I went to a special council meeting in South Point about the old school’s future and a lot of ordinances that made very little sense to me.

The old school is being renovated to make room for professional office buildings and senior living, owned by Mr. Joe Freeman, who is also interested in efforts to give people jobs.

These would be well-paying professional jobs that would prosper our community and get some people off of unemployment or welfare and help feed their families and help pay the bills.

Mr. Freeman has several other businesses but he has met with so much controversy from his neighbors close to the school that he has lost several good investments that would have rented space in his building, therefore not being able to go forward as fast as he wanted. Some people have got such closed minds on right and wrong, good and bad and prosperous and poorly run.

We need to take the blinders off and think of the good and bad on our own — not have people tell us what to do so we become followers.

If you don’t want your community to prosper, sit on your hands and tape your mouth. Mr. Freeman is a smart businessman who is taking a run-down school and making a lot of nice improvements.

The church that rented part of the building is great but we need professional offices such as doctors, dentists, tax offices, lawyers and other such office space.

With some of those, we can keep the money in South Point and not have to go to Ashland or Huntington for an appointment.

As we get older, our route to and from becomes smaller and hopefully Mr. Freeman can help.

Thank you Mr. Freeman for your consideration in making this all happen.

I won’t be popular with this letter but sometimes we need to pull our heads out of the sand. I stand by my letter.

Audrey Pryor

South Point

 

Community support helped really light up Proctorville

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the local businesses in Proctorville who donated to the Christmas Lights contest this year.

They are City National Bank, Village Floral and Gift Shop, Holzer Clinic, WesBanco, Ohio Valley Cash Loans, Jerry’s Service Center, McDonald’s, Jim’s Gun & Tackle, Hometown Hardware, M & K Washer Sales & Service, Wendy’s, Stephen’s & Son Ins. Agency, Inc., Jeff Hutchison Insurance, Paul’s Quick Serve,

Fruth Pharmacy, Kroger, Speedway, Tudors, Gino’s, Dynasty Kennel, the Avon store, and the Ever After store.

I would also like to thank Dale Burcham, interim mayor of Proctorville, Rick Dunfee, mayor-elect of Proctorville, and Lee Whitley, councilman-elect for their generous donation to the contest.

I would also like to give a special thank you to Lynn Clagg for coming up with the idea for the contest.

Winners were for Most Christmas Lights-Chester and Lisa Nutter, Front Street, $460.00 in cash and prizes. There was a tie between Robert and Joy Watts on Ferry Street and Gayle Riddle on Wilgus Street. They received $230.00 each in cash and prizes for the Most Christmas Display.

It was a lot of fun and hopefully, next year, it will be a bigger success than it was this year!

Cindy Root

Proctorville