Letter to Editor response to recent Buchanan Town Council meeting letter

Dear Editor,

In Reference the letter to the editor from Spring Witt of Buchanan concerning the Buchanan Town Council meeting of November 13th:

Ms. Witt failed to inform readers that the unusually large crowd was there to protest the council’s elimination of Harry Gleason’s position and to sing Harry’s praises.

Ms. Witt only wrote about the mayor’s failure to control the crowd and enforce the council’s meeting rules and the fact that council member-elect Rose Jeter dared to ask questions.
She failed to mention that experienced councilmen did not try to enforce the rules and help the mayor until the end of the meeting.

Ms. Witt specifically criticized the mayor for not stopping the crowd who clapped for different speakers’ remarks that praised Harry and urged the council to hire him for the event coordinator position. This remark totally misjudges the situation as trying to stop the very short and mild periods of clapping would simply have angered a more than already angry crowd.

Readers also need to know that Ms. Witt has previously criticized Harry and another town employee in a written communication read several months ago in a town council meeting. Furthermore, she has personally attacked Harry Gleason in social media including possible slander, libel, and erroneous speculation. And now, she writes negatively only about a new mayor and incoming council member trying to improve this town.

Buchanan is much better than this and the people singing Harry’s praises are the volunteers and merchants who have made it the special community we all love. Harry has devoted his life to improving this town and would certainly want us to continue the good work that he did.

Let us all ignore the negative criticism and focus on what we can do to continue to improve Buchanan. As Buchanan District County Supervisor, Amy White, asked in the same meeting: “How will we define the “heartbeat” of this town?” Let us keep Harry Gleason’s vision and work and sacrifice for this town stay strong; don’t let Buchanan go into cardiac arrest.

Sincerely,
Mike and Jessie Burton, Buchanan