Letter to the Editor
On occasion, someone does something extraordinary which is of great benefit for the residents of our county. On occasion, an elected official(s) is responsible for such benefit/ benefits. Pushmataha district 2 commissioner, Brad Burgett, is one such elected official who has almost single-handedly saved our county citizens thousands of dollars in building costs for construction of various projects in the county. The sheriff’ s office, which was completed last year, was constructed under the watchful eye of Brad, who also supplied much of the labor involved in the project. He was the project manager, chief carpenter, laborer, concrete finisher, tile layer, and was on-site every day to ensure a building that will serve the needs of the sheriff for many years, while saving taxpayers a ton of money. He set about the to remodel/ recondition of our dilapidated fair buildings and livestock show barns in order to give our county a venue which rivals those located in our more affluent, big sister counties, and one which will host multiple shows each year. This improvement not only benefits our youth, but bumps our local economy by bringing out-oftown traffic to our county. He was the project manager, carpenter, truck driver, and laborer on that project as well and saved the taxpayers thousands of dollars, as opposed to the fair board hiring someone to make such improvements. Burgett has been responsible for many other projects and activities which have resulted in saving county taxpayers lots of money. The board of commissioners acquired a vacant building in Antlers for the purpose of establishing a center to benefit those who have previously had to drive to some other county for driver licensing. Again, Burgett was the project manager, etc. He was the project manager and participated in painting and updating our court house, improving our hospital, providing help to rural water district, and dozens of projects which do nothing but benefit our county.
Our county commissioners receive a rather paltry sum of money from fuels taxes and other state and county sources, the total of which is, much of the time, inadequate to even purchase fuel and supplies needed to improve or keep roads flawlessly maintained, especially through COVID and supply chain periods, and the unprecedented inflation that accompanies. Burgett has relentlessly pursued state, federal, and tribal monies earmarked for road improvements, and has several projects ready to build, but have not been let to contract through no fault of his, but because the appropriate funds have not yet accrued to cover the construction costs.
Several times throughout the years, Burgett and his fellow commissioners have seen their earmarked monies for operation of the county fall so low that they could not purchase fuel and/or materials for their activities, and they have been diligent in pursuing other grants or sources of funding. While it would be easy to just go fishing, Burgett has made it a priority to help in any way he can, and has done so. Our county should be extremely proud of this commissioner, whose work and dedication has certainly benefited Pushmataha County.
David Smith Pushmataha County Resident