To the Editor:
I would like to thank the candidates for seats on the Polk County Commission for their willingness to serve, and the sitting commissioners for the hard work they have undertaken on our behalf. Public service is a time-consuming and serious responsibility.
Chairing the commission is a difficult job requiring many qualifications including rational thinking, calm temperament, diplomacy, tact, knowledge and business ability.
Electing the highest vote getter, regardless of qualifications, and inevitably changing the chairmanship every other year regardless of who is the best candidate, is not in the public interest and breaking this tradition is long overdue.
Since Commissioners Pack and Owens obviously also disagree with the tradition (having voted against Mr. Melton, the high vote getter four years ago) it seems all the current commissioners are now agreed, and can move on to forge consensus on other important matters as well.
I hope commissioners will apply “tradition replacement therapy” to a newer tradition as well: the firing of missives at each other over the Tryon Daily Bulletin bow in the form of “letters to the editor.”
Most people I know are alarmed and dismayed at these increasingly inappropriate and destructive letters. Talking to each other in person would improve their relationships and the commission’s effectiveness. Articles examining the issues covered by the Bulletin would also be helpful in educating the public. But a truce on the letter bombs, please.
— Dorothy Moyer