I am a candidate for Henry County Board. I have served on the County Board in the past and wish to serve again. I always wanted to hear from, and appreciated, the comments people would make at our meetings. 

While on the County Board I made a motion that any public comment should be at the beginning of the board meetings so that public comment options could be heard before we took action on any posted agenda items. Having concerned citizens willing to attend, and voice their opinions, is a critical element of our democracy.

Unfortunately, the Democrat majority on the board, led by Tom Nicholson, rejected this motion for public comment. So the placement of public comment is still at the end of the county board agenda, which relegates it into a no-comment enviroment. It becomes more like “public afterthought” rather than “public input.” 

An example of this perhaps would be in the issue of the taking of the T-ball field at the adjacent park and converting it into a parking lot for the courthouse. 

I believe there are other options for improving the parking issue at the courthouse instead of covering valuable greenspace providing children with an established balanced park enviroment with asphalt. 

Perhaps listening to citizens first and making them feel they have a voice would provide them the confidence to speak up earlier in the process. 

All citizens throughout the county should be concerned when their government chooses to bully their way over individual rights and property. Where should the line of public domain and/or good be drawn? Which serves the public more, established community parks or 20 parking places?

I desire to renew my service on the County Board and to have taxpayers engaged and heard. Let us build a team, welcome the opinions of everyone, and not have the “us against them"” program that exists now.

By encouraging two-way communication and dialogue, we just might have more ideas available for the entire county to benefit from. Please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts on the issue of public comment at county board meetings being first not last. My e-mail address is rwgradert@yahoo.com.

You will find me running for the two-year term in District #1 on the Republican ticket. Please vote for real change!

Roger Gradert