Lately we have had an abundance of hard rain. Roads and ditches were filled with rocks and mud due to all the tiles being filled with rocks and debris. The ditches have never been cleaned out since our “former” road grader operator lost his job. Onie Fultz tried to do the job right.

I voted for Mr. Sharp the first time he ran for road superintendent. I made lots of people mad and got talked mean to. He seemed to be so nice and honest that I thought he would make the best one we had ever had. We hadn’t had one and I was so happy when he won. Boy, did I get the fooling of my life!!

When the road grader does happen to go by, the blade barely touches here and “yonder” trying to scrape up enough gravel to put in the potholes. Years ago the little truck that sometimes follows would stop and the man would throw the things out of the road that the grader had loosened. He always had a shovel and got the dirt out of the tiles.

I went with Mr. Sharp to show him the things that were problems. He surely forgot. Things have never changed, except gets worse.

There is a public road that goes up by Clinch River. There are several farms and a big cemetery. The bridge that crossed the creek to get there went bad. Finally, three workers in a truck brought wood to fix it, but they went up to Bailey Manning’s and told them that they couldn’t fix it. They gave them 20 nails, said it only took 18, but they might bend one. Bailey was in the hospital in Knoxville with a real bad stroke that kept him there for about 3 months. They finally came and fixed it, but guess what! They went back and got the 20 nails from Betty. I am glad to know that the dept. is that conservative. It takes 3 in a truck to check things out. I know the commissioners will like this. It must be nice to get your road right to your door blacktopped and “your friends.” The ones who live in the city and on the state highway doesn’t have these problems.

I worked for the school system for almost 30 years. I was hired as an aide, but I was a teacher most of the time. I made very little, but no commissioner tries to get us a little raise in our retirement. I am a widow and live on a fixed income. I’m almost 76 years old, but if I were able I would take my hoe & shovel and work on our road. I have never been late with my taxes. I think I should deserve something. Caywood, thank you a million times for being the neighbor you are. Thanks to Onie for what he has done. Things would have been different if we had more folks like them.

Helen E. Collins

Tazewell, Tenn.