TO THE EDITOR

The citizens of Lincoln County have chosen new leaders with the expectation of great things. It is my hope that the new leaders and county employees will set aside their personal agendas and stop the internal bickering and fighting that has cost all the citizens of Lincoln County dearly in the last four years.

With all of the departments working together we can achieve great things. All of the employees, whether elected or employed, must realize that they work for all of the citizens of the county and must take their input into consideration when making decisions that will effect every one.

We must accept the fact that we are one of the poorest counties in the state of Georgia, and must take this into consideration when we set standards. If you set the standards too rigid, the system will break and everyone will lose. If you set the standards less rigid and allow it to flex and compromise, then the county will grow and we can pull the county up a little at a time. When the county chose to restrict and control building, this caused a stop in upgrading of property's (lots) to be not buildable and thus became of no value. This is a form of eminent domain and does not do any good, this causes the tax base to go lower.

Also, it would be in the best interest of the county to return as many county owned properties as possible back to the public sector and back on the tax roll. Lincoln County is one of the counties in Georgia with the highest percentages of properties owned by the county. The county must realize that they are not a land bank. It is the job of the county to see that every property possible be on the tax roll, which helps every citizen.

If the county officers, employees and citizens of Lincoln County all work together we can make Lincoln County a good and affordable place to live that we will be proud to call home.

AL BEAN