Our Readers Write… Posted: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 7:00 pm
Holt and others dropped ball on sewer issue
To The Editor:
I’d like to share part of my story about my experience with state officials – in particular Rep. Andy Holt and the rest of the Tea Party crew who came to power in 2010.
In 2010, my husband and I were enjoying a beautiful Spring walk on our property and we were greeted by a horrendous smell – there at the bottom of our beautiful rolling hills were thousands of gallons of raw sewage oozing out of the ground onto our property. It was shin deep and glistening and spread almost evenly across a full eight acres. The thick porridge-like substance was also flowing into two local streams – streams where I know that kids play in summer months.
The city came out and explained that the pipes were old and needed to be replaced but that they didn’t have the funding to do it so they would apply for a grant. That was over two years ago.
Over the past two years, I contacted Rep. Holt and Congressman Fincher on numerous occasions asking for some sort of assistance. Third world countries have open sewage pits, not the United States. Should we really be expected to lower our standard of living just because we live in a rural town and not an urban area? I learned that most of the small towns throughout West Tennessee have aging sewers in need of repair, and given the unemployment rate in our area, it certainly seemed like a no-brainer for a newly elected congressman and state representative to secure funding for a “fix the basics” program that includes sewer upgrades in Northwest Tennessee. Seems logical, right.
I have come to realize that there is nothing resembling logic or reason associated with either Holt or Fincher. I have contacted both of our government officials no less than 24 times over the past two years. I’ve contacted them via phone, email, Facebook and in person. Mr. Holt had the audacity to just delete my very reasonable questions from his Facebook page. At the legislative breakfast at UT Martin this year, Mr. Fincher told me to “get more people to complain.” When I told him that 24 percent of the households in Dresden signed the petition to apply for the grant and asked exactly what percentage would be needed for him to show concern about raw sewage, he looked at me with a blank stare, mumbled a little bit and waited for his aide to rescue him. Fincher’s office has yet to follow up on the issue even though he serves on a committee with a legislator from Delaware who helped spearhead and manage a similar project in her district. She’s a Democrat though and God forbid Mr. Fincher should break his campaign promise of ever working with a Democrat – even if it means providing jobs and modern sewer systems for his constituents.
Mr. Holt on the other hand was even worse. Fincher at least didn’t hide the fact that he had no interest in fixing critical infrastructure in his district. In public, Mr. Holt acted concerned but did nothing. Over and over again I contacted him asking for one simple thing – a letter of support for the grant from his office to the governor. When I first met him I tried to point out that there was plenty he could do legislatively; infrastructure banks for maintenance, emergency public works funding, stricter oversight laws, the list goes on. He did none of that, and to this day, I still have not received a copy of the letter of support.
Holt spent a lot of time overturning the will of the people of Nashville, fighting for horse slaughter facilities to be legalized in Weakley County; he spent an exorbitant amount of energy fighting imaginary child labor laws that right wing talk radio completely made up out of thin air. But he didn’t have the time to ensure our district has the basic infrastructure needed to support new business and private residences.
In fact, when I confronted Mr. Holt yet again at the candidate meet and greet in Martin a few weeks ago, he said that he didn’t even know the grant application had been submitted. To date, the only thing that I know for sure Mr. Holt did was pose with a giant publishers clearing house-size check at city hall once the grant was finally approved.
It gets worse. Mr. Holt, after deleting numerous messages from me on Facebook, after not responding to email, after condescendingly admitting that he was in Hawaii when the final deadline for legislation passed – Mr. Holt had the absolute nerve recently to post a message on Facebook wondering why I hadn’t given him any thanks or praise.
Mr. Holt: When we get a heavy rain, sewage leaks from worn pipes in Dresden; this has been going on for over two years. And, it is going to take another year to get it repaired. I reserve my praise and thanks for exceptional behavior, not mediocrity.
So, to the readers of the Weakley County Press, know this: if you wake up one morning and find yourself wading through shin-deep sewage in your yard, there’s a good chance that it could take not a few weeks, but a few years for anyone of our state or federal representatives to do anything about it.
Nicolle Crist
Dresden
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Reader ‘appalled’ at judge’s ruling
To The Editor:
I am truly appalled at Judge Acree’s sentencing of the two boys who killed the puppy. Just because the boy did not want the puppy, they tortured it to death!
A jail sentence may not deter anyone else from doing the same cruel deed, but why not worry about the two Judge Acree had before him who had done this awful deed.
A stiff sentence may have deterred them from doing it again or just let them know they did not want to be in jail again.
I believe most of the serial killers in history and the ones in society now, started out killing animals and graduated to humans in later years. Do we not learn anything from history?
Norma Heath
Martin Published in The WCP 11.20.12 | 
