Letter – Hypocrisy by supervisors
Published 7:52 pm Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Editor, The Smithfield Times:
What could Isle of Wight County do with $6 million? I’m sure we can all come up with lots of ideas – from improving public services such as schools, roads, parks and health services to reducing tax rates.
Unfortunately, Dick Grice and William McCarty, among others, blew that money by their refusal to admit the county’s mistake in how much International Paper had been taxed. Then they doubled down on their poor decision by continuing to appeal the initial decision when the court called “shenanigans” on their transparent scheme to avoid repayment.
I find it impressive that Mr. Grice now has the temerity to accuse others of fiscal irresponsibility after wasting so much taxpayer money himself. Fortunately, we will be well rid of him soon, and voters have the opportunity to show Mr. McCarty the door as well. I am confident that Tracy Hendrix is paying attention and will avoid the mistakes of her predecessors.
And as long as we are “trading up,” voters in the Carrollton area have the opportunity to jettison Mark Wooster from the School Board and vote in Tim Mallory. Mr. Mallory has decades of experience in both public safety and public education, which should serve him well in tackling challenges in our educational system. We are exceptionally lucky that a candidate as experienced and passionate as Tim Mallory is willing to serve our community on the school board, and I hope the voters of District 2 recognize this.
By contrast, Mr. Wooster does not seem very interested in improving our schools, but he does seem to enjoy sharing memes on social media mocking and belittling those different from him. The choice seems pretty clear in this race.
Greg Brown
Smithfield