EDITORIAL: Picking a fight is not the way to get things done

"What we've got here is failure to communicate."

— Cool Hand Luke, circa 1967

That seems to be what we are witnessing in Monroe County, a failure to communicate between city of Forsyth leaders and officials of Monroe County. In a county with 396 square miles of which the city of Forsyth occupies five square miles, the two governments are arguing about 15 acres. It seems that back in the 1980s the county had plans to expand recreation, and it made a deal with the city to use the 15 acres adjacent to a city park to do just that. Some wise lawyer decided to stipulate that in the contract before the land was deeded over to the county. Thirty years later, the city, not seeing any progress, wants the land back. The county has said no.

This where the failure to communicate begins. The city started down this road by sending the county a letter asking for the property. The county responded in the negative. City and county offices are in the same area code and would not incur additional long distance charges if Mayor John Howard had picked up the phone and called his good friend Chairman Mike Bilderback. We know, the phones were probably down that day, but that's still no excuse. City offices at 26 N. Jackson Street and county offices at 38 W. Main Street are about 100 yards apart. By our mapping software, in the middle of summer's heat it would take less than three minutes to walk from one office to the other.

Charges that politics are at the center of this little controversy have been raised by the county. With politicians, that's always possible. Mayor Howard is being challenged by former City Councilman Eric Wilson and three newcomers are vying for Wilson's former seat. All the other council incumbents have opposition in the Nov. 3 election.

That doesn't change the fact that if the county has no more plans than to use the property as an "overflow field," they should follow the wishes of the deed's stipulation. Although those 1980s-era councilmen and commissioners are gone from office now, that stipulation was put in there for a reason and the county seems to be in violation of those wishes. They have two options to make it right: develop the property's recreation potential or give it back to the city.

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 10:35 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: Picking a fight is not the way to get things done ."