Adams County Makes the News - Adams County Leader #27

The Adams County Leader   Official Paper of Adams County
Price $2.00 Strictly in Advance
Published Every Friday by E. E. Southard
Matter for publication should reach this office not later than Thursday noon – earlier if possible

February 13, 1925
ANOTHER TAXPAYER WOULD KNOW THINGS
EASIER MANY TIMES TO ASK QUESTIONS THAN IT IS TO ANSWER THEM

Dear Friend Southard:
In order to get you to answer what is to follow am sending check for $2.00 in payment for one year’s subscription to your valuable paper.  And now, Mr. Editor, as I have become quite a fiend on cross-word puzzles, will say that I have struck one which I am unable to solve, and am asking you or someone to help me out, so here goes. Why does our sheriff’s office require a permanent deputy at a salary of $900 per year whose residence is at Meadows?  Do they need a sheriff up there more than we do down here at Sourdough?  Is it because their moonshine up there is not as good as ours?  I think this is a needless expense.

With best wishes, I remain,
Yours as ever,
S. N. York

Editor’s Note: As the writer says he is a fiend on cross-word puzzles, we shall be obliged to refer the questions back to him for solution as he has had much more experience than we in such matters.  The logical parties to answer would seem to be the officials in whose department of work these matters fall.  However, just as a matter of information, we believe the people of the northern part of the county want Mr. Steckman as a deputy sheriff up there, and as they pay about a third of the county taxes, possibly the board may think they should have what they ask for.  This latter of course is only a surmise.

February 20, 1925
MR. THORPE TALKS BACK TO MR. YORK - FORMER OFFICIAL THINKS THINGS IS THINGS, BUT T’OTHER SAYS T’AIN’T SO

Mr. E. E. Southard, Editor, Adams County Leader, Dear Sir:
On February 13, there was published in the Adams County Leader a letter from S. N. York in which the writer asked for information on a question in which all taxpayers of this county are interested.  I request the privilege of replying to Mr. York through the medium of your paper.

As to our extravagance in maintaining a resident deputy sheriff at New Meadow, it would appear that Mr. York has had a change of heart since he was chairman of the county board in 1922, for at that time a resolution of the board was passed by the terms of which the county agreed to pay $50 per month toward the salary of a deputy sheriff at New Meadows, the village of New Meadows to raise the balance.  It is presumed that this generous offer, which was sanctioned by Mr. York, was not acted upon.  A request was made by the sheriff at the January 1925 meeting for retaining a deputy at New Meadows, and this was sanctioned by the board.  The board has also learned that it is cheaper to retain a deputy in Meadows than it is to pay mileage and expenses incurred by the sheriff in traveling from Council on matters of official business.

Mr. York is to be congratulated upon the law abiding community in which he resides, but if conditions should, unhappily, be reversed there, and the need of an officer becomes apparent, the needs of that community would receive the same consideration as are the present needs of less fortunate sections of the county.

The writer is willing to overlook the insinuations cast by Mr. York’s letter because, as he states, he has become a crossword puzzle fiend, and no doubt it has had a more serious effect on him than he realizes.
Yours very truly,
A. C. Thorpe


February 27, 1925
MR. YORK LOVES MR. THORPE, SO HE SAYS -- IF AFFECTION IS RECIPROCATED, WHY NOT KISS AND MAKE UP

Editor Leader, Kind Sir:
It was not my intention when I wrote you of recent date to enter into a personal discussion with anyone as to how the affairs of our county are being run, for I know from experience what kind of a job it is to be a county commissioner, and I found it to be a man’s size job.  And knowing what the officers are up against, it was not my intention to criticize anyone personally.  But Mr. A. C. Thorpe seems to have taken more or less offense as to what I had to say in my letter, in fact, he speaks right out in church-- and it reminds me of a Ford car, the way he kicks back, and in his reply of the 18th, it has considerable of the same rattle as the lizzie.

So I feel that I am entitled to a little more of your valuable space in replying to same.  About the employment of a permanent deputy sheriff, Mr. Thorpe—it is true, as you have said, the records do show that a deputy was employed at Meadows while I was commissioner, but why did not you go a little farther into said records?  If you will but take the trouble, you may be able to find our reasons for doing same.  The fall that our highway was being built in the Meadows valley, the construction camps of same were filled with what was considered to be an undesired element of people, and through the urgent request of the residents up there, we allowed our sheriff to employ a deputy for a period of three months.  But it seems, Mr. Thorpe, when his three months were up, instead of dismissing the deputy, you retained him and gave him a straight salary.  Now, that amount of money would pay the expense for several trips of our sheriff to make up there, don’t you think it would, Mr. Thorpe?  But I like you just the same, and my regards apply to all the members of the present board, as well as the former board.

Yours truly,
S. N. York


compiled by Eberle Umbach