I Want My Café! By Charlene Bishop

Citizens of Lake Helen beware!! There is a small group of citizens in town who are trying to change the City forever. They are on the verge of having the Creative Arts Café closed down! Their argument is that it is costing the taxpayers money. Well, it cost substantially less the second year of operation than it did the first year so why not give it a little more time? How would closing the Café change Lake Helen for the better? This group of malcontents wouldn’t be satisfied if the CAC closed, they would have to move on to their next attack. Here are a few examples of how they might satisfy their insatiable desire to spoil Lake Helen:

They decide it is not fair for a City employee to own a business that competes with private citizens, so the new Sub Shop has to close or the employee loses his job.

They decide that since none of them own a horse, why should they pay tax money to keep the horse arena open and pay for maintenance and repairs?

The Little League field is not bringing in any revenue. It’s costing the taxpayers plenty and we don’t even have any kids using it. Close ‘er down!

Those are just a few examples. Do you realize The City voted to cease the decade long tradition of paying $300 in prize money for the holiday lighting contest? If not for a few citizens and a few City employees who donated the prize money, we would not have had it this past December.

Myself and others have donated a lot of time and materials to the CAC project and numerous other projects through the years but the recent wave of negativity is beating people down and will continue to do so unless we fight back and rally in support of all that’s good. We can’t let those few people who are poisoning the positive efforts by others get any more traction. We are headed toward ending up a broken town where people split off into little groups and bicker with one another or just stay at home and put on blinders. The nay-sayers fail to mention that other recreational and community facilities are supported by the City so I guess we should auction off Hopkins Hall which costs the taxpayers plenty.