By Charles Melton
Melton’s Musings
The smear stops here. Read that again. The smear stops here. With me, Charles Melton, the news editor of The Hutchinson Tribune, Hutchinson’s only real newspaper that is completely devoted to accurate, fair, and local coverage of all things Hutchinson and Reno County.
You’ll notice how we covered Scott Cooley’s DUI arrest differently than certain other publications. I hold the term, newspaper, in higher esteem than what I’ve seen from them during my four months here. Yes, Cooley was a city employee and yes, he was responsible for an important piece of the much-needed redevelopment of a major part of Hutchinson. BUT he didn’t get arrested on city time. He got arrested on a Sunday off the clock. We covered it the right way, and I firmly stand behind that.
Instead of using Cooley’s bad personal decision made on his personal time to cast disdain upon city officials and the city as a whole, we would all be better off focusing on the real issue involved: addiction. Addiction is a beast that is not easily conquered by anyone, and each day an addict is sober is one to celebrate. Relapses are a reality of recovery. Relapses happen all the time, but not many of them make the local news. Unfortunately, this one did. Let’s use this as reminder to focus on doing our part to help those in recovery and those struggling with addiction to reach the point of recovery instead of trying to give those who had no part in the relapse a black eye.
Now, let me address all those who think they are “the smartest person in the room,” and those who believe any elected official or public employee in Hutchinson or Reno County are corrupt and misusing taxpayer dollars. Just a reminder to those who don’t know or suddenly forgot, I spent my three years prior to deciding to move to Hutchinson editing and distributing the Secretary of Agriculture’s correspondence in Washington, D.C. I know exactly what corruption and misuse of taxpayer dollars looks like.
Misuse of taxpayer dollars is hanging huge signs of President Lincoln and President Trump from the top of the Whitten Building where everyone on the National Mall could see what sucking up to your boss looks like at the taxpayers’ expense. Corruption is forcing everyone out of the office that properly handled secretarial correspondence and limiting it to political appointees who didn’t and still don’t know their heads from holes in the ground when it comes to properly managing secretarial correspondence. It’s that nonsense that Sen. Roger Marshall spouted when he did a driveby through Hutchinson at the first local legislative forum proclaiming the “best week in Americana agriculture in a century,” when I have receipts that it wasn’t.
The trip that city officials took to Japan last year was actually an above board trip that other cities across the state are asking Hutchinson for information about how they can do similar trips for economic development and cultural exchange. Hutchinson had a sister city once upon a time, and city officials are trying to restart that program. Shawnee, Overland Park, and Lawrence have them, so why can’t Hutchinson? Kansas’ own President Dwight D. Eisenhower started the program in 1956, and it’s an integral part of cities across the nation. That’s not corruption or misuse of taxpayer dollars, but the smartest people in town would have you believe otherwise. Read my story about it in this week’s Tribune to get the facts, and then you decide based upon the facts and not what the smartest idiot in the room told you.
Like Merle Haggard sang, “They’re getting on the fighting side of me,” and yes, the fighting side of me is coming out with gloves off. Don’t DC my Hutchinson with your nonsense. Work with city officials and city employees to help it move forward instead of being stuck in the past. Make it better than it’s ever been and bring vibrancy back to all of the city. Just stop it with your bawling and moaning because the residents of and visitors to Hutchinson deserve better than a B&M town. I dare you to come to the next Brews with the News from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, March 6 at Sandhills Brewing in downtown Hutchinson. Have a beer and let’s talk about reality instead of the fallacy presented by all those in town who are the “smartest people in the room.”
Charles Melton is the news editor of The Hutchinson Tribune. He can be reached at charles@hutchtribune.com.