SpeakOut 10/22

Call 471-6636

Why is it taking so long to get the street work done on Wakefield? I could have paved a highway to Benton and back by now.

We called Sikeston Director of Public Works Tom Bridger. "There have been numerous delays associated with Wakefield due to unforeseen repairs and unforeseen base failures. Due to those problems, it has taken some additional time. First, additional rock was required because of the base failure. Also, BMU had to repair water mains that were leaking before the street repair work could be done. These are some of the problems that were unforeseen and not expected in this street project. As of this time, we are making basically the last big street pour. The major work should be completed shortly and sidewalk work will be completed after the street work is done.

I have asked and cannot get a response from anyone. How can the Department of Public Safety, Sikeston Court and Scott County courts arrest a mother repeatedly on drug charges, know that they are involved in meth or even arrested them with stuff to cook meth (all the ingredients in their house). They are making something called "beds of meth" (I have no idea what it is). They still let that person keep a child. I'm not talking about one arrest, but this person is repeatedly arrested and they say it's OK. When the baby cannot take care of itself (2 and 3-year-old kids here and younger) and is around that, it's like the baby eats what they touch. A mother or anyone who is on this stuff, from what I can get from police officers, when they come down off this stuff after being up for days, they go to sleep and you can't wake them up. The child is left there to defend itself, in a filthy house, this child is dirty. But the grandparents have no rights? Where do they get off? And when that child is brought in for drug overdose, who's to blame? First of all the parent, and then they want to do something about it? This is crap. There should be laws and they should do something about it. This is criminal injustice. You can get more for writing a bad check or driving a vehicle while drunk than you can from endangering the life of a child. If that child dies, I think not only should the mother and father be held responsible, but the court should be held responsible and the police should be held responsible. Most of all, the Department of Family Services should be held responsible. This needs to be checked out. They said they would need a chemist to get someone off this stuff. Psychiatrists and doctors say there's nothing we can do once they're on this. If that child dies, I believe everybody involved in the case, from the mother to the officer who did the arrest to DFS who got the report to the judge who turned them back loose on the street and told them it's OK, do what you want to. That child should be removed and given to responsible people who will take care of the child.

Every time you see something in the want ads, by the time the paper reaches Charleston and we call about an ad, it's already sold. I wish we got our paper before the people in Sikeston so we could get to the want ads earlier and have a chance to buy something too.