Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Battling priorities fueling budget fires
Sunday’s article about City Manager Kim Payne’s tough decisions on the City of Lynchburg’s budget next year struck a chord. I worked for the City, and I have some familiarity with department budgets. I also have a good understanding of which services are essential, and which are not.

Residents need clean water. They need trash picked up. City government needs a means to collect and disburse revenue. The City also requires competent and available emergency services 24/7. Every other City service is further down the list. After all, what’s most important? Being able to visit the main library or not having to be placed on hold when calling 911 for an emergency? Libraries are nice to have. But being able to both summon and receive help during an emergency is critical.

Many may not realize it, but that engine company crew on the chopping block does more than just put out fires. They are likely to be first on the scene of a medical emergency, and can begin advanced life support care before a medic unit arrives.

Cutting investigative and crime prevention assets? Really? In the deteriorating economic conditions we find ourselves, crimes in general and property crimes in particular will likely increase. Those assets are needed.

What I find of most concern is losing five emergency dispatchers at the emergency communications center. Those people do an amazing job, but even at the current staffing levels they are stretched almost to the breaking point during high activity periods. I would suggest that Council get its priorities in order. The departments are not equal when it comes to the necessary services they provide.

R. LES PUCKETT
Lynchburg

Don’t cut education
The assault on Virginia’s schools by our politicians must be avoided. As a parent and educator, let me give you a sneak peek: After the substantial budget cuts our schools endured a year ago, our students are already more limited in their classroom choices, there’s been an uptick in class size, and students are walking around in darkened hallways and trying to learn in cooler classrooms as school systems look to save money any way they can. Sports programs have been limited to save money. Teachers have already taken pay cuts: any time you don’t get a raise in a state where the cost of living has increased 23 percent over the last ten years, that’s a pay cut.

The proposals being bandied about in Richmond will not only completely decimate the school programs we have spent years trying to build, they will send us into an academic regression.

Don’t have any kids? Not really worried about education? How about jobs?

No business will be attracted to a state which fails its schools in such a manner. Businesses are looking for states with good infrastructures: well-maintained roads, innovative technology and quality schools. We should be investing in these things, not cutting them.

We have always heard about our schools, and I believe it to be true of our local schools and businesses as well, that our best resource is our people. Well, if that’s the case, why would you want to cut your best resources? But that’s what these plans would do.

Pick any of the three proposals coming out of Richmond right now, and you’ll see that they are all wrong for our state. These plans are bad for our state, bad for our future, and, most importantly, bad for our children.

We cannot allow this to happen. Send a strong message to every local, state and even federal politician that we will not tolerate the short-changing of our school system. Let them know that if you come after our schools, come election time, we’ll come after your jobs.

KARL LOOS
Rustburg