The usual complaints

Patrick · Senior Member

The usual complaints

CALLUS · Veteran Member

Patrick wrote:

Letter to the Editor:

I'm back with my usual complaints about something over which I have absolutely no control and it certainly won't have any effect on improvement of the situations.

Number one, I see they are doing curb and gutter work all around town. This may be aesthetically pleasing, but it does nothing to improve the streets. We don't drive on the curbs and gutters, oh wait, that isn't true if you look at all the bump outs in town. I would like to see some attempts to make the streets smoother.

Number two, Will there be electricity to the poles where the Christmas decorations are displayed for next year? Perhaps the merchants could all run extension cords out to take care of that problem. Of course some of those Lawyers may have to be careful with all those cords across the walks.

Number three, in my neighborhood the street lights are so dim that the light doesn't even reach the ground. Well, maybe but just barely!

Number four, maybe we should start an "Adopt a Planter" downtown. The Adopter could remove all the dead annual plants and trim up the perennials or spray paint them green. At the moment they look pretty bad and could use a little special attention.

Well, those are my complaints for the month. I will be back if I can find something else to bring to your attention.

Elmer Morris
Arkansas City

This is an example of some of the negativity and lack of information around town. Mr Morris writes a letter to the editor about once a week. Though I am not against people voicing their opinions, I think it would reduce the negativity if they did just a tad of research before ranting. I would like to see more letters to the editor, but it would be much more beneficial to find out how things work and what they are for. It would also be nice to find out why they happen as in the case of following up on citizen complaints or federal mandates. I also feel that opinions in the newspaper should be from a variety of people, and not the same people every week, unless the paper would like to put these people on the payroll.

I would like to respond somewhat to Mr. Morris' questions so that he does not think I am pointing him out to be a problem, but that he has not recognized what each situation is or how it has been addressed.

Number one: Curb and guttering has very little to do with the street. It is designed to channel storm water without eroding the edges or picking up debris along the edges of the street. It is a federal mandate meaning that the city has no choice in the matter, nor does it receive any funding to do this. As for the bumpouts that you don't care for, I haven't seen that any drivers have had a problem, but if you don't care for them you must take it up with the state, as it is their requirement.

Number two: I'm glad you have a sense of humor about the power on the poles for Christmas. As with any major project there is always some minor detail that gets left out. If this is the only thing that was overlooked I would say that we were overwhelmingly successful. As for when it shall be done, with almost a year until Christmas, I would suggest at slow times when other projects can't be done because of weather or other situations. Let's not stop the work going on now when we might have down time to work on it later.

While they work the light maybe they can work on turning down the music up town for the summer.

Number three: The street lights are not controlled by the city. They are controlled by Westar. The city would be glad to pass along that information for you if you would care to call it in, or use the new customer service program on the city website. You can go to www.arkansascityks.gov, select "City Government", then in the left column click on "Access Arkansas City". This new software keeps track of citizen input so that you can verify it through to its solution.

I agree that and understand what you say when you say the light are not controlled buy the city, but the neighborhoods are, by that I mean our local law (inforcers) which on any given night drive throughout every block looking for ways to keep us the residents of Ark City safe. It would seem the would want the best lighting on each corner so their vision is not hindered. They are always getting calls from some about dogs barking at something or someone , if they would turn in to weatstar lights that are out or globes that need to have the bugs cleaned out it would be safer for them and us. Personally I have watched them drive by corners with lights out for weeks just to see if they would before I turned them in myself. Most people are in house after dark unless they go to shop at the Wal-mart Mall. so they do not get to see if the lights are working that often but the ACLI's are there or suppose to be every night and looking for things like that along with checking all the car tags around the city

Number four: I'm not sure how your plants are doing, but this time of year most everything seems to be dormant. The dead plant material was removed, the dormant grasses look natural. I can assure you there will be no flowers until spring. If you have any suggestions on colorful winter plants or any other plants that might work well we will do our best.

Please understand, I don't mean to belittle Mr. Morris. I can see this was pointed negativity and do not understand to what end. If there is a specific problem, bring it to light so it can be fixed. If it is just a means to be negative how can it help our town?

I'm sure others have thoughts on this matter. How do you think it affects us and our whole community?

Patrick McDonald

stick with commissioner pat.

MB · Veteran Member

I agree with the street lights comment and about the downtown light issue. When you go to Winfield they are wonderfully decorated for Christmas- Everything is bright and beautiful and they really get into it, I hope that next year we can get some lights downtown and also the pole lights working. I know that it's a slow process and our town WILL get there.... Our downtown looks so good with the improvements that we've already made.

Patrick · Senior Member

"I agree that and understand what you say when you say the light are not controlled buy the city, but the neighborhoods are, by that I mean our local law (inforcers) which on any given night drive throughout every block looking for ways to keep us the residents of Ark City safe. It would seem the would want the best lighting on each corner so their vision is not hindered. They are always getting calls from some about dogs barking at something or someone , if they would turn in to weatstar lights that are out or globes that need to have the bugs cleaned out it would be safer for them and us. Personally I have watched them drive by corners with lights out for weeks just to see if they would before I turned them in myself. Most people are in house after dark unless they go to shop at the Wal-mart Mall. so they do not get to see if the lights are working that often but the ACLI's are there or suppose to be every night and looking for things like that along with checking all the car tags around the city"

I guess this explains a lot. Waiting for the police department to call in bad street lights instead of doing it yourself. This might explain why problems get out of hand. Do people still watch out for their own neighborhoods, report problems (lighting, overhanging trees, people walking through your neighbors yard late at night and other possible problems) and share information with their neighbors? If you see a problem REPORT IT.

