JEERS: To the mayor and others involved in the total mismanagement of a town the size of Garland City, Ark. This is small-town America, and all the drama of a larger city. You have the nonpayment of federal withholding taxes for city employees for some 10 years. You have unauthorized purchases of police cruisers, which were returned. You have the incident last winter, when all the undistributed food was found damaged. Again and again we see that Garland City is back in the paper, the latest being no one who was authorized to write checks would own up to paying contractors to install a fire hydrant. The problem started when a citizen at the council meeting wanted to know when the new “leaking” fire hydrant would be repaired.

I am unfamiliar with the workings of city government, but just looking in from the outside the town of Garland City needs to clean up their act. And a good beginning would be to clean house in the local mayoral office and her dedicated staff. Where is the mayor, what does she say, according to the paper she is always unavailable for comment.—A.L., Texarkana, Ark.



CHEERS: To the four area high schools and their extraordinarily talented young singers. They opened the Rita Coolidge concert last week with Christmas carols, then joined Ms. Coolidge for several songs later in the evening. Under the direction of and accompanied by the very gifted Texarkana College music department (some of the singers may have been TC students as well), the young singers were nothing short of outstanding. Ms. Coolidge was not exaggerating when she praised the group as some of the best singers with whom she has worked. As a relatively recent arrival in the Twin cities, I don’t know too much about the local high schools. I hope all of these young folks’ families, as well as the community, are very proud of the hard work and dedication these kids have put in. Talent is one thing, but they obviously have taken the effort to refine and develop their talent. This whole town and region should be very proud. Cheers as well to TRAHC for continuing to bring in world class entertainment.—M.L.S., Texarkana, Texas



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