Letter to the Editor

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Spend funds on roads

Dear Editor: 

I would like to address a direct mail piece that Commissioner Steve Turner sent out recently.  He proudly mentioned paving 18 miles of road over the last 7 years.

The problem with this is that District 2 has over 180 miles of roads with more being added almost every month as new subdivisions are approved. At this rate it would be around 70 years between the roads being paved. I know that roads will be patched for quite a while before being repaved and this is as it should be, but 70 years is a ridiculously long time.  No road that has that much traffic can last even a quarter of that time.

Normally I would say that this is not Commissioner Turner’s fault since he “has to” work with whatever money comes in. However, there is an excellent solution that he seems to consistently reject, and in fact rejected again at last Thursday’s candidate forum in Athens: Spend money from the general fund on roads and infrastructure.

This is not a new position for Commissioner Turner as he has repeatedly voted against additional funding for our roads. Instead he favors spending on new and updated building projects and other County programs. 

Again, I could understand this except our County has a lot of new money.  We have the new sellers use tax (also known as online sales tax), which is a brand new source of income to the general fund. We have the money that is no longer going to Athens-Limestone Hospital since the hospital was given to Huntsville.  We also have the money that is no longer going to the Event Center since it was given to the Veterans Museum. 

Commissioner Turner even voted to reduce funding for the library, which is disappointing, yet won’t use that money for the roads, either.

Plus, our economy is doing very well and unemployment is low. This all adds up to millions that could be spent on our roads. 

Other counties do spend money from the general fund on roads, for example our neighbors in Lauderdale County. Their county commission has been spending over $4 million per year from their general fund on their roads. That kind of money would go a long way toward fixing the problems we are about to face in Limestone County.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Reynolds

Athens