Lack of foresight

Dear Editor,
Well, once again our local County Commissioner displayed his lack of foresight for the citizens of Crawford County. His most recent negative response to bringing in more revenue to the county makes me very happy he is not running for reelection. The Morning Sun quoted him as saying, “I’d be more likely to do it for the people that live up there, rather than people from Wichita to come and fish” (referring to paving the road to Bone Creek Reservoir.) Unfortunately, he hasn’t done it for the “people up there” since he’s been in office either. His other comment, “Those roads with 1,200 to 2,000 and more cars a day – those are the priority roads,” is true to a point. But people who live along the other roads, as well as the citizens of Crawford County who utilize them, are already paying county taxes to have their roads maintained and hopefully improved. They have no more money to spare either and would sure appreciate some way of having their taxes reduced rather than increased.
Look outside the box a little. Just because it’s always been done that way doesn’t mean it’s the right way. A lot of the anglers who are NOT driving down that rough road have paid into the tens of thousands of dollars for their boats, motors and trailers, and are pulled by even more expensive heavy duty trucks and SUVs. These people travel tournament to tournament, week after week. They SPEND MONEY on gasoline, meals, equipment, clothing, groceries, etc. And they also talk about the good, as well as the bad, wherever they go. (I imagine that the condition of the road at this location is on the “bad” side of the conversation.) Mr. Shaffer is right – if you spent that much money on that investment, wouldn’t you do your best to avoid damaging it?
It makes sense to find the money for road improvements, chip and seal at the minimum, for the road to Bone Creek Reservoir. The positive far outweighs the negative in this argument and a quick phone call to the CCCVB for the facts before deciding would have been helpful. (I’ve been told none of the County Commissioners have contacted the office for this information.) According to the CCCVB, the economic impact of the participants in ABA Bass Fishing Tournaments for six months in 2007 was $63,360 or about 11% of the total Sporting Events economic impact in Crawford County. Yes, non-school related Sporting Events (fishing, fox hunting, wrestling, cycling, etc.) account for approximately 25% of the tourist dollars spent in Crawford County. Doesn’t it make sense to do what we can to entice more visitors of this type to come to Crawford County? Should their sport any less valued than football, baseball, and basketball?
Let’s dare to dream a little too. An improved road would bring more tournaments which would bring more traffic. (See a pattern here?) Maybe we could have some, oh, I don’t know, BUSINESSES decide to move in, possibly providing, oh, I don’t know, GROCERIES, GASOLINE, EQUIPMENT and such to these visitors? Wouldn’t that be nice, to have more people, business and revenue in our county, all because someone looked at things a little bit differently?
Kathy Benard
Frontenac