While Johnson County burns

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

A recently announced candidate for the County Commission, Donna Owens, said she is running because the county faces many challenges – continued population growth, changing demographics, and further development and redevelopment of the community.

No, Donna, Johnson County is in for the crisis of its modern-day life, and every candidate for County Commissioner or County Chair had better be prepared to tell us how to fix our version of California’s meltdown.

Lower revenues, due to plummeting values of homes and commercial real estate, threaten to put us deep in the hole.

At the same time, our population is clamoring for more and more county services.

In the past year, demands for public assistance through the Department of Human Services have risen almost a third for mortgage assistance with pending foreclosure; rent assistance; utility assistance; and critical prescriptions and urgent medical needs.

Requests for food stamps have grown by 27 percent from a year ago. The county has almost 16,000 households in this program.

The county’s Mental Health Center intakes totaled 6,700 last year, and this year it is on track to handle 7,300 patients.

Our libraries are being swamped with individuals coming to use the computers, because theirs at home have been disconnected to save money. Computers at all locations are now so busy that the reservation system is working all hours the buildings are open. Meanwhile, overall use of the libraries is way up.

On and on. You get the picture.

As demand for services is rising, county staff is shrinking. The county is not replacing most employees who leave. In addition, salaries have been frozen. That action was taken before the latest grim news from the county appraiser about his projections for future revenues. And that is before inevitable cuts from the state, which is in its own crisis.

So, now we are at a crossroads.

Do we slash and burn the very programs that are at peak demands?

County Chair Annabeth Surbaugh has suggested closing the library one day a week as one measure. Maybe that should be on the table. Heck, everything has to be on the table.

Whether it is Annabeth Surbaugh or Ed Eilert who will lead this county after 2010, and whether it is Larry Winn III or Donna Owens, or someone else who will fill Eilert’s vacated commission seat, what they and their fellow commissioners will be facing is unprecedented.

We make one promise. We will hold every candidate’s feet to the fire to discern what they would do to meet this crisis, if elected in 2010. We won’t let them fiddle their way out while Johnson County is burning.

Contact Steve Rose at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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