wilkes

I think my response was a little misunderstood. What I was referring to was the fact prior to the drug problem getting so out of hand in this community by not going after the high level dealers. Was Wilkes was a great rural community. It could also be that I misunderstood what you were trying to say and responded incorrectly as well. Either way I do agree something has to be done with the high level drug dealers in our county. Pharmaceutical companies as well as doctors should hold some of the blame as well with the opioid epidemic which led many folks down a dark path

Good community Vs bad community what demographics are you referring too ?

I understand what you're saying and I believe the majority of the reasons you don't see a lot of the things you mentioned is because we are a good community. I do however see many areas of our county being underserved especially eastern side of Wilkes and many areas in the western portion of the county. I to want to see us targeting the higher level distributors of the drugs plaguing our county. I do feel a fresh face with fresh ideas can accomplish this. The reason I mention transparency is so we can see what our tax payer dollars are getting us that are used to pay our current Sheriff's salary. In my opinion if we can't get the higher levels of users/distributors is our money being well spent of our current sheriff and his command staff? You can see so many other agencies in surrounding counties keeping those they serve in the loop on what is going on in their agencies, but seems we are stuck back in the 1800s and being left in the dark

Well we didn't have peaceful protests burning down buildings. I would like to see more higher up the ladder of drug dealers arrested instead of the same low level users. I know it's hard for them to get information about higher level dealers.

I mean considering the county has his pay at over $130,000/yr I feel we should be better served and informed

Just curious if any others feel the need for new leadership in our Sheriff's Office this is nothing against our deputies as they do as good of a job as they can. I feel like we need much more transparency from our Sheriff and his leadership team. The public is left out in the dark in much of what goes on such as average response times from call to dispatch as well as budget information and how our tax money is being spent. Me personally I do desire the change and was just curious of other's thoughts. I'd definitely like to see open debates should someone challenge our current Sheriff for his position. One where the public is able to ask tough questions and concerns they have, not letting a newspaper publication be the only one to ask questions. Our local elections are just as important as our national ones if not even more important as they affect us directly. I look forward to hearing others thoughts.