'At what cost?'

At What Cost?

Every time I step off a plane at XNA, I look around and feel grateful that I live in the best place on earth. Others step off that same plane, look around and see only money to be made. There are plenty of those folks living in towns to the south of us. They're getting rich, but at what cost?

The traffic is so bad in our neighboring towns that you'd be better off getting out and walking. There are neighborhoods in Springdale where you don't go unless you want to be robbed or shot.

Some call this progress.

I foresee a day in the not-so-distant future when these towns become just as uninhabitable as Oakland, Calif., a place I used to live if you call that living. If your house is burglarized in Oakland, the police won't even come.

They'd like to, but they're too busy dodging bullets from gangbangers. To report this crime you must go to the police station, wait in line for a kiosk, then fill out your report. You never get to talk to a real person, and the chance of ever retrieving your stolen property is next to zero.

Now contrast this with what we have here. In Bella Vista, our police officers not only protect us, but they're also able to fulfill the other half of their promise; to serve us. If you're stranded, our police will stop to help and even give you a ride to your destination. They perform all kinds of services to our community that are not crime-related. And, yes, they will also come to your house if a crime is committed against you. Isn't this how it should be? The police have our backs, and we have theirs.

There are those in our leadership who want to transform Bella Vista into another Branson, Mo. Our board of directors has made decisions over the past few years that have negatively impacted the membership while giving preferential treatment to non-members. They've spent millions of dollars of our reserves on projects the membership never asked for. They have to borrow money every month just to make payroll. They've licensed our common property to build bike trails to be used by the public without the required vote of the membership. They've invited the entire world into our membership community, seemingly without a thought as to how this might negatively impact the peace and privacy of our members.

This spring we'll be voting for three seats on the board of directors. We must ensure that the people we elect to represent us have, as their singular purpose, to watch out for the best interests of the membership. We must ensure they will look out for our seniors, our veterans and other heroes in our community, as well as those many members who live on fixed incomes. We must ensure our board directors ask themselves with every decision they make: "At what cost?"

Kevin Dooley

Bella Vista

Editorial on 02/13/2019