Electrifying experience

Editor, Smithfield Times
I stopped by Windsor Castle Park today to see our latest attraction, the black bear. I found him sitting on a log, too preoccupied to pay me any mind. He was busy making a Smithfield ham sandwich on a hotdog bun for our mayor in hopes of luring him inside the fence to join the “Ivy League.” The goats were all assembled to provide a rousing baaaah of encouragement.
It was an electrifying experience!
Ron Schupner
Smithfield

Supervisors’ retaliation?

Editor, Smithfield Times
I attended the Surry County Board of Supervisors’ June meeting. Think political shenanigans happen only in the nation’s capital? Think again. What I witnessed was an apparent retaliation against an intelligent and articulate man for speaking truth to the status quo.
I find that the supervisors’ draft minutes do not accurately reflect what was said in the May meeting.

During that meeting, Mr. John Seward said he felt the EDA was not going in the direction that it has in his past 20 years on the board. He said he felt the supervisors should be more responsible for setting the goals of the EDA. Strange, since the EDA had been effectively dissolved or silenced for the past several years by the BOS.  Mr. Tyrone Franklin, was secretary for the EDA and he only requested the EDA to meet in order to rubber stamp BOS projects that should have been the EDA’s. County monies were transferred to the EDA, they approved the projects, and wrote the checks as directed. These projects were those the BOS could not or were not allowed to perform on their own without EDA approval. Mr. Seward obviously wanted to return the EDA to this status.  Mr. Chip Powell, the EDA Vice-Chair, spoke during the citizen comments section of the May 2 meeting, stating that the EDA had made several attempts to meet with the BOS formally and would like to schedule a work session to do so but the BOS had not responded to the requests. He again requested a meet. He also noted the EDA did not work for the BOS, but the BOS and EDA should be working together for the county’s economic development. It was obvious Mr. Seward did not appreciate his comments and appeared very upset.
Mr. Powell had been appointed by Mr. Wooden as the BOS representative for the Claremont District, to finish out a previous EDA members’ term. Mr. Wooden had told Mr. Powell that he would reappoint him, but apparently changed his mind some time before the June BOS meeting when he appointed a lady from that district to fill the position.
This action taken by Mr. Wooden either on his own or at someone else’s direction appears to be retaliation for Mr. Powell’s comments at the May BOS meeting.
Helen C. Eggleston
Dendron

Gun laws not the cure

Editor, Smithfield Times
I would not be vehemently opposed to your forum article had you at least inserted a sentence that said, “Be advised, none of the proposed laws would have prevented what happened in Virginia Beach”. But, you didn’t. You let your readers remain uninformed and make up their own decision about the usefulness, or lack thereof, of these proposed laws. Shame on you. Tell your readers the whole story/truth instead of leaving out the parts that don’t fit your agenda.  You, the Governor, and many people in this state have proposed nothing to begin to address the increasing violence we are seeing in society today. Instead you believe nitpicking gun laws is the way to save us. It’s not. If we don’t begin to understand and treat/fix why people commit these heinous acts, no amount of changes to the gun laws, including and up to banning them, will amount to anything.  Society is broken, not our gun laws.
Robert H. Hunter
Carrollton