To the Editor:

 

Larry Britt has fired off another opinion letter, in the April 13, 2014, edition criticizing the Beaufort County Commissioners. This is a letter I can agree with. It is embarrassing to see how unprofessionally Al Klemm, Jerry Langley, Ed Booth and Robert Belcher conduct themselves and Beaufort County’s business with regard to determining the need for a jail.

Klemm, Booth, Langley and Belcher failed to present any justification for the proposed new jail or the number of inmates the facility should hold. The did present some paperwork from the architect who is building the jail to justify the size of the jail. Klemm, Booth, Langley and Belcher haven’t figured out their duty to the taxpayers of Beaufort County. Their behavior should be to have a disinterested third party tell them how large the new jail should be.

Their behavior became ugly when they were asked to vote to be released from the court order. They voted that they cannot even be asked to protect the Beaufort County taxpayers for another six months, even though the jail meets all state requirements. That will be October of this year.

Another example of Klemm, Langley, Belcher and Booth’s all knowing, all seeing ability is to force as much construction of the $20 million jail at Chocowinity before the November elections as possible. I estimate they can go through a minimum of $8 million of your money before the November elections.

This is a very controversial project. If Klemm, Langley, Belcher and Booth had the welfare of the citizens of Beaufort County at heart, they could easily provide the public a referendum or at least allow the results of the November election to decide whether or not to build a new jail. Instead they show how much they disrespect Beaufort County citizens by spending as much money as they can before the November elections so that the project cannot (in their minds) be stopped even when they lose the fall elections.

Thank you, Larry. You are right, these people are disrespectful and embarrassing.

 

Hood Richardson

Beaufort County Commissioner