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

Dear Editor

The City Council's budget work sessions this past week were where the decisions on Warrensburg's immediate future were made. I hope they got the public attention they deserved.

I read that the City Council agreed on how they want to curb underage drinking; unfortunately, I didn't read any specifics. It appears that the responsibility will be laid on the bar owners, without specific guidelines on how many violations is too many. Since CMSU students are a major contributor to the problem, I wonder what the University is contributing to the solution? After all, West Pine Street is why CMSU is recognized as a party school while other state schools are recognized for quality of education.

I wish the County would get their stories straight on why they picked Grosstown Road (NW501) for paving. The Commissioners say that this road has higher traffic counts than Patrick & Hale Lake Roads (SW101/SW100), yet their road superintendent says that no traffic count has been conducted on the latter roads. Then the Commissioners say they did have a traffic count done. I'm sure they had valid reasons for initially selecting NW501 and for upgrading the roadbed, so why mislead or dissemble?

When they finally do get around to doing thorough traffic counts, they need to consider how paved connecting roads will affect existing traffic patterns. I suspect that, whatever the existing counts, SW 101/100 will pick up a tremendous amount of traffic if paved, since people heading to Warrensburg from the southwest could then avoid the delays at the corner of BB and 13. SW 200, if paved, will become a valued shortcut between Holden/Centerview & CMSU. Another consideration is that paving will increase rural residential development along those roads, so we'd hope that the directors of our water districts and electric co-op provide their experience to the Commission.

The County has yet another plan and estimate on the old Baptist Church property. With the number of competing interests within government, taking their time deciding has a decent chance to give the taxpayer the best solution for our dollars.