Letter to the Editor

Progress is a process -- or maybe not

Several years ago Siloam Springs had a narrow, antiquated bridge on Mount Olive Street crossing the roaring rapids of mighty Sager Creek.

The state of Arkansas, being of a benevolent nature, ponied up some coin of the realm to construct a new, wide and modern bridge to span those roaring rapids. The new bridge was a boon for the city!

Now, the Siloam Springs Board of Directors has, in essence, slapped the face of all who worked to get that bridge funded and constructed.

Someone had the bright idea that traffic along Mount Olive Street was rushing to its destiny at too fast a pace. The hue and cry was bandied about that traffic must be restricted for the good of the community!

The Board of Directors took their shovels and dug into the city coffers for several thousand scoots to fund their 21st century boondoggle. Leave it to the Board to take a boon and mate it with a dog resulting in a major boondoggle.

Whatever engineer, city planner, feasibility study person, or city "partnership" entity that originated the idea to choke down the street should be drowned in the canals of history -- or be appointed as Siloam Springs' official village idiot.

There were less expensive ways to choke the road down. They could have just banned motor vehicles between Jefferson St. and University St. on Mount Olive.

They missed a golden opportunity to generate revenue! They could have proclaimed the street to be used only by horses, carriages, stage coaches, and a now-and-then Conestoga Wagon heading out to ply the Oregon Trail. Couldn't have all them thar horses without a livery stable or two. They could have heavily taxed the livery stables and blacksmiths to earn revenue to give away to their "partners."

Personally, I think rickshaws would be better than horses due to the fact that horses have no manners and poop wherever they please. Rickshaw operators prefer comfort stations.

The people of Siloam have already been pooped on enough by the City Board wasting so much money to mess up a perfectly good bridge and street. The city motto is "Progress is a Process." It ain't really progress when a modern bridge is turned into an archaic, narrow piece of crap.

A more fitting motto for Siloam Springs would be "plan ahead."

Or perhaps, "Progress is a Process of Parting You Dumb Citizens From Your Money and Wasting It!"

Editorial on 10/19/2016