Mayor's Race Will Tell Us A Lot

By RICK GUNTER
Journal Editor and Publisher
The ancient Chinese would appreciate Crewe's mayoralty race between incumbent Mayor Henry H. Crittenden and former Police Chief William C. "Billy" Abel. For the Orientals had a saying about such developments. "May you live in interesting times," said the Chinese.

This race, whatever form it eventually takes, represents all of that.

I admire former Chief Abel for stepping forward to challenge the incumbent mayor. That takes a measure of gumption in any circumstance, and it sure does in this one.

But having said that, I hasten to add that this race will tell the residents of Crewe and all those others who have ties here something very profound about this small Southside Virginia community.

It will tell us what kind of town in which we want to live and work.

Do we want to look forward? Or do we want to go back?

Cut away all the verbiage, and this race, at the end of the day on Election Day, May 2, 2006, will answer those questions.

I had deep differences with Mr. Abel when he ran Crewe Police Department. Some of those difference were aired in public and many were not.

I also have had some differences, although of a different nature, with Mr. Crittenden. But I will give the man this: He has communicated with me. He has been forthright with the public and press and not left us hanging awaiting his response.

The current mayor and the majority of Crewe Town Council took office literally with the bases loaded. Everywhere they looked was a mess, including Mr. Abel's own department.

Mr. Crittenden and his council colleagues inherited the a mess and little money with which to address it.

From my view in covering this governing body, it has done the best it could with what it has to work with.

The centerpiece of its record is that the governing body, particularly the mayor, got the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality off the town's back to some degree. The new mayor managed to save the town from being fined horrendously by the agency after the previous mayor appeared to believe the DEQ was "not serious" in directing that the town clean up its environmental mess.

The current mayor and council, or at least most of council, inherited the environmental lawsuit filed against it by Ben and Sherry Jones. A consent order was signed and when the Joneses grew upset that the town was not fulfilling its end of the deal, the municipality was pulled back into court facing a civil contempt motion and huge fines. The town prevailed in that round perhaps in some measure because it could show the judge a long list of positive actions it had taken. Unlike in the past, the town appeared not to hide its head in the sand and hope the problem would disappear on its own.

Crittenden and the council have been blamed, totally unfairly in my mind, with the town's loss of its only full-fledged grocery store. Unless there is a smoking gun I have not detected, the town is innocent of this slander. But some voters, I just bet you, will vote against the incumbents because of this situation.

I hope I am wrong, but I do not see the town getting a legitimate grocery store anytime soon. It has been about six months since Star Value closed its doors for good, and many people have come to the conclusion that, hey, that rickety old store was not so bad after all. It clearly becomes imperative that the next mayor and council keep pushing to bring a grocery store. I still find it shameful to see a bus taking folks out of town to do grocery shopping.

All of these developments over the past couple of years have been played out against a backdrop of a declining tax base. Mayors and councils are fear to mention a tax increase. Their constituents clamor, "We are on fixed incomes."

I want to know what the "fix" is.

The town is in a bigger "fix" than most of its residents and if a mayor and council in the next year or so do not raise taxes, then the governing body will be as derelict as were those leaders over the past several years.

Make no mistake: The town is in a dilemma. It lacks a growing revenue base. The Joneses still are talking about suing for major bucks. The water still stinks and there is no grocery store, a lack that impacts the town from accomplishing other necessary goals.

Why anyone would want to seek to deal with these and other problems is a mystery to me.

Bernard Baruch was one of the greatest American investors of all time. He had a classic line. "In every crisis," he once said, "there is an opportunity."

Crises surround our town. Don't let anyone tell you this in not so. The good old days probably never existed. If they did, they won't be the same now or in the future. This generation has to make its own way. The next generation have to stand on our shoulders, or will it find that our shoulders were too soft to hold up very much?

This is why the town needs forward-thinking, not a call to return to business-as-usual.

In the end, you, the voters, will have to decide. But between now and May 2, all of us would be wise to demand straight talk not only of the incumbents, but also of the challengers.