SPEAKOUT

Successful yard sale tips

Yard sale time is here again and there's a few things that will help you have a better sale. Move all cars, trailers, boats and motorcycles from the doorway. I don't like climbing over them. Leave Rover in the house. I've been bitten by cute little dogs that don't bite. Save yourself the cost of a doctor bill, you'll be out more than you make. Don't try to sell things that don't work. Someone may be knocking on your door early the next day wanting their money back. Most of all, price your merchandise. Get yourself a roll of masking tape and instead of sitting there eating that doughnut, get up and price things. Be reasonable on your prices. Don't expect to get $10 out of that box of plastic flowers. Just because you paid $50 for that blouse, don't expect me to. Get up and open at 7 a.m. People don't have all day to wait on you to crawl out of bed. And last of all, take your signs down when the sale is over.

Investing in the future

In any business and in any community, you must invest in yourself and the future or you will stagnate and ultimately dwindle. Whenever possible it's financially prudent to maintain and remodel the facilities you already have. However, our grade schools are 60 years old. They were not built for the modern era, and despite ongoing efforts, it is no longer possible to retrofit and modernize these facilities so they can be used in the fashion that is now required to educate our children. It is not hard to find other towns around here that have gone down the path of neglect and are currently dying communities. When my father was young, Cairo, Ill., was the pride of the region. They failed to invest in the future, and look at them now. I urge all of us that love this town to vote yes on the school bond issue on April 8. In 20 years we can be thriving or we can be the next Cairo.

Pass a test to get a check

I have come up with a good idea on how to take some pressure off the working people. We the working people are trying to provide for our family, which we can't, because of this health insurance situation. Everybody is coming down on the working people. We are the ones that keep this country going. My idea is that anybody who is getting a welfare check, a state check, they should have to have a test every three months. They should have a test for illegal drugs, tested for alcohol and they should be tested for tobacco. This is where the welfare check money is going, tobacco, alcohol and drugs and gambling. I know a lady right now that is spending about $300 a month for cigarettes. She gets the money from the state. She's practically a chain smoker. I can't even put gas in my car with the money I make. What's the problem? Let's start doing some tests and if they are doing anything illegal, take that check from that person. Make them work and make a living. I wish I was on welfare, but I worked all my life to support my family. These people on welfare have got it made. They get medical, life insurance, low rent. Some of us working people don't even have medical. They just keep giving this money to these deadbeats who have never worked a day in their life. Have them take a test and if they are using alcohol, drugs or tobacco, take that check away from them. This would be so simple to do. It's not a complicated thing and it would wake some of these people up.

Accomplished graduates

Saw the drawing of the proposed campus for the third and fourth grade. Very nice, but I am voting against the 20.3 percent increase in real estate and personal property tax. Sorry, but it doesn't take a fancy campus to get a quality education. Hundreds of my age group went to school in the old high school building that was destroyed, eighth grade through twelfth. So crowded if you got in a line going one way, you had to go that way. We had excellent classes and excellent teachers. We graduated and the list of accomplishments of our class and others that attended the over-crowded building are outstanding on a local state and national level. Sorry, I just don't believe a fancy campus equals a quality education. A big no on the outrageous 20.3 percent in taxes. And to the person that said they didn't own a home or a car and they would vote yes. Watch your rent increase. You will wonder what happened, just like when you voted for Obama.

Where was maintenance?

I have a comment about the schools they want to rebuild. I was just wondering why they haven't maintained the schools with the money we pay on our taxes. On our tax bill, that is the most expensive tax, the school tax. And now they want to build three new schools? I think they should maintain the schools we've got. If they had maintained them, we wouldn't be having this problem. I'd like to buy a new car, but I can't afford it because the taxes will go up. I'd love to have a new house and I'd even like to take a trip, a vacation. But I can't afford it because of the taxes. Mike, I don't know if you will print this or not, but I'd like to have some more comments from other people about this. There was something in the paper about the roof was leaking. Well, why haven't they fixed it before? Why did they let it set there and leak? They haven't maintained what they've got. I don't think they will take care of the new stuff either. Let's try saving money for maintenance instead of giving raises to people. I think the teachers are in la-la land. They need to grow up and think about it.

Tree mail

Many landowners in this area have put land into the conservational reserve program and grown trees. These trees and their contracts in the conservational reserve program are about to expire in 15 years. We need to know if the Sikeston Power Plant wants to buy wood used for burning instead of coal. They are supposed to be more energy efficient and we would like to sell trees to the Sikeston Power Plant. Is this a possibility?

Here is BMU's reply to your question: The Sikeston Power Station is not designed to burn bio mass material. It would take a large capital investment for handling, preparation, and boiler modifications. If that could be met here are the logistics: A cord of wood maybe has the BTU content of a ton of PRB coal. We burn 3,300 tons of coal per day, and 3,300 cords of wood would be very difficult to handle. The wood has to be as dry as possible to avoid efficiency losses, and be ground into dust or pellets.The ash does not conform to federal regulations. Believe it or not, our carbon dioxide emissions would go up (not a good thing in this political environment). And what would be wrong in selling these trees for lumber to build houses?

Congrats on new facilities

As communications coordinator for The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, I want to extend hearty congratulations to the SEMO Food Bank on the bright new facilities. May you have many years of successful work from the new location.

Don't be cruel

Comments in this space that say, "I still believe in the Bible." I am going to go out on a limb and say this person is picking and choosing what Bible verses they are concentrating on. Why not leave the judging to God? Why not concentrate on your neighbor as yourself? It's disgusting to watch the so-called Christian family valued people being so cruel to our gay family.

An absolute no

I plan to vote absolutely no on the school bond issue taxes. If they need to raise money for new schools, or whatever they need to do, maybe they need to cutback a little bit on the principals, assistant principals in the system. And the fact that when you drive by the transportation department, you see them working on people's personal vehicles, washing them, maintaining them, old employees going there to get work done on their vehicles. It's ridiculous. They need to cutback on how they are foolishly spending our tax money.

Best speaker ever

I just have to say that it was quite an accomplishment to get someone like Ben Carson to speak in a town this size. He's the best speaker I have ever heard in the world, and what he says makes sense. He's got commonsense, knowledge and he knows what he's talking about, without naming anyone else. I guarantee you if we had somebody with his commonsense and smarts in the White House today, we would not be in the mess we are in right now.