I do not think that word means what you think it means

broaden our...caboooses... with ice cream from the “historic caboose.”

Fast forward one year, and the City, for lack of a better term, is in a mess. At the last budget meeting held on Monday, May 8, the powers that be on the Council were scrambling to figure out how to overcome a budget shortfall in the amount of $457,000.

Councilman David Hammond, who brags openly about his love for statistics, was concerned due to the City’s 10 percent healthcare insurance increase, which was 75 percent or so of the shortfall. For someone who loves statistics that much, I would have thought that he would have heard the last few years about the annual skyrocketing of...healthcare costs. As I sit here writing this column, I’m looking at a report in Fortune magazine from last June titled “Here’s why you’ll likely pay more for your employer-sponsored health insurance.” Stated in the article was that healthcare costs were expected to grow 6.5 percent through 2017. I could go on indefinitely on the articles laying on my desk, but I don’t have enough room, so Google it if interested. I’m just trying to figure out, if this Council is so visionary, how they missed the train... no pun intended...on the rise in health insurance cost.

So, they sink more than $36,000 into a caboose for ice cream. Nothing else is mentioned about this caboose for months, other than ice cream. They even had these neat advertising cards printed about the attractions in Downtown Calhoun, and a huge photo of the caboose is pictured promoting that they would be selling ice cream out of the caboose. And after all of that cost put into the caboose...ice cream is now off the table. So broadening my caboose with ice cream from the caboose is out of question. For whatever reason, the powers that be have decided they can’t sell ice cream out of the caboose, and put out a bid notice for possible business lease in the paper. Well, of course, no one wanted it.

Not only that, but suddenly, the spin from the most transparent government entity in the land is that they have finally made this caboose ADA compliant. Now, I’m all for people with disabilities getting to where they want to go in the easiest, most effective and safe way possible, but if you really, really, really and truly wanted to be ADA compliant; if that was your goal from the beginning for this caboose, shouldn’t you have brought that up before the fiasco of spending that much money on an empty shell that no one wants to utilize?

My question to several in the City was: Just how many requests...or complaints... has the City received in the last year, by phone call, email or in person visit...that the caboose needed to be ADA compliant? None of my contacts were aware of any.

Is the whole ADA compliancy just a cover-up for bad decision making? The citizens of Calhoun may never know, but thank God for the vision of this Council that now, everyone can get up that ramp to an empty caboose and....do something. I really don’t know why you’d want to visit an empty caboose.

So here we are at this latest meeting of Calhoun’s finest visionaries and the caboose is empty. One fine gentleman from the community spoke about making this “historic” caboose into a museum, but as pointed out, there’s really not a lot of room, or history, in the caboose.

Now, back to the budget shortfall fiasco, which may be resolved by the time the Council meets again on June 12 to discuss the budget, because, as we know, all these visionaries putting their heads together really accomplishes a lot, but in reading the minutes of the May 8 budget meeting, there were a ton of cuts that were suggested to bring the budget into balance. The two that I see that stand out to me in relation to our historic caboose are: Cutting money to non-profits, like the VAC, Boys and Girls, Club, Winners Club, Domestic Violence, etc. by $24,500. The other cut I see is cutting out some of the downtown events, like the Fall Festival, saving the overtime pay of public safety officials in the amount of $30,000.

Now, I’m no visionary, but couldn’t that caboose had sat there just as empty as it is now, still have been used for photo opportunities for things like senior photos and school dances, and that $36,000 been saved so either the non-profits could have the money they receive each year or the overtime for public safety paid to save downtown events?

I’m not very popular with some cliques in this city due to my stance on this whole caboose issue, but I’m calling it like I see it... this was poor planning and poor vision at its finest. And now that our transparent City government meetings can be found on YouTube live-streamed each meeting, you can know that I’m not reporting inaccurate facts or fake news. My sincere hope is that this Council will start thinking about their decisions and honestly having vision to do what’s best for the City of Calhoun as a whole, and not for their own personal special interests.

Brandi MooreheadOwczarz is the Managing Editor of the Calhoun Times, and is known to pick on public servants who like to waste money on “historic” cabooses. You can email her at bowczarz@calhountimes.com or find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/brandi.owczarz.

The terror war is never distant from Europe or America. There is no homefront — no place of absolute safety far from battlefields. There are only targets of opportunity and intervals between attempted attacks. There is normalcy punctuated by hideous violence.

This has been the reality since 9/11. It is more so after Manchester.

The bombing Monday night of a concert venue in Manchester, England, joins the geography of destruction caused by mad adherents of jihad. In Europe there was Paris, Nice, Berlin. In America there was Orlando, San Bernardino, Fort Hood. Cities in the Middle East, Africa and Asia all have been targeted. In each of these incidents, a group or individual connected to, or inspired by, violent Islamists unleashed a deadly surprise attack on a vulnerable population. Individual scenes blur together in a tableau of gore — a street scene, a holiday lunch, a soccer stadium, a nightclub, a concert.

In each there is normalcy … then violence. Each time we are more shocked than surprised.

Manchester, unfortunately, represents a vile escalation because of the target: a concert attended by thousands of young people, many of them children. The performance by American pop star Ariana Grande was just letting out at the 21,000-seat Manchester Arena when an explosion ripped through part of the hall. Police believe a man in the crowd, standing near the exit, set off the blast, killing at least 22 people and injuring dozens. Islamic State claimed responsibility. One of the first reported fatalities was an 8-year-old girl. Another victim, also female, was 18. Each death is a heartbreaking, permanent loss for a family. Everyone in that concert venue is a psychological victim of terror. We mourn with the rest of the civilized world.

Murdering children is a depraved act, a crime against humanity. It also must be taken as a warning that Islamist evildoers are so blinded by anger and ideology that they will target any situation if given the chance to inflict mass casualties and sow fear. If children at a concert are fair game, who isn’t?

For Americans, for people who congregate anywhere, Manchester reaffirms that there are no utterly safe places. That isn’t a reason to live in fear. It is, though, a reason to accept that simple fact and remain alert.

Americans aren’t new to terror threats, of course. Especially since 9/11, authorities have intensified security at airports, around train stations, sporting events, office buildings, parades. We as a nation have come to understand preparedness.

But Manchester tells us we need to be even more aware.

The call is not to panic. No one should stay home out of fear. Life will go on, as will the games and concerts. As they should. The call is to be vigilant and, more difficult, to be patient with increased security measures that authorities and business owners may implement. If stricter rules for entry or for travel inconvenience us, that’s a price of confronting, not capitulating to, the face of evil. The same is true if the Department of Homeland Security tightens restrictions for carrying electronic devices on airplanes. We’ll deal with the inconvenience. We’ll all do our part.

Vigilance at home is a reaction, but it is not a solution. The defeat of terrorism requires going at the enemy and destroying it. The main adversary is Islamic State, based in Syria and Iraq, with tentacles stretching from Libya to Afghanistan. Islamic State is a fighting mechanism and a propaganda organ. Both threats must be eradicated. The danger to America is posed by fighters abroad and by people here who have been radicalized by the teachings of terror. Those messages of violence will be eradicated only when Islamic State is eliminated as a threat. That will take time. Until victory comes, the terror war will continue — both far and near.