vote out Ford County sales tax and ...

[Detector]

I think the biggest problem we have is that most people are only concerned about the profits. Profits being represented in dollars and not community benefits.

I think its safe to say Dodge City is an industry city. Problem is unlike the airline manufacturing industry of Wichita, the beef processing industry is low/no skill labor. This attracts residents of the same kind. Low/no skill. These people have no concern for their community. I use for example the houses painted like an Easter Egg. You think these people had the community in mind?

In my opinion we've got 2 choices.
1. Work to pull ourselves out of our packinghouse dependency with our only natural resource of tourism.

2. Embrace what we've become and keep the status quo.

If we choose option 2 then we have no need for the above posted fancies. With the exception of the golf course, low/no skill immigrants can do fine without them.

Sheridan Center: Nothing more than a baby sitter
Swimming Pool: See the Sheridan
Parks & Zoo: Take a drive some time and see if its worth the expense. Great place to metal detect but watch your back.
Civic Center: Great place to pass out ID's
Golf Course: Only used by those who make the money off low/no skill.
Athletic Fields: That would be the converted soccer fields. Great places to metal detect if you got the nerve.

Option 1 is not going to be easy but nothing worth having is. There will be many growing pains and mistakes but that vs the status quo is an easy choice. A casino will make the Why Not Dodge project a success, and success in this project is our only avenue out of the status quo.

[The Drifter]

Wrong.

Sheridan: A place for the youth to play basketball, lift, swim, etc. Not to mention the good firefighters of Dodge go there everyday.

Swimming Pool: baby sitter...to you maybe, great place to rent out for the school district or other local clubs to use for social events.

Parks and Zoo: The zoo may not be a great place to you...but I remember going there with my grandma as a kid and lookin at all the animals and enjoying every bit of it. Kids enjoy the parks around town as well.

Civic Center: brings in the Circus...great for the kids again and it also supports other forms of entertainment. Not to forget voting.

Golf course: Ya those big wigs are the only ones who play on it...and those big wigs are high school students, college golfers, not to mention those tourneys that Mariah has every year that bring in golfers from different places.

Athletic Fields: Ya most are soccer fields. But to join a league you have to pay money so the "hated" hispanics do have to pay. But the other ball fields include the softball, baseball, and football games that many children and their parents love to attend.

Not all fun revolves around metal detecting as you may think. Different strokes for different folks. Most of these programs are for the children of dodge. Have you forgotten what it's like to be a child and all the fun that things like these were?

I'm sure a lot of this comes from the fact that hispanics in the community use these places and this is an asumption, you see a group of hispanic kids havin a good time in a park and you see not hispanics but a group of illegals. Illegal or not, children deserve the right to be children. If they are illegal, it's not their fault that their folks came here illegally.

Shut down all the facilities then according to you these places are no good. dumb. To deprive children of childhood would be one of the most rotten things to do. Let the kids play.

[TexKan]

Lots of good points here............. Both sides have merit - wonder what will actually be the outcome????