Letters to the editor

Where’s the money going? Dear editor:

With guaranteed income from the tax collector’s office each month, the (Lake Hamilton Fire) chief’s salary went from $16,900 to $54,000 a year with an additional $376.48 per month to a retirement policy. Also, a new truck was purchased for the chief and the other given to the assistant chief. The mechanic’s salary is over $40,000 per year and the secretary’s salary is over $30,000 per year.

They have 23 firefighters and each one is enrolled into a retirement program paid for by the district. There are two assistant chiefs and I question “Why” the need and what is their salary? When responding to a fire, the firefighters operate on a points system and each month, those points translate into a check for hundreds of dollars. In my opinion, they are not “volunteers” but part-time employees of the “District” subject to state, local, federal and IRS reporting.

Some of the firefighters are exempt from paying dues each year and “why”? Before becoming a “District” there were

6,300 members with an annual income of $352,000 and with Hot Springs City annexing part of the “District,” the number was reduced to 4,400 members, but the income rose to over $464,000 for

2019. Hot Springs City paid the “District”

$125,000 and before becoming a “District” the Association had about $300,000 in CDs, savings and checking.

The “District” owns two rental properties and each month there is a “rejoicing” when the report is given over the thousands of dollars coming in from the tax collector’s office. In my opinion, the “District” is well funded and they are seeking for ways to spend the money.

I am requesting a more detailed explanation of additional salaries and benefits given to employees and request that a copy of the monthly budget and the agenda to be discussed and voted on each month be mailed to each member before the meeting which is the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. With my yearly dues at $185, I expect members dues to rise next year.

William Fleming Hot Springs

Read ‘Appeasement’ Dear editor:

Our current GOP representatives should read a just-released book called “Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill and the Road to War.” It a true story by Tim Bouverie. The summary here is to point out the dramatic actions taken by the British Parliament regarding Chamberlain’s efforts to deal with Hitler and his total control of the press and the BBC in hiding the horrible outcomes of his actions and of the catastrophic results of failing to stand up to threats to freedom, whether at home or abroad.

It is particularly timely to a democracy and of a leader who comes to power knowing little or nothing about foreign policy, yet imagines himself an expert and bypasses the other branches of the government to further his own selfish aims.

We all know the result of his efforts, which resulted in World War II. Finally, after Hitler slowly invad

ed one country at a time and, despite Chamberlain’s bungling efforts, the Nazis started bombing London day and night and would have won if not for the help from the USA. Before this happened, the brave members of Parliament rose up and made him resign. Churchill became Prime Minister and the rest is history. With their action, the MPs underscored the truth of a comment made earlier by one of them: “No government can change men’s souls. The souls of men change governments.” Too bad our current Arkansas GOP’s senators and representatives don’t have the guts or the will to speak out against our current president, who is on his way to destroying this county. They would rather say nothing and do nothing, putting party before the people who elected them to guard our freedoms.

R. Bruce Smith Hot Springs

Voting ‘no’ to baseball project Dear editor:

I’m in agreement with a letter Sunday noting that there has been little, if any transparency in the Advertising and Promotion Commission’s push for the $8.5 million dollar baseball field project.

As someone with a long background in the construction industry, I still can’t wrap my head around how this project could even come close to adding up to those figures, especially with no cost at all for the land, which is already designed for fields, meaning no major excavation work.

I also have a bone to pick: I wrote a previous letter about this, which prompted Steve Arrison to write a rebuttal in which he intimated that some people hate “progress.” That is a gross mischaracterization of what my letter represented. “Progress” is in the eye of the beholder, and if I don’t think continuation of a regressive 3 percent tax to build $8.5 million worth of baseball fields I’ll never use, that does not make me someone who hates progress.

Curious, I went to the “Home Run for Hot Springs” Facebook page, and again, left with more questions than answers. Someone named Susan Kaye Dugan has put out over a dozen posts advocating and promoting the project. Perhaps she is just a huge fan of youth baseball, but the cynic in me wonders if she or someone she is connected to has a financial interest in the construction work to be done. The Facebook page also has a section to click on “Yes” or “No” as to your preference for the project, but curiously, you can’t click “No.”

I agree with Sunday’s writer, we have much more pressing issues in the city to deal with: A rapidly growing (borderline out of control) crime problem and a mismanaged jail that can’t handle it, infrastructure of streets and drainage, the rubble heap that used to be the Majestic Hotel, the list goes on. None of those would be labeled as “sexy” projects, but they affect the everyday lives of citizens living here. I, too, as a taxpayer am tired of city officials constantly coming forward with their hands out and their eyes on my wallet.

I’ll be voting no on Sept. 10, but in a special election with low voter turnout and lack of information, this will get pushed through. There’s an old saying — “It’s in the bag.” Perhaps nowhere has that ever rung more consistently true than Hot Springs government and politics. Noah Little Hot Springs