Letter to the editor
A short scroll through a local Facebook “Word of Mouth” page hits your brain harder than an Alachua County pothole. Alachua/High Springs Word of Mouth boasts 33,000 members and is a very vocal, active group. Search “pothole” in the group’s search bar, and with only a couple of thumb swipes, one will see countless posts ranging from people stranded on the side of the road with blown tires, bent rims, or perhaps a lower engine cowling ripped off. A mother waited for help as her three kids sat in the back seat. Maybe you see a well-meaning citizen taking up the County’s torch by purchasing his own load of asphalt millings and filling the craters on his road. That guy should send a bill to the County for his time and materials.
The discourse is palpable. Every time you feel the front end of your car bang asphalt, you curse the County. Don’t worry: the “County is right there with you!” This was posted by the County in response to someone’s comment on its official page. On that post, five out of eight comments simply said, “Fix the roads”; the other three referred to the BOCC as a circus or a waste of time. The public square is very much alive and vocal. Reading so many negative posts relating to County road management and ridiculous spending leads to questions about the “Wild Spaces Public Places, Road Repair, Fire Stations, and Affordable Housing One Percent Sales Tax.”…