With a new year coming, here are ideas for 2004
As we stand at the doorstep of 2004 and prepare to ring the doorbell, it’s only fitting to compose a wish list for the upcoming year.
Call them resolutions, or call them wishful thinking, but here are a few ideas we think will make Warren County a better place for 2004:
• May the high school football team win at least one game in 2004. Few things are more disappointing than seeing our players work through spring and summer practices, and not squeeze at least one victory out of the season.
• May the county continue to provide funds to local non-profit organizations. Warren County’s reputation for having a big heart and open hand where worthwhile charities are concerned should not be compromised because of a tight budget.
The Tennessee budget only promises to become tighter next year, with Gov. Phil Bredesen already telling state department leaders to prepare for more across-the-board cuts. While those reductions will certainly trickle down in some fashion to the local levels, our local governments don’t need to compromise valuable organizations such as Families in Crisis, the library and the animal shelter, just to name a few.
• May city and county law enforcement officials continue their assault on drug abuse – and meth in particular – which seems so prevalent in Warren County.
If jail time and counseling services won’t stop people from using meth, perhaps the best course of action is to scrutinize the retail outlets which freely offer the products used to make meth. This is clearly a problem with no easy or quick solution in sight.
• May County Executive Kenneth Rogers, in his ultimate wisdom, find a house the county can buy for 50 cents.
Rogers turning up a house the county bought for just $1 is the kind of innovative thinking we need to produce funding without increasing taxes.
• May there be more support for WastAway – especially from our city government.
Let’s face it folks. There aren’t many industries such as WastAway which are going to come along in our lifetime. It’s an industry which is capable of picking up the Warren County workforce and carrying it on its back.
It’s also a revolutionary new garbage recycling process which could one day stretch to the corners of the globe. There’s no excuse for not giving WastAway our unyielding support. Period.
• May all the existing hometown businesses we have grown to love find a way to co-exist with Lowe’s. Yes, a number of local residents are excited about the addition of another retail giant to McMinnville, but most will readily admit they don’t want the businesses we have patronized for years to suffer.
• May the city and county continue to place an emphasis on recruiting new retail stores along with new industry. With so much local funding coming from the sales tax, more stores will attract more out-of-town shoppers and that will ultimately benefit all of us.
• May the county follow the city’s lead and tackle some beautification projects. The addition of an urban forestry department is beginning to do wonders for McMinnville’s image and it would be nice to extend those projects to reach all portions of the county.
That way, as it’s been said many times before, we might actually start looking like the Nursery Capital of the World.