As our Lions Club Community Betterment folks were picking up highway trash on 28 West we found a lot of plastic ice bags among with big gulp cups, cigarette packs and assorted packaging items. The ice bags out numbered the Arkansas tumbleweed (Walmart bags) by far. Unusual!

That didn’t take long

Not even two months into his current term Mayor Schulte has dusted off one of his previous schemes and along with his “hand picked” majority, counting himself as the tie breaker should the need arise, decided the City of Gerald cannot exist unless we spend north of 100 grand to expand City Hall. Never mind that City Hall is more than adequate to handle the city’s business, and is far superior to city government centers of many cities of this size and larger throughout the state. When cities large and small across the entire nation are struggling to stay solvent just to provide basic taxpayer services, he decides once again that our current City Hall just isn’t grandiose enough to house his ego. Satisfying this mayor’s ego is an expense borne by the taxpayers and usually runs into the thousands of dollars and requires, surprise surprise (drum roll please), thousands of dollars worth of building materials, provided, of course, by Gerald Home Center, ethics be damned.  

Mayor Otis Schulte made three new appointments to the Planning and Zoning Board at last Thursday’s special meeting of the Board of Aldermen.

To be fair, always the goal of this column, it should be noted that for several days last month gas prices in Owensville were as much as 20 cents cheaper per gallon than in most surrounding towns. Now it’s business as usual and gas prices here are running as high as 29 cents a gallon above pump prices in nearby communities.