It makes one wonder

In the March 2 edition of the Newton News, there was a front-page article about how the Jasper County Board of Supervisors bypassed any public input over the purchasing of the former NewCare building during a meeting in October 2019.

On that same day, there was an election held to decide whether a $3.7 million bond referendum to develop this property should be approved.

I can’t help but wonder why the information in this article wasn’t published in the paper until the day of the election, almost 16 months after the fact? Wouldn’t you think this was important information for voters to have before going to the polls? While the Board’s actions may not have been as nefarious as it seems, this type of back-door small-town politics doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the motivations of our elected officials. Especially when these folks are deciding how to spend our county tax dollars.

It makes one wonder why there was so much secrecy behind this project and what else is going on behind the scenes that the public doesn’t know about. I would hope our local reporters would be putting in more effort to keep us informed about what is going on with our city and county government. This whole episode is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

John Moore

Newton