Dear editor,

Dear Editor:

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who supported me in the Shelby County School Superintendent election. My family and I are humbled by your hard work and efforts. We have made many new friends along the way and I know I am a better citizen and a better person for this experience.

Randy Fuller is our Superintendent-Elect and he deserves our respect and support for a well run campaign. He also needs a unified Shelby County to strengthen his vision for our school system. I pledge my support and loyalty as a part of the administrative team and I encourage all of Shelby County to do the same!

Let&8217;s also keep Mr. Evan Major in our hearts as well. Mr. Major is a great leader and has proven to be one of our most beloved and respected Superintendents ever! Who ever was to become the next Superintendent would have big shoes to fill. Randy Fuller is just that man.

Thank you Shelby County! Now let&8217;s work together for the sake of our children. They are our top priority.

Tom Ferguson

Assistant Superintendent

Shelby County Schools

Dear Editor:

With the stroke of a pen and the defiance of a dictatorship, the Westover Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve 145 town homes and patio homes in :Westover Park development.

This, against the impassioned and reasoned pleas of more than 50 speakers in opposition to the development.

This decision changes forever the complexion of Westover from a pleasant semi-rural community of homes on sizeable acreages to a citified complex with all of its disadvantages.

How could you do this to us mayor?

And how could the planning commission follow you like the Pied Piper into the waters of self-destruction?

The Westover Planning Commission is appointed by the mayor.

He alone has the control.

It&8217;s composition of eight members include three from the Westover Council members and three of the wives of Westover Council members.

This inbred group merely agrees with whatever the Westover Town council proclaims, in particular what the mayor has declared.

In point of fact, the ink was dry and already peeling on the rubber stamp this group used when they entered the Westover Town Hall to deliberate on this development.

For them this public hearing was a mere formality, in part to assuage the rising tide of opposition and quell the dissention by letting the public blow off steam.

They did not accomplish either goal.

The people of the Westover area spoke eloquently and personally on each of the numerous objections to the Westover Park project, stressing those having an enormous impact on the total community.

Insufficient water supply, horrendous traffic problems, unavailability of schools, exacerbation of flooding conditions, insufficient leisure space, and a cornucopia of infrastructural deficiencies.

But one of the overriding concerns expressed was the expectation that this development, referred to as a &8220;rural ghetto&8221;, would spawn a crime wave that would strike the area, spearheaded by poverty.

Are these fears realistic or a figment of someones imagination?

Is it a figment of imagination that Birmingham ranks as one of the top 10 murder cities of America?

Is it a surprise that poverty, drugs and a sense of helplessness fuel an appetite for someone else&8217;s goods to be taken, by whatever means are necessary?

Mindful of these thoughts, the citizenry of Westover pleaded for a directive from the planning commission to lower the housing density and make some effort to bring Westover Park into the mainstream of the Westover area as we know it today.

Our remonstrations fell on the deaf ears of the commissioners who had made up their mind well before this meeting.

Roswell Pfister

Unincorporated Shelby Count