My name is Fred Campbell. I was born in Fort Scott and have called Fort Scott my hometown for 90 years now. I graduated from FSHS in 1948, was Fort Scott recreation director for 16 years, from 1960 to 1974 and taught and coached in Fort Scott for 25 years, and retired as superintendent of schools for the USD-234 school district. I have served on numerous boards and was past president of the Fort Scott Historical Society and was vocal on the effort to preserve our brick streets.
For too many years, I have watched the disintegration of our infrastructure, in particular the streets and utilities. I have watched each year, the lack of maintenance performed until now there is almost none. I see our sanitary sewers overflowing and plugged with tree roots, storm water flowing through yards and worst of all, the deplorable condition of our aged water lines. These are all basic functions of city government, and our infrastructure must be brought up to standards of acceptability if our citizens are to lead the quality of life they seek.
I am pretty much confined to my home now, but I have been watching the commission meetings on Youtube and reading the newspaper to keep up on what our city officials are doing, and I don’t like what I see.
But this message is not about me, it is about preserving and caring about this town we call home. With the upcoming election we the citizens have a chance to make a difference with our votes and I am asking the following questions:
Why wouldn’t we not want commissioners who:·
– Know and understand the workings of our infrastructure and the
ordinance/statute/resolution that established them,
·- Would work together as a team to rebuild the infrastructure of this once great town, our
streets, water, and sewer lines,
– Would honor the intent of our statutes, ordinances, and resolutions by using the funds
generated by a sales tax or utility charge to fund the rebuild of said utility or street
instead of trying to find ways to circumvent the intent and use those funds for other
things.
Sometimes it’s seems easier to ignore the hardest tasks we have and to keep pushing them to the back of the list of things to do. It’s time for us to break that pattern. Let’s do what’s right for our hometown and elect commissioners who are ready to take on the problems basic to the survival of Fort Scott.