Talk about not getting it. Talk about out of touch with reality. Talk about incompetence.
 
 That’s right. We’re talking about our County Commissioners, who were revealed in an article written by Jim Rada in the Cumberland Times-News Saturday (Feb. 10) to be totally inept bunglers who couldn’t run a go-cart track, let alone a county government.
 
 In his article, Mr. Rada told us that the county per student allocation for our public school system is $1,487 less than the per student amount the county provides Allegany College.
 
 Let’s see. The college, which has students from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Garrett County, Washington County, etc., as well as local students, gets $3,759 per student, while our public schools get $2,272 per student. Many Allegany College students are adults. Many don’t live here. Many don’t pay taxes here. That’s OUR tax money, essentially being taken away from OUR children. Is that what we as taxpaying citizens want? Is that where we want our education tax dollars to go?
 
 Not only do we lag behind Allegany College in per student funding, but our county allocation is the second lowest among the state’s eight rural counties.
 
 Hey, another badge of honor for the three amigos. Aren’t our County Commissioners great?
 
 And here’s another winner: even as Commission President Dale Lewis bragged that the county puts 45.2% of its budget into the county school system, Mr. Rada revealed that back in 1998 the county put 50.53% of the budget into our school system.
 
 County Administrator Vance Ishler explained the inexcusable drop this way: “Other areas of the county. . .are growing and demanding money and services. For instance, in 1998 we were running a jail with a budget of $700,000. Now that budget is over $2 million.”
 
 Oh. That explains it. Our County Commissioners would rather spend money on the county jail population than on our kids. Yeah, that makes sense. You get such a great return on an investment like that.
 
 Mr. Ishler also pointed out that the community, not just the Commissioners, decides where funding goes.
 
 That’s actually how it works in most places. But here? Nope.
 
 We haven’t noticed these Commissioners paying any attention whatsoever to what the public wants. All they do is hem and haw and try to take care of their buddies, as in the whole tip jar debacle - they paid no attention to public input in that fiasco.
 
 Unfortunately, the children of Allegany County don't hang out at private clubs. Maybe if they did, we could get more funding for our schools.
 
 But we digress. The question we need to ask our County Commissioners is this: why are we using the taxes of Allegany County residents so readily at an institution that has students from all over the region? We like Allegany College - it’s an asset to this community. But to provide them the level of funding they receive while neglecting our public school system is unacceptable.
 
 It’s also stupid. When businesses choose a location, the public school system and what it offers plays a pivotal role in the decision made. We have never heard a corporate decision maker say, “Hey! Let’s locate in Hooterville, they have a great community college there!”
 
 Remember the county administrator candidate the county wanted to hire before Mr. Ishler came? He declined the job after visiting one of our high schools. We had nowhere near the extra-curricular opportunities that his children were accustomed to.
 
 Let’s face it, folks. It’s time for a change. Let’s pressure our County Commissioners to TAX TIP JARS for education. (A bill can be submitted to the General Assembly throughout the legislative session - it just has to go through the Rules Committee. Not that our Delegation wants you to know that). And let’s call for public school funding that is equal - on a per student basis - to that provided Allegany College.
 
 And if our Commissioners don’t listen? That's ok. Change can be a good thing.
 
 

The Allegany County Commissioners should be applauded for at least entertaining the idea of changing from three to five members. However, if they feel that this is enough to make the commissioners more effective and responsible to their constituents, they are sadly mistaken.
 
 There is another issue that needs to be looked at by the county, and that is to change the commissioners’ meetings to evenings. Currently, regular meetings are held in the mornings during the middle of the week. This simply is not conducive to effective governance. In many cases, people that have real issues and concerns cannot be heard, because they are at work during the times that the commissioners meet. Changing the regular commission meetings to evenings would allow more constituents to attend, thus providing for more public input on decisions that affect all of us.
 
 Evening meetings would provide us another plus: new faces could enter our political system. Every election in this county we see the same, usual suspects running for public office. And we always get the same results. Strong political forces shape the decisions made at every level in this county, and it is time that people willing to stand up to those pressures have the opportunity to do so.
 
 Our current commission consists of three retirees, so morning meetings work well for them. And though they bring age and experience to the table, we need other attributes as well. We need people able to put forth new and creative thinking. People who work hard to support their families are more in touch with what our elected leaders need to be focused on to improve our economy. Most working people cannot run for an elected office that meets in the middle of their workday. That needs to change.
 
 Allegany County is at an important crossroads. We will never take the right road if the citizens cannot make their opinions and ideas known. We are also at a disadvantage if our citizens are presented with the same candidates at every election. We have been stagnating far too long. We need new ideas, new approaches, new people taking aim at elected office. That is the only way to move forward.
 
 Move the meetings from morning to evening, and find out what the people of Allegany County want in their government.