, the road to recovery requires better long-term planning for rural areas like we live in.

So far, the commissioners avoid the difficult tasks of accomplishing financial sustainability and recovery. They replace it with knee jerk reactions for everything from casino?s to their intended jail project. It?s not only out of step with reality, it costs us our prosperity.

The county commissioners and jail committee have agreed to impose the special assessment because they know the issue wouldn?t be accepted now any more than it was before. Why should it? Special assessment is a euphemistic scam phrase politicos use for tax. Jails have been developed with these forced taxes in other rural places very nearby and many of them simply don?t work. The counties build them, don?t get paid, the state steps in and the county still has to run them. The people who can afford the project end up paying for it.

The jail project is risky at best. It is out of sync with our people and communities. It is a loss of valuable time and an ineffective use of valuable resources.

Now the commission and their committee want to assemble about 200 people to gather input on what they have already decided. They may be disappointed in the public debate but they don?t acknowledge that the people have already spoken. The response was ?no.? What more needs to be said?

The commissioners and the elite committee members may well be able to afford the additional cost of $10 per month, plus operating costs, but it just goes to show how out of touch they really are with the people of Marion County. What a waste of valuable time and county resources.

Look around the county. We?re losing population, not gaining. Our per capita wealth is dropping, not rising. We?re not experiencing job growth in the county. Our businesses are failing. Our people are losing their jobs and moving elsewhere. Our children are not returning to the community to work and live because there are no jobs and whatever jobs are available do not pay a living wage except to the owners. Finally, there are no plans with substance to reverse any of the downward spiral in Marion County. Meanwhile, America is in an economic recession. That means our county is going down the same road.

One of the committee member anonymously quoted likened the jail project to people who are throwing away their old cars and buying new. Yet, the auto industries are failing miserably because of low sales and the tax payers are bailing them out. Remember? In truth, people are fixing up the old and not buying new.

Now is not the time to be frantically searching for a silver bullet to an old county dilemma much less a proposal that is couched in making money for the county at our expense. Now is not the time to be forcing new taxes on us.

Now is the time to be looking for long term sustainable growth specifically designed for our county needs. There are plenty of good ways to accomplish prosperity growth even in times like these.

There are further ominous signs that the county commissioners are constantly failing to fulfill the most basic of responsibilities to county economic growth. Instead of uniting the cooperative energy of economic development among the communities, we now see resignations of several long standing stalwarts of the Marion County Economic Development Council.

The resignations were characterized as a ?big problem? which further demonstrates that collectively we?re failing to unite as a county while we have all the resources we need to prosper already at the table. Others in our county community are frustrated with the direction of the MCEDC?s emphasis on tourism.

Where is the leadership at the county level?

Our countywide prosperity begins with the collective minds already resident within our communities. Empowering communities and administering this collective passion into a process for prosperity is arguably the only real task that the commissioners have, or ever had.

We live here and we care about our communities and our prosperity! We?re willing to contribute but we need leaders who know how to facilitate, not manipulate.

The good people of Marion County continue to be railroaded by the county commission. The commissioners believe we?re just too dumb to understand the significance of their ideas.

The commissioners cringe behind a puppet committee whose purpose is to change the public perception while they prepare to force us to comply.

In the past such barefaced political imposition was often met with tar and feathers and a fast ride out of town. Now we?re complacent because we?re numbed by the blatant disregard for our rights. We shrug off the imposition as if we can?t do anything about it.

The people have spoken concerning the jail project. We don?t need a committee to tell us what we should rethink and the commissioners should stop trying to double-cross us.

Whatever happened to outrage? Let?s stop this jail tax before it?s too late and find better county leaders between now and the next election.

Stan Thiessen

Hillsboro

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