The Gadfly is a series of letters offering commentary on local issues and published in the Warrensburg Gazette.

Dear Editor

KOKO has been taken over by the parent company of KXKX. The new owners promise no changes for a while; Aunt Ida says that they better not mess with "Treasure Hunt." The former owner of KOKO (who also owns the local daily paper) indicates that she thinks having a single owner for all our local radio is a good idea - so much for competition.

Speaking of papers and the news, a vote of thanks to the Trails Regional Library, which has ALL the newspapers serving various parts of our county. Coverage of some areas is vastly different - for instance, the daily paper has virtually ignored the continuing saga of the future of the old Rock Island right-of-way that runs for over 30 miles across the southern part of the county.

Congratulations to the County Fair Board for promoting knowledge of Johnson County's smaller communities by displaying them on the fair program and by providing questions for KOKO's quickie quiz. I hope everyone supports their efforts by attending the County Fair on July 21-25.

Warrensburg firefighters are now unionized. I wonder why workers would vote to spend their money on union dues - unless they believe that's the only way to overcome what they see as unfair treatment by their employer.

I see all the bigwigs are signing the 'Safe Driving" pledge. Such pledges are probably innocuous if not really helpful, but I have two questions: Are the signers really going to obey all traffic laws and never speed? Is private money financing the pledge tours (or do they come from taxpayer pockets)?

Assessments are up all across the county. The new construction tax dollars may satisfy the R-VI board for a while, but from what the Assessor says, in 2001 we'll get to see just how much protection the Hancock rules give us.