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

Dear Editor

The Park Board is in the hole on the Community Center, the City Council is worried about costs of developing PCA road for the veterans home, yet only the Mayor votes for caution on the street sweeper purchase. The four who voted against fiscal caution are the four schoolteachers on the Council - coincidence? If it turns out the City doesn't have the money, I guess they'll do like everyone else - just put it on their credit card (i.e., raise taxes).

We can see where the Warrensburg School Board's priorities lie. When they established a "finals excusal" policy, they chose to reward attendance rather than academic achievement. A kid with 96% attendance can get out of some finals with an average as low as C-minus. Since state funding is based on attendance, maybe this will help make up the budget deficit they project.

As long as I'm popping off at the School Board, I wonder if anyone has considered whether the location of the Alternative School, for teenagers with disciplinary problems, is compatible with grand plans for revitalizing downtown. Besides, it takes up parking.

With Congress voting to allow the 10 Commandments in public places, there's another top 10 that nobody should object to posting in school rooms - the Bill of Rights. How about it, R-VI?

It appears that the GWACC&VC (Greater Warrensburg Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center) has finally decided to use Warrensburg's natural tourism hook and call the fall festival "Old Drum Days" (Sep. 16-18). Public drunkenness will be OK on West Culton Street but frowned upon, as usual, on West Pine Street; they're putting the carnival on the old Baptist church site, which should deconsecrate that ground in a hurry. On the other hand, the GWACC&VC has decided that Powell Gardens is the place they want to publicize using the tourism room tax money. That should really help fill motel rooms - in Lee's Summit.