Letter to the Editor
This morning, I woke up for the second time with an intruder at my house. The first incident happened a year ago. Both happened around 7am. Living with 20 acres of woodland surrounding my home, I know a person would have to walk ¼ of a mile uphill with a vertical rise of 300 feet. It is hard to get there. I want to publicly send out my thanks to the Clinton Police Department for their fast response this morning. They should be commended.
As I left my office last night, a vagrant was walking by pushing a cart. We have one person who literally sleeps on the sidewalk behind our office all day every day. The office next door consistently has vagrants set up tents to sleep in the yard. I just issued a letter to residents at Carriage Hill and Carriage Trace Apartments (the 1st one I have ever sent) warning them about the safety concerns around town with the homeless and the aimlessly wandering vagrants. Now, our company teammates are scared to leave after dark.
There are city ordinances to enforce cleaning up this situation proactively. They pass ordinances all the time so if they wanted to improve this significantly, they would. Other cities do it, it takes energetic leadership, a sense of optimism that it can be accomplished, and the intestinal fortitude to make the tough decisions.
Russell Barker, Anderson County Sheriff was on national television for instituting their innovative drug and effective rehab program. Our company helps, we have 3 teammates who successfully completed a drug rehab program and now work with us. They prove each day that they are dedicated to sobriety and have healthy relationships supported by our team. In fact, heroes to all!
I am fearful that something bad will happen in this city to our children, one of our team members, apartment neighbors, or friends because this issue has been ignored, allowed to worsen, and now is threatening. No one wants to talk about this, and no decisive action have been taken, but it is not acceptable to the citizens of this town.
There are children who walk to school less than a ¼ mile from my home, if a homeless intruder can reach me, they can also reach these children.
I want to be on record to say what we are doing now has proven that it is not working and getting far worse. We must have a new determination and dedication to be effective at cleaning up this problem before something bad happens.
Scott and Tracy Burton are my friends. Stephen and Christina McNally are my friends. This is not about friendship; it is about facts. Both gentlemen are running for Mayor and the Mayor is responsible to set city policy to protect its citizens! I welcome all responsible comments and will read each one!
Joe Hollingsworth Jr.
Clinton