One of the biggest problems I've seen is lack of personal responsibility. This does not mean every one, but it seems to be becoming more prevalent all the time. At what point do we individually take resonsibility. When a person sees a problem anymore they don't seem to take any action, just blame someone, or hope someone else will get it done.

And for the record, I don't think our police spending their evenings looking for burned out street lights. Please notify Westar if you have that kind of problem in your neighborhood.

Patrick McDonald

mc · Member

Wow! Mr. Callus
If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem! You would rather watch the PD officers drive by a light for weeks just to see if they call it in! The safety of our neighborhoods is every citizens responsibility! If a light is out pick up the phone and report it don't wait for someone else. Take the responsibility yourself. I for one do not want our PD officers driving around checking for bugs in lights! I know they have more productive things to do. We are all responsible, and should step up and take action not wait around for someone else to. I hope my house never catches fire when your around, you may wait to see if someone else calls 911 so you don't have to.

You can't get things fixed if the people that fix them don't know it needs fixed!

CALLUS · Veteran Member

Patrick wrote:

"I agree that and understand what you say when you say the light are not controlled buy the city, but the neighborhoods are, by that I mean our local law (inforcers) which on any given night drive throughout every block looking for ways to keep us the residents of Ark City safe. It would seem the would want the best lighting on each corner so their vision is not hindered. They are always getting calls from some about dogs barking at something or someone , if they would turn in to weststar lights that are out or globes that need to have the bugs cleaned out it would be safer for them and us. Personally I have watched them drive by corners with lights out for weeks just to see if they would before I turned them in myself. Most people are in house after dark unless they go to shop at the Wal-mart Mall. so they do not get to see if the lights are working that often but the ACLI's are there or suppose to be every night and looking for things like that along with checking all the car tags around the city"

I guess this explains a lot. Waiting for the police department to call in bad street lights instead of doing it yourself. This might explain why problems get out of hand. Do people still watch out for their own neighborhoods, report problems (lighting, overhanging trees, people walking through your neighbors yard late at night and other possible problems) and share information with their neighbors? If you see a problem REPORT IT.

One of the biggest problems I've seen is lack of personal responsibility. This does not mean every one, but it seems to be becoming more prevalent all the time. At what point do we individually take responsibility. When a person sees a problem anymore they don't seem to take any action, just blame someone, or hope someone else will get it done.

And for the record, I don't think our police spending their evenings looking for burned out street lights. Please notify Weststar if you have that kind of problem in your neighborhood.

Patrick McDonald

And why not , is it not part of a service they should provide for our safety.
On the side of each car and the front of the building it says TO PROTECT AND SERVE (RIGHT). So are you saying that the only way they can do that is to right tickets for our protection. If they are going down the roads looking for something wrong going on and see something wrong like a light out or tree branch in the road or anything that will not create a fine and court fee's then they should not do anything. We pay them to look for things wrong, not just to check tags on parked cars down town or on side streets, besides I say again the more light they have to work with the better they should be able to do the job they get payed to do. Most of the good people of ARK CITY do what they can do, but those guy's are supposed to be trained to observe more than a headlight out on a car or non-use of a turn signal (RIGHT).

With all that has been going on around here lately with the change of colors on the cars and the change of style of uniform to become more friendly and not feared by the public you would think to report a light out on a corner would be some small thing they would want to do to show the public how they would really want to do to show some small amount of humanity towards (PROTECTING AND SERVING ) other than the once a year Block Party for the NATIONAL NIGHT OUT hmm

CALLUS · Veteran Member

mc wrote:

Wow! Mr. Callus
If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem! You would rather watch the PD officers drive by a light for weeks just to see if they call it in! The safety of our neighborhoods is every citizens responsibility! If a light is out pick up the phone and report it don't wait for someone else. Take the responsibility yourself. I for one do not want our PD officers driving around checking for bugs in lights! I know they have more productive things to do. We are all responsible, and should step up and take action not wait around for someone else to. I hope my house never catches fire when your around, you may wait to see if someone else calls 911 so you don't have to.

You can't get things fixed if the people that fix them don't know it needs fixed!

I call them in all the time, at least a dozen times over the last 6 months or so. But when we pay taxes to have someone watch over our community they should do something other than just ride down the street and chase dogs or cats or try to fill a required number of tickets per night/per month to keep everyone safe, It's other ways of doing thins than that. I call and have our street light globe cleaned regular so what else should I do drive the streets at night and have them follow me while searching for lights out all over the city. See they are supposed to look for obstructions that may cause harm to the general public on our streets also (RIGHT)? blankstare

numbers76 · Member

"The usual complaints". One of the most productive and positive things I can suggest is to not (repeat not) encourage individuals such as Mr. Morris to write readitorials. One neighbor being nice and complimenting someone about a readitorial can be dangerous if the neighbor is "just being nice" and in reality the readitorial is hodgepodge of misinformation and uninformed opinion. It's great to express your opinion but please do some research and perhaps direct some questions to someone who may actually know something (not usually available in coffee shop). It would seem that a poll regarding USD's upcoming bond issue vote would be a great forum for the traveler to poll.