Dear Editor:

I am responding the Daily Journal’s front page article of Oct. 7, 2009, entitled “Hamlet Continues Cleanup.” It’s the same rhetoric Hamlet’s citizens have heard from City Hall before. Hamlet City Hall calls in the press and tells them only what they want the people to read, so the resulting article published in the paper is not always the complete story. Consequently, what you read is good things City Hall says they do.

There are more than two blocks of Main Street and one block of Hamlet Avenue that need cleaning up in Hamlet. Take an objective look at the blight on the block of Hamlet Avenue east of the railroad tracks; then look at the dilapidated, uninhabited houses of Hamlet Avenue between Raleigh Street and Highway 177. And Hamlet Avenue is Business Highway 74, the main thoroughfare through Hamlet! Don’t forget Charlotte Street, Spring Street and the streets running north and south between Charlotte and Main streets. There are others. By the time City Hall removes a few decaying structures, more have emerged. Hamlet is losing ground.

Too much time and money are being spent on “pet projects” rather than on cleaning up Hamlet, which should be a top priority. City Hall has the responsibility of keeping all of Hamlet clean and attractive. It’s a shame City Hall can’t see this and has to be reminded repeatedly. Businesses don’t locate in messy towns. Hamlet will never be the clean, attractive town Hamlet citizens want and deserve until City Hall reevaluates it priorities and makes sound, sensible decisions. Hamlet needs change badly.

Barbara Thomas

Hamlet