OPINION
Everything has died down as it seems the public has accepted with the county’s decision about the fire department being gone, even though no vote has ever been taken by the county government.
This was a disaster from the start. The Russell County Board of Supervisors should have had a town hall or at least a public hearing with the citizens of Dante before closing the department. Instead, someone just locked the door and said you are closed. Will Dante ever have a fire department again?
The board of supervisors refuse to talk about it in any form or fashion. The public still does not know what kind of deal went down with the Dollar General folks. Dollar General came to the board and talked about how they were coming but there was no discussion on why they had to have that location and what went on behind closed doors with the deal to bring them here.
The board did talk about a new facility. Where are they at on getting this done for the citizens?
After the big lawsuit against the board about the fire department, it has been crickets and everything is done and over with. The problem with the rulings in the lawsuit on what the county focused on as an excuse for closing the department focused on the fact that the fire department had let their corporation status lapse years ago. The problem with this position and rulings is that nowhere in state law does it say a volunteer fire department has to be incorporated to operate.
Clearly, the county had no problem with the department operating until Dollar General wanted the property. If Dollar General had not wanted the property would the Dante Fire Department still be operating today? I think we all know the answer to that is YES!
So, when are the people going to hold the county government to accountability? When are the people going to demand transparency on these issues and many more. The public is told so many things with no evidence of proof from anyone regarding finances in the county. We cannot trust the numbers coming from the county administrator because the numbers change depending on what he wants done.
They had a NO KINGS rally Saturday in Lebanon, but we have a king serving us as County Administrator and no one is doing anything about it. I find it ironic that anytime something is questioned about county funds that look like money is missing the administrator turns whatever records he deems appropriate over to law enforcement so that issues is not discussed publicly by the board? PSA had millions unaccounted for, do we ever get to see what was going on?
At tonight’s board meeting Lonzo for the first time let the public know no money was missing from the PSA. Why was there an issue with the accounting that you had to turn it over to the state police? Tell us Lonzo how the money is ok. Tell us why the question were raised? Tell us where and what led to the discrepancies that the public raised? Lonzo said all the money around Dante Fire Department and Dollar General was settled in the court case? Where I saw nothing about the transactions behind the scenes. I heard you won your court case over the corporation status. I never heard a word about the money of the fire department or the deals with Dollar General. If you are not hiding anything do the forensic audit.
