The Gadfly is a series of letters offering commentary on local issues and published in the Warrensburg Gazette.

Dear Editor

Warrensburg's "Visions 2010" booklet is out (City Hall has plenty of copies). It's a 'vision' of what Warrensburg should look like in a dozen years. The vision isn't the hard part - it's translating it into reality by setting up the policies, getting the cooperation, and raising the money. Aunt Ida says, "it'll take a heap of cooking to move that pie-in-the-sky to pie-on-the-table."

I wonder if anyone visioned that one of our oldest industries would pull out for (it is said) Honduras? I hope the City hasn't given the Unitog plant any local tax incentives; I wonder if the City has good contracts tieing down any companies that did get incentives.

The Veterans Memorial Walkway dedication ceremony looked like a forest of umbrellas, with the speakers sheltered in the vestibule and the listeners out front. I bet quite a few more bricks will be added once people see how nice the walkway is - it's a great first step in the ambitious project to beautify the square.

Of course, the rest of the project may be endangered. Rumor has it that the County Commission won't let Main Street sell bricks for Fido, Spot & Rover to put around the Old Drum statue - planned to be a major fund raiser for the square beautification. Wake up - Marshall's Jim the Wonder Dog park is already getting media attention & drawing tourists!

The legislature didn't pass any bill to regulate private prisons, so the one near Holden will likely be built unless someone finds a wetland or an endangered species on the site. Looking at the old articles, it appears that our County Commissioners didn't see fit to tell anyone about the developers' inquiry. I was under the impression that almost everything the commissioners do is subject to open meetings laws. I bet they wish they'd seen the possibilities and talked to the papers & our legislators last year. Then again, the legislature should have been alerted by the private prison in Ray County; I can't imagine them seeing a new industry to regulate and not trying to do so!