Improvements are not always about beauty. Washington Street in Alexandria is one of its main thoroughfares. It is the main route to Madison Avenue and to Community Hospital Anderson, as well as communities west of Alexandria and to Anderson. Madison County made major improvements from Madison Avenue in Alexandria to Highway 37 in Elwood. Alexandria paved the center of the worst part of Washington Street. This is not good enough! Decent roads are necessary to access the ambulance route.

The first things people check out when deciding to relocate in a new town or neighborhood are schools and streets. In some places within the Alexandria city limits, sidewalks are nearly impassible. Why should tax dollars be used to tear down rundown properties? We all know the city should enforce laws on abandoned property owners, but it is their responsibility not that of the taxpayers. Make the slum lords repair their rentals or make them tear them down.

The Washington Street project would really make Alexandria look more like a city in which you would like to live. A lot of money was lost on the project, but losses must be cut and the town must move on. Give the new mayor a chance to put his plans for the city into action.

Norma J. Stafford

Alexandria