Speakout 1/7

My compliments to Doug Friend on his retort to Josh Bill's lambasting of the City of Sikeston. I appreciate his effort.

For January, I predict that we will have at least three different cold spells coming out of the Arctic Circle. Each one will last from eight to 10 days. After this cold air gets out of here, we'll have mild weather for four days or more and then get hit with some more cold air. I think this will continue through the month of January. We had a few snows in December. It stuck in the Ozarks but it was too warm for it to stick around here. My prediction for December came pretty close.

I read a Your View article on Dec. 31. I didn't realize that a city manager in a small town such as Sikeston could make, "For the record, I make $89,900 a year" and tomorrow makes his 18th year of service. I'm sure he hasn't made that much money every year, but he sure is making a lot more money than I am. I work 40 hours a week (have to work really hard), pay taxes here in town and drive on some of the worst streets in the state of Missouri. The roads here in Sikeston suck. A lot of the main thoroughfares where we have to travel every day, the roads are torn up so badly that we have to have the front end aligned in our cars or trade them off. But the back streets are all paved and have sidewalks. It just blows my mind to think that the city manager is making that much money just for the city of Sikeston. If he makes that much money, how much is everybody else making? Is this what we pay taxes for here in Sikeston? And yet we want it to grow bigger and want to be a part of a charter? We'll all be broke. He makes $89,900 a year; that's $7,500 a month! Whew! No wonder they drive around in new cars and live in new houses. I'm outraged about this?

You shouldn't be outraged. You should read and understand how the world works. Do you have a college degree and 18 years experience on the job? Are you responsible for over 100 employees? Do you work nights to conduct meetings? In many areas a 26-year-old kid out of law school will make more money. And since you don't understand the main thoroughfares - Main and Malone - are state roads maintained by the highway department.