Letter to the Editor

Chrisman no stranger to spending

Monday, December 28, 2015

To the Editor:

In reading the December 22, 2015 edition of the DAR I found it ironic that one of the most outspoken attendees of the prior night's council meeting was Jim Chrisman. It's ironic that Chrisman, who questioned the council on several spending issues and also suggested that city employees are overcompensated in benefits when compared to other communities is the same man who had no issues, and was in fact one of the main proponents on spending hundreds of thousands of public dollars to restore the "Grand Staircase" in downtown Poplar Bluff. A staircase that on a good day is used by only 1-2 railroad transients to enter the crumbling, eyesore of downtown Poplar Bluff and the occasional Amtrak rider who mistakenly wandered too far from the stopover train in the middle of the night.

Chrisman is also the same man who has no issues with having those same over-compensated city employees changing out tarps and doing other "free" maintenance on his dilapidated train station throughout the years prior to more public monies being spent on a new roof for his station.

It appears Chrisman had no issues spending money on projects important to him, but when it comes to maintaining the city's most important assets, he draws the line. Jim Chrisman should consider what's more important, city assets and services, or building another "Chrisman Shrine" in the crumbling, eyesore, which is downtown Poplar Bluff.

I distinctly remember, Mr. Jim Chrisman was also a driving force in bringing us the city's "worst administration and nightmare," Mr. Heath Kaplan. It appears Jim Chrisman has the same spending practices as did our "Big City" Michigan democrat, Heath Kaplan.

J. R. Smith

Poplar Bluff, Mo.