Time to take a step back to study pros and cons of consolidation

Editor:

When I first heard about the Columbia County consolidation proposal I immediately felt such a negative feeling it has taken me many months to sort it all out.

I think a decision was made by a small group of politicians without laying the groundwork. It sure looks like they made the decision then they put everything else together to support it. It's like bad preachers using the Bible to manipulate the flock with fragmented Scriptures. I actually thought the Columbia County Commission was different. Maybe they are in some ways, but it seems quite clear in others they are not. Don't you think it would have been a good idea to call town hall meetings to discuss consolidation?

Richmond County is the example we have to judge if it will work, by their example I'm not sure if we want to follow their lead.

I've heard that the benefits gained would be several million dollars in revenue. If that's the only benefit, why would we consider it? Things have been working fine up until now. One of the best proverbs I've heard is, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Maybe they want to grow faster than we should. Maybe it's time to take a step back and get all the facts.

This is such a complex issue maybe we need to know the pros and cons of consolidation. I for one am going to find out on my own. I hope they don't expect to spoon-feed this to us and accept it.

I Googled government consolidation while I was writing this. A quick look shows that the reason most governments want consolidation is to cut down on costs due to duplication of services. I can't see how that can apply in our case because it seems like much larger metropolitan areas are consolidating and we are just too small to have that apply to us.

Michael Bresnahan

Martinez