Text The Times.

Text The Times.

Glad to see Troy Keeping go.

[ Editor’s Note: Ah, the perils of being a public figure. As the head of the city’s largest private employer, I’m sure Mr.

Keeping has earned more than his fair share of disgruntled former employees, all of whom I’m sure were fired for “ no reason.” And with the nature of his business — one that involves people losing money and often combined with various states of intoxication — I’d be willing to wager that there are plenty of folks with whom he’s had to interact at less than their finest moments. So, with that in mind, I’m sure you aren’t the only person in the community that will be “ glad” to see Mr. Keeping go. Having said that, anyone who tries to deny the contributions he has made through his overseeing of Southland’s growth and expansion to his work on the West Memphis A& P Commission to his charitable work as part of Southland is just fooling themselves]

*** Dear West Memphis Utilities, I am appalled that I have to pay my bill via check each month, when ALL of my other bills are paid via electronic withdrawal. I had my bank account setup to cut you an automated check each month in order to pay my monthly bill in a timely matter without penalty. You are the ONLY bill I have to pay this way. Usually the check reaches you each month before or on the due date to avoid late fees, but the past month’s bill was ‘late’ which incurred an extra $22 on this month’s bill. I find it strange that it has been on time all the other months but this one — one of the hottest ones. And I also find it appalling that this is due to the fact that this is the 21st century and you are still using an antiquated method of receiving payments. This is unacceptable considering everything else on the planet is automated except your system! I feel it is unfair to pay a late fee because of your outdated payment methods. Now to add insult to injury, I am now forced to take the time to purchase a money order, in order to drop in your drop-box or pay at your drive through window just to make sure my bill is paid on time, because I don’t want or need to acquire the added cost of purchasing checks just to pay you! Please get it together. This is ridiculous. Signed, A Faithfully On Time Paying Customer. [ Editor’s Note: I hope that you have read the pair of recent stories in the paper about the city making the move to online bill payments, so hopefully,

*** Why are we accepting the broken process of electoral college? It’s time for a positive change. Even when the population vote for a presidential candidate he or she may have a million more votes that the so call winning party. What a sham! [Editor’s Note: There have only been four occasions where the winner of the popular vote has not also won the Electoral College vote, and two of those (1824 and 1876) were fraught with shenanigans. The Election of 1888 is the best example we have of the difference between going by a simple majority of votes and using the Electoral College, when President Grover Cleveland received abount 100,000 more votes than challenger Benjamin Harrison, but the Electoral College wasn’t even close (233 to 168, with 201 needed to win), with New York basically deciding the election due to its huge number of Electoral Votes. The only other example we have is the 2000 Election. Al Gore received about half a million more votes than George W. Bush. Gore lost Florida by less than a thousand votes, giving Bush the state and the Electoral Votes he needed to win. But that’s four out of 57 (7 percent) presidential elections where the candidate with the most votes didn’t win. So, while it would be very unlikely that a candidate could “have a million more votes” and still lose, it is possible. Now, some have been calling for years to abolish the Electoral College, which would require a Constitutional amendment. I will say this, as weird as it may seem, the Electoral College actually gives smaller states slightly more power than a simple democratic vote. Arkansas, for example, has 0.9% of the U.S. population, but controls 1.12% of the total Electoral Votes. California, by contrast, has 12.2% of the U.S. population, but controls only 10.2% of the Electoral Vote. Now, if you’re more concerned with party politics than state power, then yes, getting rid of the Electoral College would make both of the major national parties more powerful and, in the current political climate, give Republicans a better chance of winning a national election, as most of the bigger states (except Texas) are “blue” strongholds] *** Now that we have a new perspective on the hospital issues, what happened to our records at CMH, CRH. Methodist or Baptist… guess we wait and learn. [ Editor’s Note: For a period after the hospital closed patients could go up to the hospital and pick up their records. Clearly the time for that has come and gone. According to what we were told at the time, any physicians within the Methodist system were to be forwarded patient records. After that, I would assume any records not otherwise secured are lost to the ages, a testa-ment to the mismanagement that Crittenden Regional Hospital received]

now getting around to offering such a service]

your woes will soon be addressed. Having said that, it is a little odd that the city is just

870-225-1456

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