To the Editor,
Have you read the Wednesday Register? “ACARF seeking $50K from county.” My first thought was “Wow,” I would have thought something about half that, but I’m not in a position to know all of the figures. From that perspective, neither are our county commissioners.
Included in the article was the fact that (Linda Stange, director of) Faith House in Chanute was present and requested $3,000 in assistance since a large number of needy come from Allen County homeless people. County Commissioner Dick Works said “I have a hard time balancing” the requests. No doubt. $50,000 for animals and $3,000 for a homeless shelter does appear out of balance.
Commission Chairman Rob Francis is quick with numbers. He said “…that’s a half-mill (tax levy). People aren’t going to be happy with a half-mill increase in their taxes.” So, I decided to check into how much of an impact it would make on our personal finances. We own our residence and eight rentals. Overall, we will suffer by the amount of $20 per year. We can sleep at night with that burden. I have no idea if our commercial-businesses and farmers will feel great pain from this additional expense but it doesn’t seem likely.
As to Faith House, how about adding an additional quarter-mill levy that Allen County can use to help Faith House in its very important work? I’ve helped them some. They’re worth it, and to me, paying that extra $10 would be a blessing. When it comes to balancing, consider that ACARF has many expenses that are unique to animal shelters; it has been in business for only one year, and it doesn’t have the history to receive grants and other aid that is available to a shelter with years of experience behind it.
They’re working on it but it takes time. ACARF is of tremendous value to Allen County. Give them the time, not only from a humanitarian view which (as I understand it) is also the Christian view. County assistance can give them the time. And as ACARF has the time to attain a greater degree of financial independence it may be that the county would look into more of a “fee for service” arrangement to replace a mill levy. County residents could voluntarily release pets to the shelter and be given a voucher that would offer at least partial refund of the surrender fee, paid by the county. This could help reduce the number of abandoned animals that wander the county, slowly starving to death.
Ray Shannon,
Iola, Kan.
To the Editor,
There have been articles about the city trimming trees because of power lines. Some years back the city trimmed my small pecan tree — I mean really trimmed it.
When I drove a little north and west of the Iola post office, I found some large pecan trees whose limbs were well 10 to 20 feet from power lines. However, these limbs were ABOVE power lines. Were these limbs not as dangerous as my smaller tree? Guess not, those limbs are still there.
Earl E. Bell
Iola, Kan.
To the Editor,
ACARF has asked the county for $50,000. I think the county should double that and put it in their budget for every year until they can hold their own.
If the county can afford new pickups what seems like every six months, then they can afford to help ACARF.
Jim Smith
Iola, Kan.
To the Editor,
We had to have a new utility pole put in this week.
We would like to say thank you to the City of Iola and Cox Communications crews for the fine job they did. They were in and out in a timely manner, did what they said they were going to do, very considerate of our property and cleaned up when they were finished.
We are very fortunate to have such good people working here in Iola for us.
Kenneth and Marsha Storrer
Iola, Kan.
