Letter to the Editor

New ideas may never work for city

Sunday, October 5, 2008

To the Editor:

I recently read an article in The Times about the city hiring a new planning administrator.

This new administrator says she would like to see new businesses come to this town.

How does she propose to do this? Doesn't she watch TV, listen to radio, read the newspapers?

Doesn't she know that the economy is the worst it's been for a long time? Heading for a recession?

Doesn't she know that you can't depend on public officials that haven't done much for this town or county in 15 or 20 years?

They didn't do much when the economy was good. What makes her think that they're going to do anything when it's bad?

Now you might be able to convince some businesses to locate in the east part of town, if the economy ever gets back to normal. But I wouldn't try to convince them to locate in the west, because they (the officials) want it to stay idol or dead just like it is now.

Haven't you heard that the Wabash Valley is one of the biggest meth-infested areas in the state? Some guy in the past put it.

This guy also said because of population and economic demographics, supply and demand, this town can't afford new business. I had ideas about new business too, but the guy said it can't be done. Not in those exact words, but he might as well said it that way.

Painting old hundred-year-old buildings with fancy colored paints or beautifying this town as they call it, that's not going to help.

You might be able to convince some off the wall specialty shop or some tanning salon to locate here, if you're lucky, in the east end of course.

I hope you can do something for this town. If you do, you'll be accomplishing more than a lot of people did or didn't do.

If you can get done what you would like to, I'm 100 percent for you. Go for it. Best of luck.

But it's going to be a long, hard road ahead. It's going to take more than any four years.

I can only think of one man that tried to do what he could for this town and he didn't sit around waiting for some business to locate here on its own. He went out of his way to convince them to locate here and he didn't wait for bad times to do it either.

He did it when the economy was right. Sometimes he succeeded. Sometimes he didn't. But he tried. No one has ever done it since and probably never will again. That man was a four-term mayor. That man was the late Norval Pickett Jr.

By the year 2025, if we still exist, this town hasn't prospered by then, it will probably be as dead as it is now.

This is not Terre Haute, Indianapolis, Princeton, or Warsaw. This is behind the Times Brazil and pretty apt to stay that way.

Diamond in the rough? I don't think so.

Until next time, stay safe.

J.J. Weddle,

Brazil