Thankless jobs

To the editor:

Who’s not to say any government job — employee or elected, whether city, county, state, or federal — isn’t somewhat thankless?

The city of Marion’s newest mayor may not have kept a campaign promise that got him elected.

A handicap parking blunder in its $1.5 million Main St. renovation was overlooked by EBH Engineering, the city administrator, and legal counsel along with state and federal authorities and there’s now no good way to fix it.

The county not only gave its heated fishing dock to a company not bonded or insured. It also advanced half the money without proof of materials purchased and allocated $3,000 to retrieve less than $10,000 worth of material at a haul rate of $36.58 per loaded mile — all overseen and approved by the commission’s own legal counsel.

The county’s emergency director, who is to help protect our lives, endangers them and the lives of loved ones when he races down the highway at more than 95 mph, multiple times causing oncoming traffic to pass three wide.

A city police officer clocks him on radar at 98 mph, and the county sheriff and his department are very aware of this but elect to do nothing.

The county’s transfer station, which is not very user friendly, can’t keep loose trash policed enough to point that it’s not a major eyesore for local residents.

Ongoing rural farm-to-market road issues will be the hardest job to resolve, with manpower shortages and management issues, and will be the most thankless.

As residents and taxpayers, we’ve got the most thankless job of all — putting up with this crap.

Mike Beneke, Lincolnville