Editorial

Plenty of room for city, county to work together

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Maybe it goes with the territory, but for as long as most of us can remember there have been differences between the McCook City Council and the Red Willow County Commissioners. It usually hasn't been a big thing ... just jaw-boning about who has the responsibility for providing ... and paying for... services.

Once again, the differences of opinion have come to the surface. The latest episode started when Councilman Phil Lyons said at Monday's council meeting: "I've been to the county fair, a goat ropin' and even a seminar or two, and the county has always treated the city as a second-class representative," adding that the same was true of the city in its relations with the county.

Lyons went on to say, "It's nice to talk about saving money, but remember that two-thirds to 75 percent of the population of Red Willow County live in McCook."

It didn't take County Commissioner Earl McNutt long to respond. Saying he was "totally humiliated" by the comments made at the council meeting, McNutt wrote in Wednesday's Open Forum that, "We have tried many times to reduce spending between the two entities, but every time there is a conversation, the answer from the city is, 'We need more money.'"

The best thing McNutt had to say was in the final paragraph of his letter. What he said was this: "Let's start working together instead of building personal empires so we do indeed work for all the people in Red Willow County."

Right on, Earl. That's what the citizens of Red Willow County and McCook have been wanting all along. Yes, as Councilman Lyons says, it is true that more than two-thirds of the citizens of Red Willow County live in McCook. That's all the more reason to work together ... to get rid of unneeded duplication.

Law enforcement is an obvious place to start, but it's going to require some give and take. And that's always been the problem. As is human nature, everyone wants to preserve his or her own domain. The problem is that works to the detriment of the citizens who are paying for both city and county services.

A first step has been taken. The City Council has passed, unanimously, a resolution calling for the creation of a committee to explore city-county cooperation. It's going to take a lot of work -- and attitudes are going to have to change -- but if the city and county can resolve their differences and work together to reduce duplication of services, the big winners will be the taxpayers of Red Willow County and McCook.

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